ORANGE COUNTY SUMMER : Residents Finding Fun in the Sun Right Near Their Own Back Yard

They swarm over the tide pools like grasshoppers dipped in neon green, yellow and pink. They trail through museums in Bermuda shorts, with visors and cameras. They drop their trash nearly everywhere.

They look and act like tourists. But many of the 39.4 million tourists in Orange County are, in fact, us.

“More people who live here are taking vacations within the county,” said Stuart Zanville, director of public relations at Knott’s Berry Farm where more than half the visitors are local. “Year-round schools are one reason. More youngsters are taking part in organized summer activities that keep families in the area. Air fares are expensive. People need more little breaks.”

Whether hosting out of town guests or simply exploring their own back yard, local families are rediscovering Orange County like a foreign country.

Alice Gharibjanians of Irvine has lived in the county for nine years but this summer paid $14.95 for Frommer’s California With Kids to read the travel advice for Orange County. “We’ve been to Sea World and Disneyland. All the touristic places.” Gharibjanians said she is looking for some alternatives to lying by the pool or lake in her Irvine neighborhood.

Armed with such travel guides, schedules and reservations, families are finding lesser known and less expensive family attractions as well as fresh approaches to enjoying Disneyland, Knott’s and the museums, without crowds or tears.

For the second summer in a row, Santa Ana teacher Evy Disner has turned tour guide, organizing in- and out-of-town relatives and their children into what she calls “cousins’ camp.” The schedule--including Disneyland, Knott’s, the Santa Ana Zoo and Mission San Juan Capistrano--is full, but flexible.

“They have to be short trips and in the morning, so they can take naps in the afternoon,” said Disner, in sunglasses and a fanny pack as she pointed out a statue of Father Junipero Serra at the mission to several siblings and in-laws, two grandparents and nine children, ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 9.

Special days for children are held the last Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the mission. They are told about early mission life through skits and crafts such as making adobe bricks, headbands and playing Indian games.

A favorite of the “cousins’ camp” is the La Habra Children’s Museum. “They can dress up in weird, old-fashioned clothes,” Disner said. Friday, they toured the Museum of Natural History and Science in Newport Beach.

To attract locals, Knott’s Berry Farm has instituted a summer discount from $21 to $12 after 6 p.m. “We tested it last summer as a teen price and found a lot of families asked if they could take advantage of it too. Dad may be working, but he can get off early and can come to the park for dinner and a couple, three hours of entertainment,” said Stuart Zanville, public relations director.

Lines should be shorter this year, he said. Tourists from outside Southern California are expected to be fewer this summer because of publicity in recent months about malathion spraying, earthquakes and violence in general, he said.

For those unable to resist the “granddaddy of all the theme parks,” Frommer’s suggests visiting Disneyland on Fridays and Sundays--the lightest days during the summer for the park. The writers suggest purchasing tickets in advance and arriving at the 8 a.m. opening time. When it gets crowded, some people get their hands stamped, leave the park and return at dinner time when lines are shorter.

Perhaps the biggest Disneyland mistake parents make is taking children under 1 year old to the park, said Dr. Stephen Koffler, public relations director of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a pediatrician at Hoag Health Center in Irvine and Newport Beach. “Why spend the money? The children don’t know anything. They get scared. They can’t go on rides, and if they do, they get sick.”

As a father, Koffler said he didn’t heed his own advice and now has a photo of his 1-year-old daughter screaming because Mickey Mouse spoke to her. Now, he said, “I won’t take my grandchildren until they’re 3 or 4.”

Koffler prefers that parents show children “real things they can relate to” in the great outdoors, found by following the freeways and highways to local camping spots--at Newport Dunes and Aquatic Park or Doheny or San Clemente state beaches.

Frommer’s, one of the bigger names in travel guides, calls the Corona del Mar State Beach, possibly “the best beach in the area for families.”

At its southern edge, at the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Poppy, are the scenic tide pools.

No teen-agers with boom boxes here. No surf Nazis. In fact there are barely any waves. The only bikinis are worn by pregnant women with toddlers hanging on their knees.

The most popular attractions are Hector Guajardo and Jerry Aguiar, two marine conservationists who skin dive around the rocks every morning, plucking sea creatures to place in a bucket for the children to see and touch.

This morning, the bucket holds a brittle sea star, a giant sea urchin, a keyhole limpet and a giant sea slug that, Aguiar tells squealing girls, feels like “3-week-old Jell-O.” A suspicious 7-year-old whose carrot freckles match her hair calls it “slimy, weird and funny.”

They also conduct free tours of the tide pools. Reservations for groups can be made by calling (714) 644-3047.

Better known by out of town tourists than locals is the Doll and Toy Museum, 1238 S. Beach Blvd. in Anaheim, located in Hobby City--a unique six-acre island of shops resembling a combination Santa’s Village/Lake Wobegon with train rides and picnic areas.

The museum, built to resemble the White House, houses an eclectic collection of hundreds of antique dolls. Admission is $1 for adults, 50 cents for seniors and children under 12.

“Oh look!” cried Jessica Melicia, 5, from San Jose. “It’s Jesus!” Seconds later: “Oh, lookit! Mr. T.!” Then, the highlight for parents and children alike: “Oh, look! Barbie!”

In floor to ceiling cases, stand hundreds of Kens and Barbies representing a visual history of the dolls’ past 30 years. There is the voluptuous Barbie in a pillbox hat and bouffant hairdo, Barbie as a Mouseketeer, Barbie in horn-rimmed glasses. And her main accessory, Ken, in military and football uniforms, striped pajamas and as a barbecue chef. “Oh look! What are those? Bell bottoms?”

Run by Bea DeArmond, 77, who sees herself as Mother Goose, Hobby City includes a Cabbage Patch Kids “adoption center” where “doctors and nurses” sell dolls and accessories and issue prescriptions on the care and feeding of old dolls.

“If they come in dirty, they say, ‘What kind of a mother are you?’ ” DeArmond said.

A small open-air train that carries small children runs through the shops. Picnic tables are available.

In most museums, “museum fatigue” usually sets in at an hour and a half for adults, said Maxine Gaiber, public relations officer at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. Children’s interest may vary, depending on the size and type of exhibit. “Sometimes in a science museum with buttons to push and things to do, they may last longer.” Parents should let children set their own pace, allowing time for breaks in the cafeteria and shop, she said.

To help children enjoy museums, some travel mavens suggest starting with the souvenir shop at the beginning of the visit, rather than the end. They might purchase postcards of the exhibits and then hunt for the originals.

The Newport Harbor Art Museum offers a children’s guide and scavenger hunt for each show, available on request at the desk. Sample: “Sometimes Andy Warhol’s mother would handwrite on his drawings. Find a work that has handwriting on it, write the words you see on the painting in the space below.”

Hidden words in the Word Search Puzzles might be: “commercial art,” “strawberry Jell-O,” or “Zsa Zsa Gabor.”

More affluent families are taking short trips to hotels such as the Four Seasons Hotel in Newport Beach that offer ultraluxurious “escape weekend” programs.

“Parents are traveling more and more with their children,” said Linda Barragan, director of public relations. Parents who might spend a day or two at their hotel when traveling alone now stay two or three nights with their children as a result of extravagant programs that resemble summer camps, complete with activity directors, she said. Most guests are from Southern California.

While parents golf or shop, the directors will take youngsters to the library or fire station, and to the hotel kitchen to make cookies with the chef. While parents sip champagne at brunch, children have their own $22 brunch, of hot dogs, pizza and sundaes.

But no matter how luxurious the accommodations, any hotel room can be scary to children, Koffler warned. So don’t forget your child’s security blanket.