The OC Buzz — Issue #23
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☀️ GOOD MORNING, OC
Good morning, OC, and happy Veterans Day. To everyone who served: thank you.
The holiday switch flips this week. Disneyland turns on two months of lights, parades and food booths Friday, and the new OC Museum of Art throws a free opening party Saturday. Not bad for a short week.
In today's Buzz:
Disneyland flips the holiday switch Friday
A free opening day at the OC Museum of Art
Veterans Day ceremonies, plus the weekend lineup
TODAY IN… Huntington Beach: how Pacific City became Surf City
Remember This: the giant wooden blimp hangars of Tustin
— Kevin
🔥 THE BIG THING
Disneyland flips the holiday switch Friday.
Holidays at the Disneyland Resort starts Nov. 13 and runs through Jan. 6. The castle gets its snow, A Christmas Fantasy Parade comes back, and over at California Adventure the Festival of Holidays brings the food booths (more on those in Eat/Drink). All of it is included with park admission.
Here's what to know:
When: Friday, Nov. 13 through Wednesday, Jan. 6
Where: Disneyland Resort, Anaheim
Cost: Included with park admission; you still need a park reservation. disneyland.com
Pro move: go early in the run. By mid-December, forget it.
Sleeping Beauty Castle in its holiday dress. Photo: Carterhawk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: disneyland.disney.go.com
P.S. Forward this to the friend who puts the tree up before Thanksgiving.
LOCAL BUSINESS WE LOVE
If you’ve walked Old Towne Orange you’ve probably passed Joyride Vintage… well Rob Houston, who owns it with his wife Kristine, opened Garrahan Hat Co. as its own storefront at 111 N Olive St back in March. Rob came from construction and taught himself to fix up and then make hats, and now the shop does custom hats, restorations, and vintage pieces, mostly 1950s-era and older. Got a beat-up hat of grandpa’s sitting in a closet? Bring it in! garrahanhatco.com
Book people, I found your new spot! Blackbird Books & Coffee in Huntington Beach (7971 Talbert Ave, Suite 102) is a used bookstore and coffee house in one, and it’s on the city’s list of the newest openings in Surf City. They pour Counter Culture coffee, and the signature drinks are fun… The Dude is a latte with honey, maple, and cinnamon, and Love Me Do is lavender, vanilla, and sea salt. They host community events too, so peek at their calendar. Grab a latte and go get lost in the shelves for a bit. blackbirdoc.com
AROUND TOWN: THIS WEEKEND
Wednesday, Nov. 11 (Veterans Day)
🇺🇸 Ceremonies at 11 a.m.: Pier Plaza in Huntington Beach (surfcityusa.com) and the City of Irvine's annual Veterans Day ceremony (cityofirvine.gov).
Friday, Nov. 13
🎄 Disneyland's holiday season opens (above). First-night energy, smaller crowds.
Saturday, Nov. 14
🖼️ Free public opening day at the Orange County Museum of Art: the fall exhibitions Hello Again and Tokio Ueyama: The Hollows Between, plus tours, art-making and live jazz, 11 to 6. langson.uci.edu
🎄 Disneyland holidays, first Saturday.
Sunday, Nov. 15
🖼️ OCMA opening weekend continues, 11 to 6.
🎄 Disneyland holidays, first Sunday.
Mark the calendar: the Sawdust Winter Fantasy opens the following Friday, Nov. 20, in Laguna Beach.
OC WITH KIDS
Free Saturday at the art museum: OCMA's public opening day is built for families, with a scavenger hunt, collage-making, a painting-and-poetry workshop and live jazz. All free, 11 to 6, on the Segerstrom Center campus in Costa Mesa. langson.uci.edu
The Orange County Museum of Art at the Segerstrom Center campus. Photo: David Eppstein, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Festival of Holidays, weekend one: the food booths at California Adventure are sized for sharing, and the Viva Navidad celebration brings daily entertainment. Included with admission.
NEW & NOTABLE
A big-name chef picks Orange County: Tim Hollingsworth, the LA chef behind Otium, is opening his first OC restaurant at OCVibe, the massive dining-and-entertainment district rising around Honda Center in Anaheim. No opening date yet. latimes.com
EAT / DRINK
The season's first holiday food booths open Friday. Disney California Adventure's Festival of Holidays marketplace runs Nov. 13 through Jan. 6: small plates, holiday drinks, the works. Disney's full foodie guide drops soon. Included with admission; the food costs extra. disneyland.disney.go.com
📍 TODAY IN… HUNTINGTON BEACH
Huntington Beach Pier at sunset. Photo: Keith Wehner, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Surf City, by the numbers (and one near-miss of a name):
It was almost Pacific City. The town cycled through Shell Beach, Smeltzer, Gospel Swamp, Fairview and Pacific City before taking Henry E. Huntington's name in 1903. It incorporated Feb. 17, 1909.
9.5 miles of beach, and the surf rarely quits: North Pacific swells in winter, Southern Hemisphere swells in summer. Hence "Surf City," which the city trademarked (and yes, it fought Santa Cruz over it).
The first pier went up in 1904, a 1,000-foot timber job. Today's concrete pier is the one you know.
About 199,000 people, the fourth-largest city in OC and its most populous beach city.
Sources: wikipedia.org
Next issue: where should the spotlight go? Hit reply and vote.
🏡 HOME OF THE WEEK
The market: Orange County's October report shows 5,020 active listings and 1,249 pending sales, the lowest October demand reading since 2007.
The listing: 816 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach. $9,995,000 for a brand-new (2026) four-story oceanfront villa at PCH and 9th: 3,935 square feet, white-water views from every level, a 32-foot lap pool, and sightlines straight to the pier. Photos and details at elliman.com.
🌐 THE OC INTERNET
⏪ REMEMBER WHEN
Remember This: the Tustin blimp hangars.
In 1942, in the thick of WWII, the Navy built Naval Air Station Santa Ana for coastal blimp patrols, and threw up two hangars of Oregon Douglas fir to house the airships. Each one runs 1,072 feet long and 192 feet tall, among the largest free-standing wooden structures on Earth.
The base became the country's first helicopter-only air facility, later MCAS Tustin, and closed in 1999. Along the way the hangars turned movie star: Pearl Harbor, Austin Powers, Star Trek, The X-Files. The north hangar burned in November 2023. The south one still stands over Warner Avenue, 84 years of Oregon timber waiting on whatever comes next.
The surviving south hangar in Tustin. Photo: Robert A. Estremo, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Hit reply with your favorite OC memory. The older, the better.
💬 THAT'S THE BUZZ
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