Ventura East County Edition : Avoiding the Heat Was Hardly a Breeze : Weather: County residents discover a variety of ways to keep cool. Temperatures peak at 91 degrees in Fillmore, Piru.

As she does regularly, Beth Perry took her year-old twins, Tom and Ann Welker, to Rancho Simi Community Park in Simi Valley on Thursday.

But unlike most of their visits, the three made the one-mile trip from home to the park by car.

“It was way too hot to walk, especially with the stroller,” said Perry, as she and the children sat in the shade of two leafy trees. “This park is nice and cool and the breeze blows through.”

Scores of Ventura County residents looked for ways to keep cool as summer-like weather and warm temperatures swept through much of the county.

The barometer reached the 90s in Fillmore, Piru and Simi Valley and topped out in the middle 80s elsewhere in the county, forecasters said. Slightly cooler temperatures are expected for the weekend, said James McCutcheon of WeatherData Inc., which forecasts for The Times.

County residents and tourists alike crowded into air-conditioned shopping centers, took in the fresh air at the beaches and parks, and generally sought reprieves from the heat where they could find them.

Frank and Stacey Ahlvers of Newbury Park took an early afternoon breather on a bench at The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks. They were there with their children, Tovah, 3, and 6-month-old Cary.

The family had just returned from a hike in the hills near Moorpark Road. “So we decided to get some yogurt,” Frank Ahlvers said.

“We don’t have any ice cream at home,” added Tovah, as she tried to keep drippings from a scoop of chocolate from dribbling down her chin.

Liliane Farb of Agoura Hills and her daughter, Marilyn Farb of Sherman Oaks, also had yogurt on their minds as a way of beating the heat. “We had been staying home and keeping the air conditioner on,” Marilyn said.

For expectant mother Loretta Naud, mint chip ice cream was the refresher of choice at The Oaks. “It’s baking outside,” she said. “Ice cream does it today.”

Deb Simpson and her 2-year-old granddaughter, Kristen Barnes, decided as early as 8 a.m. that they had to find shade. So they headed straight to Rancho Simi Community Park in Simi Valley.

“As soon as I opened the door to pick up the newspaper, I dropped everything. I’ve lived in Vegas, but this heat is something,” Simpson said. “We had to get out of the heat, get out of the house. We came here to sit under the trees, play and eat lunch.”

At San Buenaventura State Beach, where the conditions were mild in comparison to the east county, sunbathers spent a leisurely afternoon relaxing and watching children splash around in the ocean.

The breeze and cooler temperatures at the beach provided a break for Emily and Rodney Hunsaker and their two children, who were visiting Ventura on a trip from Arizona.

“We came to cool off . . . it’s 100 and something in Arizona,” Emily said. “This feels good.”

“This is like a winter day,” Rodney added.

Not everyone, of course, had much of a choice of how they spent the sunny day. Carpenter Manuel Castro spent much of his time hauling lumber at the Civic Arts Plaza project, under construction in Thousand Oaks.

“It’s pretty hot,” said a sweat-drenched Castro. “I drink about two gallons of water in eight hours. Most of the time we’re outside. Wherever we have to work, we work.”

The high temperatures in the county Thursday were 91 degrees in Fillmore and Piru, 90 in Simi Valley, 86 in Thousand Oaks, 84 in Santa Paula, and 78 degrees in Ventura, McCutcheon said.

Sunny skies should be the rule for the next several days, with some low clouds and fog along the coast tonight, McCutcheon said.

“There will be an increasing marine layer along the coast which will bring slightly cooler temperatures,” he said.

Coastal temperatures today will be in the 60s to low 70s and it is expected to reach the 90s inland, McCutcheon said. Low clouds and patchy fog are expected tonight along the coast and in the inland valleys.