Newport draws visitors from near and far
Michael Miller
Irene Zazueta didn’t have an easy time commuting to Newport Beach.
While the Indio resident sat on the beach Saturday morning with her
husband and children, other family members were taking turns driving
her car around in search of a parking space.
Still, the security guard and mother of four was willing to tough
out the traffic in exchange for the beach weather.
“It’s nicer,” Zazueta said as she tied blankets into a makeshift
tent near Newport Pier. “In Indio, it’s too hot today.”
Zazueta and her family were among the many who braved the
difficulties of Newport Beach on a Fourth of July weekend -- long
lines for meters, increased police patrols, high gasoline prices --
to spend the holiday in one of California’s premier vacation spots.
Some came to visit relatives in Orange County, and others just sought
an escape from the heat.
“We get people from all over,” said Brion Amendt, general manager
of the Newport Channel Inn, which was packed this week with travelers
from Arizona, Nevada, Nebraska, and San Bernardino and Riverside
counties. “When it is hot -- when it is hot, hot, hot inland -- we
are full here because of this nice weather we have.”
The first day of the holiday weekend was not a good one for
surfing, as the water was unusually cold and the waves were barely
breaking. A smaller-than-usual crowd gathered on the beach around the
Santa Ana River jetties, but the piers were as busy as ever.
Alan and Nancy Kluger from Scottsdale, Ariz., who fled 110-degree
weather to come to Newport, planned to stay in Orange County until
after the holiday.
“We always come to Newport Beach a few times every summer,” Nancy
Kluger said. “We’ve been coming here for 18 years. It’s like our
second home.”
Alan Kluger, the executive director at a career college, summed up
Newport’s appeal: “Cool weather, and the fact that it’s a beach.”
Carol Dokken, a mortgage consultant from Minnesota, avoided the
weather as well -- albeit a different kind -- when she came to stay
with her friend.
“It was muggy and hot when we left, and it’s raining now,” she
said.
Robin Snyder, a home-healthcare administrator from Indiana,
returned to Newport Beach on Saturday after spotting it by accident
several years back. She had attended a rubber-stamping convention in
Anaheim and was driving around afterward when she came to the beach.
This year, she brought her daughter, Olivia, to see her family in
Santa Ana.
Having gone to Disneyland on Friday, Snyder ventured to the
Newport Pier on Saturday. She planned to go swimming, but like many,
was waiting for her family to park the car before she got in the
water. Given that California’s gas prices were 20 cents higher than
her home state’s, she felt grateful not to have driven herself.
“I’m riding around with my family,” she said, “so I haven’t bought
any gas.”
Driving may get even more difficult later in the weekend: The
Newport Beach Police Department plans to shut down a number of
streets on Balboa Peninsula on Monday.
Dawn Kerrigan, a Newport Beach resident, said her weekend plan was
to walk down to the beach as she does every year. In the last 10
years, she has only left her hometown for the Fourth of July once,
when she traveled to Aruba to go scuba diving with her husband.
“We’re just going to be hanging,” Kerrigan said. “There’s no
better place than Newport Beach on Fourth of July weekend.”
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