Welcoming the Year of the Water Buffalo

Southern California is home of the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, and this weekend Little Saigon throws its biggest party of the year. The Tet Festival is a three-day celebration that attracts thousands of revelers and marks the arrival of the Year of the Water Buffalo.

The 27th annual festival features live music, traditional Vietnamese cuisine and a cultural village in the heart of Orange County. There’s also a Tet parade, and families will find kid-pleasing extras such as rides and a petting zoo. This year’s theme is “Spring of Hope.”

“Of course, it all happens in Little Saigon,” says Councilman Andy Quach. “But it’s not only for Vietnamese people. We’d like to invite everyone to our celebration.”

The festival is at Garden Grove Park, at 9301 Westminster Blvd., between Brookhurst and Magnolia streets. Tickets are $5. The hours are 2 to 10 p.m Friday; 10 a,m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. More information.

Playing hooky in Laguna Beach

As Southern California’s Indian summer blazes on, now is an ideal time for Laguna Beach getaway. Perched midway between LA and San Diego, Laguna is one of SoCal’s most picturesque beach towns, a lush tangle of palms and runaway bougainvillea snaking across stucco walls and tiled roofs along Pacific Coast Highway.

Tourists and SoCal revelers overrun the city during summer (and on holiday weekends throughout the year) when traffic crawls, parking is impossible, and the sidewalks downtown disappear beneath the crush of more people than they were ever meant to hold. During fall, though, Laguna exhales. It’s the time of year the locals love best, when this Orange County beach town of 24,000 goes back to being a welcoming Shangri-la again. On weekdays, the beach sits tantalizingly empty.

For starters, check out the waves at Thalia Street, an easy-to-miss cul de sac where a curving set of steps leads to the sand below. It’s a sweet spot: Locals come to here to surf and skim-board. The downside: there’s no parking lot, so you’ll have to hunt for a spot on a nearby street.

If you’re feeling energetic, set out for walk along the beach. Or head to Laguna Canyon Road and hike through the inland wilds of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Or grab a triple latte and hit the sidewalks to sample Laguna’s art galleries and one-of-kind boutiques. There’s a slew of shops and restaurants clustered downtown, close to Main Beach and its famous basketball courts on the sand. But don’t stop there. Many of Laguna’s treasures are scattered farther south along Coast Highway, away from the touristy hub.

In the 1200 block of Coast Highway, for instance, you’ll find a wonderfully eclectic mix at the Old Pottery Place, including delicious world cuisine and an outdoor patio at Sapphire; gourmet picnic fixings at the adjacent Sapphire pantry; and the friendly Laguna Beach Books. Across the street, the Rooftop Lounge at the La Casa Del Camino serves up mojitos and prime views of the coastline.

If you’re up for a splurge, book a room — or just make lunch reservations — at the Surf and Sand Hotel, a landmark resort carved into the side of an oceanfront cliff. The waves are so close, so intense, that the sound of pounding surf seems to follows you everywhere at the Surf and Sand.

For dinner: Treat yourself to Eva’s, a delectable Carribbean kitchen in a South Laguna cottage. The restaurant is a riot of color — lime green walls, orange ceiling, small pink lights twinkling in the palms — and softly lit by the sea of candles that line the dining room. So warm. So fun.

Before you go: Request a Visitor’s Guide from the Laguna Beach Visitors Bureau. This slim (free) volume tucks easily into a pocket.

Don’t forget: Bring a pocketful of quarters. Laguna Beach has meters all over town and you’ll need change to park.

P.S. Here’s a map.

Great Escapes Excerpt: Savoring Crystal Cove

Every day at sunset, the flag is ceremoniously hoisted at Crystal Cove.

The martini flag, that is.

The tradition dates back to the early 1930s, when the first families cruising Coast Highway in their Ford roadsters stumbled upon this former rum smugglers’ haven along the Orange County oceanfront. They staked their summertime claims with tents in the sand and surfed on simple planks of balsa wood. After the late-afternoon martini ritual, everyone gathered for nights for nights of tiki parties and luaus and bonfires on the shore.

The squatters returned to Crystal Cove year after year, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and gradually put up thatched cottages on the bluffs—shacks with fabulous views. They cobbled together their summer homes from hunks of driftwood and leftovers scavenged from old Hollywood movie sets, thoughtfully left behind by silent-era filmmakers. “I often say that I was the luckiest girl in the world,” says Laura Davick, whose parents met here during the 1940s tent-camping era and later snapped up one of the original cottages for $2,000 in 1960. “I grew up here.”

Remarkably, Crystal Cove and its ramshackle colony have survived as a timeless paradise even as developers transformed the rest of Orange County’s villages, farms, and namesake citrus groves into mile after mile of suburban tracts, condos, and shopping centers. The drafty little cottages on the bluffs passed from generation to generation, until the Irvine Company finally sold Crystal Cove to the state of California for $32 million. The sale forced out the renters but ended up opening the cottages to everyone.

Nestled between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, Crystal Cove is now a 2,791-acre state park that boasts a spectacular sweep of beachfront and, since summer 2006, freshly refurbished rustic cottages where you can stay overnight and soak up a perfect old California experience.

Yes, paradise has been restored and is being carefully tended by the nonprofit Crystal Cove Alliance, which Davick now runs. The cove’s cottages, though, are so popular that reservations disappear as soon they become available on the first day of every month. Even if you can’t score a cottage, Crystal Cove State Beach makes an exceptional day trip, an idyllic spot for an afternoon at the beach. And you’ll find those martinis (along with breakfast, lunch and dinner) here.