With a Little Seasoning, Summer’s Now Serving : Recreation: Calendar made it official, but the real signs of change came in form of school-free kids at parks and beaches.

There were no bells or whistles, and not even a noticeable difference in the weather. But Friday ushered in the first day of summer.

In Orange County, the signs of summer showed up along the beaches and in the parks. Thousands of youngsters are now out of school, and their joyful shouts resounded at basketball courts, volleyball nets and baseball diamonds.

As is usual for June in this area, the day began with typically overcast skies. In Huntington Beach about 10 a.m., the first morning of summer produced no particular magic.

Gloomy gray clouds hovered over the Huntington Strand, and only a sprinkling of people sat or walked on the beach.

“It’s like this--overcast--in the morning, and then the sun comes out about 11:30,” said Huntington Beach City Lifeguard Craig Shimomura, 22. “The change happens quickly; it breaks really fast.”

Then the crowds come, said Shimomura, “directly proportional to the sun.”

Shimomura had been seeing the official approach of summer all this week. “As school lets out, more and more people come,” he said. “You could really tell a lot of schools had their last day on Thursday.”

Gradually rising ocean temperatures have also been signaling the advent of summer. At Huntington Beach, the water temperature hovered in the chilly high 50s as recently as three weeks ago. But by Friday, the water temperature had risen to 65 degrees--still nippy, but not arctic.

“When the water temperature gets around 68 to 72 degrees, that’s when it becomes real comfortable,” Shimomura said.

In Anaheim, Irene Hicks, an employee with the city’s recreation division, said that the city’s parks were full of a typical first-day-of summer scene: children and teachers celebrating the end of school with picnics and parties. Summer’s first day, Hicks added, means the start of a busy period for the parks and recreation workers.

“By next week we’ll be inundated,” she said.

Like a giant pinball game, seasons of the year depend on tilt. When the tilt of the Earth’s axis at the North Pole slants toward the sun, the Northern Hemisphere gets its summer. The first day of summer officially is called the summer solstice. It is also the longest day of the year, with more daylight than any other time.

The summer solstice officially arrived on the West Coast, and ergo in Orange County, at 2:19 p.m. on Friday.

At that precise time, Juan Villalobos, 26, sat with his wife, Maria, and daughter, Yvette, 3, on a bench overlooking the lake at Centennial Park in Santa Ana.

“It’s very relaxing to be here,” he said. “This is the first day of my vacation. I’m a school bus driver for Santa Ana schools.”

But while some like Villalobos sought shaded areas of a tranquil park, others went for sunshine, crowds and lively activity--such as at Wild Rivers amusement park in Irvine. There, under a cloudless sky Friday afternoon, hundreds of adults and children frolicked in watery bliss.

Joyce Blumberg of La Jolla watched as her son, Michael, 10, floated down a canal on an inflated ring.

“This is a nice change of pace,” she said.

Michael, as he drifted by, said that, yes, he knew it was the first day of summer. “I knew because it’s June 21,” he said. He added that this particular first day of summer was a great day “because it’s hot.”

Inland Orange County areas had temperatures in the 70s on Friday, while coastal areas had highs in the upper 60s. Weather forecasts predict virtually no change for the next week or so.

“Other than the long amount of daylight, since today (Friday) is the longest day of the year, there’s nothing different in today’s weather,” said Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc. “We’re now into your typical summer weather.”