Cool Weather Keeps Holiday Crowds at Bay : Beaches: Almost all the shoreline is open but the usual Labor Day throngs are missing as the sun decides to sleep late.

It was summer’s last harrumph, the big beach blowout before most schools open, except that the weather refused to cooperate.

The waters around Huntington Beach were no longer contaminated with bacteria, health officials said, but thousands of people still stayed away Monday. But they stayed away from nearly every other beach in the county too.

Despite efforts by city officials and businesses to attract sunbathers and surfers with $1 parking and sidewalk sales, Huntington Beach appeared about half as crowded as it does on a typical Labor Day, longtime beachgoers and merchants said. Crowds were also down at Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, and only about a third as many people as usual showed up at Seal Beach.

The one place where a normal-sized crowd showed was at San Clemente, where Steve Lashbrook, a marine safety officer, said the last four days had been among the best all summer. “What’s really important is good weather leading into Labor Day,” he said. “That’s the problem this year. The weather has been so bad at the beach for so many days, people lose interest. If it’s warm and nice for many days and weeks going into Labor Day, everybody makes plans to go to the beach.”

Throughout most of Orange County’s famed beaches, that was the problem. “It starts off cool and cloudy in the morning,” lamented Lorie Huber, a Seal Beach lifeguard. “It clears up but it’s pretty windy.”

Said Josh Bynum, a lifeguard dispatcher at Laguna Beach, where the crowd was down 5,000 to 10,000 from the normal 30,000 or so: “It looks like fall. It feels like fall. That’s the buzz going around.”

Scott Breit, a meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides information for The Times, said Orange County temperatures have been two to five degrees lower than normal this summer. But don’t put away your summer clothes, since the warmest weather of the year can hit in September and October.

“I would wager that some of the hottest days are ahead of you still,” Breit said.

About 1,000 people showed up at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace for the final portion of a weekend celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Folks who decided to go to most Orange County beaches found that instead of stepping over wall-to-wall basting bodies and searching desperately for places to put their towels, they had their choice of spots. After the morning clouds burned away, beaches were sunny, breezy, with temperatures in the low 70s--and relatively empty.

Health officials opened most of Huntington Beach on Thursday, trying to end fears of contaminated water that made Surf City unsurfable. The source of the contamination remains a mystery--the bacteria apparently cause eye, ear and nose infections, and also can cause breathing problems, headaches and diarrhea--but officials said the water, except for at a small portion of the beach, was OK.

Sean Rios, a surfer heading for the water Monday, didn’t believe it. Although he said he has suffered from ear, nose and throat infections he believes were from polluted water, the 16-year-old Huntington Beach resident planned to hit the waves.

“It doesn’t matter what [health officials] say. The water is always dirty,” he said. “I’m going in today because I’m already sick.”

Families easily found prime spots to sit in the sun. Gavin Backer of Huntington Beach said that, in order to have a good time, he tried not to think about the bacteria, and allowed his 4-year-old son, Shane, to play in the water.

“If they say it’s OK, I guess it’s OK,” he said. “What else can we do? I live here. I’m not going to let this ruin my weekend.”