Playing around Laguna Beach + Father's Day wishes
Plus, this is Summer Play Trips Week 5 and we're celebrating Summer Solstice
Thankfully, this June hasn’t been as June Gloom as last summer. The sun has been out and you’ve already been at the beaches. According to LA’s Griffith Observatory: “Summer begins in Earth’s northern hemisphere at 1:24 a.m., PDT, on June 21. Winter begins in the southern hemisphere at the same time.” The longest daylight of the year also happens to be Father’s Day!
The Observatory is even having an online talk on Sunday at sunset to mark the occasion and “Observatory staff will discuss how the Sun’s changing path across the sky causes seasonal changes and determines where the Sun sets on the western horizon.” Check out their website for some very educational graphics and videos.
Wishing all the dads, grandpas, and father figures out there a day of celebration. Being in that position carries so much with it, but I hope you can find and focus on the good parts on Sunday!
Michele
As a friendly reminder, make sure you ALWAYS check official sources when you are heading out to any of the locations I share. These are merely suggestions. Only you know what works for your family. Plus, your experience may not be the same as mine — and there can be changes to the hours or unforeseen circumstances or conditions at the suggested locations.
Summer Play Trips 2026 Archive (ICYMI)
Week 3: Three ideas for making this summer more basic (90’s summer)
Week 2: Newport Beach playgrounds + nature centers + libraries
Week 1: Family-friendly stops on Irvine CONNECT + FREE summer trolleys
Family fun near Laguna Beach
Over 6 million visitors come to vacation in Laguna Beach every year to play along its 7 miles of coastline. Coming to this beach city with a spirit of stewardship and taking care of the beaches and parks is something the city likes to promote along the lines of Leave No Trace principles.
This guide has over 12 play trip ideas of family-friendly things to do while you are in Laguna Beach.
3 Things About Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach has a new trolley tracker app (different from last year) that just launched called Laguna Beach Transit app
Did you know? Laguna Beach was “the first California city to be plastic free and the first to become a zero balloon zone. We’re also proud to be smoke free and straw free, and are known as the Nation’s Most Water Wise City.”
Crystal Cove Conservancy just added a page on their location to Safe Beach Day. And I have this page about beach safety in my Orange County beach play guide that I thought I’d also share here:
Beach Safety
I’m sure that doesn’t cover everything! But just info I like to share as a someone who has been swimming in the Pacific Ocean and playing at California beaches since I was a little kid.
Father’s Day wishes
My annual Father’s Day guide is about getting out to picnic in Orange County! The weather is often perfect for an outing like this and it’s also coinciding with Summer Solstice this year. I’ll be celebrating my one & only dad, my children’s awesome dad, and all you dads and father figures out there!
ICYMI: Irvine summer camp with $34/day hikes
The City of Irvine Eco-Explorers Camp is for 6-12 year olds. It’s only $34/day — and you can sign up for one day at a time and not commit to the whole week if you want. If you do want to sign up for all 5 days in a week, it comes out to 5 x $34 which equals $170 per week. This camp is an excursion camp that gets the kids outdoors all over OC!
Here are some photos from the director of Bommer Canyon near Turtle Rock Community Park and “Emoji Rock” in Laguna Canyon!
Camp runs from 7:30am-12:30pm every weekday. Here is the info on the program and how to sign up!
[NOT sponsored — I just like camps like this to do well, so they keep offering them!]
How did I find out about this? Well, I used to have the Eco-Explorers camp on my outdoor-themed summer camps list for years! But then Bommer Canyon had some work and restoration done and the camp was temporarily unavailable for a number of years. Now, it’s back! Thanks to the camp director for filling me in when we had a chance meeting in May!
Posts you might like right now
Click the photos to go to the guides!
Play & Outdoor News
California State Parks Foundation and the California State Railroad Foundation are providing the California Historian Passport for free. It’s normally a $50 pass. To celebrate both Juneteenth and Independence Day, California State Parks is offering a special edition Historian Passport available to download at no cost from June 15 through July 6, 2026. The passport can be used beginning June 19 and remains valid through December 31, 2026. Get all the information about this pass and where you can go to learn California history.
What a paid subscription gets you!
Whether you pay or not, your subscription to this publication makes such a difference for me being able to continue this work. I truly appreciate your time investment and/or finanicial investment in sharing play ideas with our Orange County community.
This week, in the paid section you’ll get:
The joy of knowing you are supporting this writer mom & nature guide with her work to promote play. Thank you!
We’re almost halfway through a year of “Noticing Nature” around California and Orange County. I’ll need to update our checklist of all we’ve seen! Nature still surprises me. I saw so much at a walk around a local manmade lake.
And I’m leaving in the download for the Orange County Beach Play Guide in case you missed it last week. It’s a 63-page guide that works best if you are a paid subscriber, so you can access the full mini trail guides in the Archive.
