Orange County has much to offer

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Travel Editor

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Like many Hawai'i folks, we tack on a few days' vacation whenever we have to be on the Mainland for business or a family commitment.

Orange County, just south of Los Angeles, where many Islanders have business interests, is particularly suited for such a mini-vacation. Aloha Airlines flies directly into John Wayne Airport in Irvine, a good-sized city in the heart of Orange County with every sort of attraction within an hour's drive — including Los Angeles itself.

During a recent visit to family in Orange County, we decided to steer clear of the bright lights and familiar spots such as Disneyland, and just "see what we could see." From our base in Rancho Santa Margarita, we picked three spots that sounded interesting: the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, the historic Mission San Juan Capistrano in the town of the same name, and the sprawling South Coast Plaza shopping center in Costa Mesa. In addition, we spent a decadent couple of days at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, from which we drove lazily up and down the Pacific Coast Highway.

In this Land of a Thousand Freeways, where the roads are packed with SUVs the size of Honolulu apartments and the local newspaper holds forth on proper carpool wear (no sweats or leggings, please!), driving is a surprising pleasure.

Although Californians will invariably direct you to freeways when you ask directions, we found that the spacious, scenic and easily negotiated parkways on our AAA-provided maps were often more direct routes to our destinations. (Parkways are generally four-lane highways, with central plantings, less frequent traffic lights and a brisk driving pace.) In six days in and around Orange County, we never encountered a traffic jam (we had the luxury of avoiding rush hours.) And most of the sights that we wanted to see were within half an hour of each other.

Here's my report:

The Aquarium of the Pacific

• 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach
• (562) 590-3100
• www.aquariumofpacific.org
• $16.95 adults, $13.95 seniors, $9.95 children; ask about special back-of-the-house tours and other experiences.

I may have seen a creature more bizarre-looking than a leafy sea-dragon or a behavior more hilarious than that of the crested auklet or a face more endearing than that of a California sea otter ... but I don't think so.

In a delightful day at America's fifth-largest aquarium, I was alternately flabbergasted, amused and charmed by these creatures and dozens of others as my daughter and I wandered past a series of habitats, from the open-air seal and sea lion pond to the two-story-high Blue Cavern.

I am not a fish enthusiast (as a food writer, I tend to react to the sight of mussels with a yearning for butter, garlic and white wine). But my daughter, who has an aquarium the size of a small couch, wanted just one thing for her belated birthday present: a day at the three-year-old Aquarium of the Pacific. So, up the coast we went.

The aquarium is right on the water in touristy Long Beach, a longtime getaway spot for Los Angelenos just seaward of the Pacific Coast Highway, about 25 miles southwest of the city.

The January weekend we visited, there was a special jellyfish exhibit, beautifully presented in a darkened labyrinth with eery New Age music that seemed to inspire the weird creatures, which danced in rhythm like lace handkerchiefs with muscles.

Highlights of the day — besides the look on my daughter's face as she patiently differentiated the tangs from the wrasses — were the aforementioned sea dragons, auklets and otters.

The aquarium is justly proud of having managed to coax the rare sea dragons, natives of Australia, to reproduce. God was in a whimsical mood when these creatures were created: They have the skin of a lizard, the head of a dragon and the conformation of a sea horse, and all over their bodies, they sprout fleshy decorations that look exactly like leaves. At first glance, you dismiss them as seaweed.

The auklets — and their diving bird companions, the puffins — had us literally roaring with laughter. These chubby little birds live in a large tank in which the water is made to slosh and roar along a ridge of rocks, exactly as the sea does in their cliff homes. The birds spend a great deal of their time diving into the water at an impossible rate of speed, flapping their stubby wings and kicking their webbed feet with great vigor and then turning around to shoot up to the surface so rapidly that they pop several feet out of the water. Though they seem to be deadly serious about it — this is how they catch their fishy dinners, after all — their performances strike humans of all ages as hilarious.

