By Shelby Stanger

 

If someone told me that by swimming the entirety of Laguna Beach’s coastline I could discover underwater blowholes, Indiana Jonesesque sea caves, beaches where waves spray out like a sideways fan, and secluded salt water pools, I would have jumped in with my fins a long time ago. Locals--please don’t hate me. Visitors--I still can’t tell you where they all are because my memory is dim. However, I will tell you this: Every year in August there is a gathering of adventurous die-hard ocean lovers who set out to explore the entire eight-mile coastline of Laguna Beach starting from the private northern end of town and ending with drinks at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point before taking a well-deserved dip in one of its Jacuzzis.

By Chad Nelson, Surfrider Foundation Environmental Director

 

Ten years ago, when Captain Charlie Moore sailed across the center of the swirling northern gyre of the Pacific Ocean and found a veritable island of plastic, a zone where plastic particles outnumbered plankton by a six to one ratio, he fundamentally changed the world view on litter. Cleaning the beach of trash changed from a local beautification initiative to part of a global movement to save our ocean ecosystems.

By Rita Robinson

 

Sure, there’s the tried-and-true and must-see destinations that are in all the colorful guides and brochures. And then there are the hot spots that most locals frequent, but are hardly a secret. Yet in Laguna, there are still some little known places and events around town that will be a delight for visitors—and a find for residents, too.

By Courtenay Nearburg

 

Chris Prelitz is a man who lives by his principles. His 2,100-square-foot home in Laguna Beach is a testament to his credo that going green is ecologically friendly to the earth and economically friendly to the wallet. Built on an “unbuildable” lot, a “funnel-shaped hole in the ground” that he bought in 1997, Chris completed his home in Bluebird Canyon in 2000, after three years of putting his heart and hands into the job.

By Moira C. Reeve

 

“I grew up in an old southern family that has been making whiskey since 1870. When my son joins in, it will be six generations.” While Lyons Brown talks of the family business as if it was a modest operation, the reality is much different—it was Lyons’s great grandfather, George Garvin Brown, who founded the spirits giant Brown-Forman in 1870, in Louisville. George’s original brand, Old Forester Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, was America’s first bottled bourbon and remains one of Brown-Forman’s finest. Today the liquor empire is Jack Daniels, Southern Comfort, Woodford Reserve and more than 25 other top brands. To say that liquor is in Lyons’s blood, is, well, an understatement.

By Brian Taylor

 

California is home to a host of festivals, symposiums, conventions, national fundraisers and expos on any topic you can imagine, from world-class music festivals to skiing extravaganzas, gardening shows to global women’s conferences. But last October marked the premiere of a gathering held in Laguna Beach to focus on the environment, the planet’s future and how the power of the arts can push the message further.

By Toni McAllister

 

While most Southern Californians head to mega gyms like 24 Hour Fitness and Bally’s to get in shape, in true Laguna style, you won’t find those chains here. Instead, Laguna Beach offers up three unique gyms that take a holistic approach to help you on your personal path to a healthier lifestyle. 

By Cindy Hale

 

“It takes a village to save a life.” That’s the philosophy dished out by Randy Kraft, director of development for Friendship Shelter, the only comprehensive, year-round shelter open to the estimated 35,000 homeless of Orange County. Operating out of a residential hotel originally erected in 1938, the crisply renovated building sits near the beachfront of Laguna and serves approximately 220 homeless adults annually. Since its inception 20 years ago, the nonprofit Friendship Shelter has been a haven of hope as it offers a unique, multi-faceted approach to solving the problem of homelessness.

By Timory Wilson

 

Outside the ebb and flow of the vast Pacific Ocean, in the heart of Laguna Village, rests the diminutive Cathedral Chapel of St. Francis By the Sea, which is not only a renowned structure in town, but also noted in the National Register of Historic Places in the United States. At only 17-feet wide by 16-feet long, the church is small compared to its larger cathedral cousins; however, it’s not the size of a building that gives a cathedral its title. For those who practice their faith at this American Catholic church, its spiritual magnitude is grand.