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.”