There are three California otters at the aquarium — a hefty male and two sleeker females — and, several times a day, their keepers work with them in sessions open to the public. (With your aquarium guide, you'll receive a schedule of habitat presentations; check it because these mini-lectures and training sessions are worth catching.) The idea is to assure the otters exercise and stimulation and to get them used to interacting with humans, making it easier to give them health examinations or treatments. As the otters cleverly identified objects, swam forward or backed up on command, nuzzled their trainers' hands and munched their crustaceous rewards, the announcer explained that the otters are orphans rescued from the wild.

This aquarium is well-organized, easy to navigate, full of treasures (including a restaurant and gift shop) and altogether a great all-ages kind of attraction. We were less thrilled with their newest presentation, the so-called Lorikeet Forest — an enclosure of netting where brightly colored parrots fly about, fighting with each other and landing on humans who hold out fruit nectar (which you buy for $1 a pop). The birds seemed distressed, the feeding seemed exploitive and not in keeping with the environmentally sensitive nature of the rest of the attraction.

ALSO IN LONG BEACH: the ferry to Catalina Island, the Queen Mary Seaport (where you can tour the ocean liner), Shoreline Village shopping and restaurants, the tall ship Californian, the Long Beach Museum of Art, boating activities of all kinds (but it's coooooold) and the beach itself (a gray strand not much of a draw for us islanders).

WHERE TO STAY: Long Beach is equipped with every type of accommodation from big-city hotels (Hilton, Renaissance, Westin, Hyatt) to modest beach motels. Recommended by some friends: Lord Mayor's Inn Bed & Breakfast for a period experience with antiques and cinnamon rolls, (562) 436-0324. Check golongbeach.org.

Mission San Juan Capistrano

• Ortega Highway and Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano
• (949) 234-1300
• missionsjc.com
• $6 adults, $5 seniors, $3 children 11-3, younger children free; ask about group and docent-guided tours.

A day at the Mission San Juan Capistrano, 50 miles south of Los Angeles just off I-5, is in sharp contrast to one at the aquarium — quieter, more contemplative, inner-focused and past-focused, in keeping with the more than 200 years of California history represented by these 101/2 acres surrounded by brick and adobe walls.

Founded by Franciscan missionary Padre Junipero Serra in 1776, the mission was the center of community life for Native Americans, ranchers, settlers and soldiers for its first 50 years. Besides the church, there was a barracks for the Spanish soldiers who protected the interests of the government, a kitchen that served hefty meals to those who lived and worked there, shops, warehouses, a corral, a dormitory for girls, gardens, poultry pens and a dovecot and accommodations for the farmers and cowboys who worked the land around the mission.

But in 1812, an earthquake destroyed the magnificent Great Stone Church, the beginning of the mission's undoing. Changes in laws removed the control of the mission from the church, settlers left to work their own lands, Indians drifted away after their land claims were ignored and secular administrators took over the place and stripped it of anything of value. In the 1840s, the mission buildings were sold to private individuals. After California became part of the United States, lengthy legal proceedings allowed the Catholic church to regain control of the mission in 1865. But it wasn't until 1910 that renovation work began. That year an ailing priest, Father St. John O'Sullivan, was assigned to the mission as pastor and became fascinated by the ruins and determined to return the buildings and gardens to their former state.

O'Sullivan was a noted restoration specialist by the time he died in 1933, and much of the form of the mission today is due to his dedication. Recently the state government committed almost $500,000 to the ongoing effort to rebuild the Great Stone Church; this work, overseen by the Mission Preservation Foundation, has been going on for years.

O'Sullivan's touch is particularly apparent in two alluring places on the mission grounds: the bell garden and the Serra Chapel. The bell garden is a small, brick-walled enclosure, stone flagged and with a fountain in the center, tucked behind the arches that hold the mission's famed bells — named Vincente, Juan, Antonio and Raphael. It is a very pleasant place to sit and read a guide book or to pray. Periodically, on weekdays, a docent in vaquero garb will lead a group of chattering schoolchildren through.

The Serra Chapel is a dark, narrow room that O'Sullivan found in ruins when he came to the church; it is the only church still surviving in which Father Serra is actually known to have said Mass. O'Sullivan restored the church with its magnificent Spanish baroque altar — carved cherry wood painted in gesso and gold leaf, a gift to the church from the Diocese of Los Angeles. From the creaking pews, you can spend a peaceful half hour examining the faces of the 52 angels that are hidden within the tracery, the stations of the cross and statues rescued from the ruined Great Stone Church, and the restored paintings, said to have been done by Indians.

And yes, this is the place of the swallows. Swallow Day, as it's known, is St. Joseph's Day, March 19, and the birds — the mud nest-building cliff swallows, Petrochelidon pyrrhonata — arrive on or about then. The legend is that Father Serra came across someone destroying swallow's nests in a building in the village and vowed that the swallows would always be made welcome at the mission. The Leon René song that popularized the idea of the birds swooping in all in one massive flight didn't come along until some generations later. The swallows, which come to Capistrano to mate, build their nests and teach their young to fly, used to linger until fall but now tend to leave at summer's end, in August, because much of their habitat has been destroyed by expanding neighborhoods. (This year's Return of the Swallow's Celebration, a great time to visit Capistrano because of the three-day fair that occurs then, will take place 7 a.m.-5 p.m. daily March 16-19.)

ALSO IN SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO: the O'Neill Museum, a self-guided walking tour, shopping (especially antiques and collectibles), restaurants (we liked El Adobe, a true adobe building, for Mexican food and the Cedar Creek Inn for interesting California-style cuisine), and you're just 20 minutes by the Del Obispo Parkway from Laguna Niguel, Dana Point and other coastal towns. Visit the Chamber of Commerce for free maps, brochures and directions; in the Fransican Plaza, just down the street on Camino Capistrano at Verdugo. Check sanjuancapistrano.net.

WHERE TO STAY: AAA recommends the Best Western Mission Inn, (949) 493-5661, and Laguna Inn, (949) 347-8520, motels in San Juan Capistrano itself. But when expense is no object, just a short bit away on the coast are some of the most sought-after addresses in the west. The ultra-luxurious Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel reminded me of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel; it's a venerable resort with traditions and customs of its own. The view of the beach below, the wetsuited surfers, drifting kelp beds and hardy runners is the resort's main draw; the public areas are gracious with fireplaces that burn real wood and a cozy library perfect for chilly days. There's tennis and golf, too. (800) 241-3333. Also highly recommended: The Blue Lantern Inn, a 29-room bed and breakfast in the Four Sisters chain, on a bluff with ocean views in Dana Point; (949) 661-1304. More economically priced options include the Best Western Marina Inn in Dana Point (800) 255-6843.

South Coast Plaza

• Bristol Street off I-405 (the San Diego Freeway), Costa Mesa
• (800) 782-8888

At the last count, there were more than 280 stores and restaurants in South Coast Plaza, a family of malls spread over four blocks. That doesn't count the outlanders that cluster around the mall proper. It's easy to find because it's just off the 405 Freeway and, if you're staying in a Costa Mesa hotel, there's a shuttle. If you drive, there's valet parking from four locations (follow the signs), and there are taxi ranks at Macy's Home Store on Bear Street and The Clubhouse on Bristol Street.

Concierge service at the mall includes everything from gift certificate purchases to restaurant and theater reservations. They have free strollers and wheelchairs. They'll also help you locate other Orange County attractions and give you driving directions.

Make your first stop one of the many kiosks that hold store directories listing all the shops with maps. Except for the fact that there's no hotel right in the mall (the Westin is across the street), you could practically live here, shopping, having your hair done, eating, visiting a spa, visiting one of three art galleries, getting your eyes checked or your shoes fixed, arranging your air travel, banking, having your new purchases tailored.

Though many of the stores here are also in Hawai'i, you'll find lots that aren't: discount spots like Ann Taylor Loft, dozens of small designer boutiques, Lane Bryant and Elisabeth for large-size women's apparel, Webgen favorites including The Limited, Express, Traffic and, for homies, Crate & Barrel and (across the street at South Coast Plaza Village on Sunflower Avenue) Bed, Bath and Beyond. There's also a Target just a couple of blocks away.

Wear comfy shoes, clothes that are easy to get in and out of (so you can try things on) and bring lots of green!