Pacific Coast Highway

It's the dog days of summer, time to hit the beach--you and thousands of other sand seekers. If your idea of the beach is bumper-to-bumper bodies, there are plenty of places to go. But if you crave a more secluded beach experience, we've got the place for you. Actually, there are three places--three little beaches, all in a row, tucked into the cliff along Pacific Coast Highway, just east of the Ventura County line. El Pescador, La Piedra and El Matador are all part of Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach, but they're still relatively undiscovered by Southern California's hordes.

EVENTS There's no better time to visit the historic 1929 Adamson House than during the annual Christmas Tours, which showcase the site's original furnishings and feature holiday music, refreshments and a handcrafted present for each guest. Proceeds support the museum. Adamson House, 23200 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. 7:30 p.m. Fri. $15 (reservations required). (310) 456-8432. http://www.adamsonhouse.org.

A woman driving a pregnant 15-year-old girl in labor to a hospital lost control of her car on a rain-slick portion of Pacific Coast Highway on Thursday, hitting a utility pole and temporarily closing the highway. Firefighters used a hydraulic tool to free the woman, who was pinned inside the car's wreckage in the 5 a.m. crash on PCH near Sunset Boulevard, said Brian Humphrey, a Los Angeles City Fire Department spokesman.

Pacific Coast Highway is many things to the tens of thousands of people who traverse it daily. For the day trippers who park on the shoulder and haul their coolers across the roadway, it's the route to some of the best beaches around. For the "Z drivers" — commuters who take the canyon roads west over the mountains to PCH en route to Los Angeles — it's the quickest way to work. For the cyclists who ride along the shoulder, it's a workout and a rush. For the 13,000 people who call Malibu home, PCH is their main street and the only route through town.

A bicyclist was killed Tuesday night when he struck a pickup truck that had pulled over to stop for a passenger on the side of Pacific Coast Highway, authorities said Wednesday. The cyclist, John Hammond, 27, of San Juan Capistrano, was riding southbound on the highway near Palisades Drive at 6:48 p.m. when he apparently did not see the truck stopped ahead of him, said Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Randy Benicky.

The Santa Monica Police Department predicts a tenfold increase in speeding tickets along Pacific Coast Highway between the McClure Tunnel and Santa Monica Canyon because of the city's new radar. Caltrans, after conducting a survey on traffic and roadway conditions, raised the speed limit from 40 to 45 mph, allowing the city to begin using radar to catch speeders. Police departments may not use radar without an updated survey of speed limits by Caltrans.

Santa Monica police have reopened the southbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway after containing a ruptured water line that covered the road with water and mud Thursday morning. Southbound PCH was reopened about 8 a.m., and police estimate the northbound lanes will be reopened between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., said Sgt. Brent Crafton. The highway was closed after an alleged drunk driver hit an above-ground water line early Thursday, unleashing a gusher of water that eroded a hillside and covered the road with water and mud. The driver was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, police said.

Tract housing is not what comes to mind when one thinks of Malibu, but amid the custom estates and beachfront mansions here is a modest set of about 200 homes known as Malibu West. The tract, built in 1962 near Pacific Coast Highway, is made up of traditional and modern homes, many restored to their original design. To some, these midcentury houses may look like knockoffs of the famed tract homes built by Joseph Eichler, but Malibu West was built by Nisan Matlin and Eugene Dvoretzky, award-winning architects (now retired)

A lesser-known comedy by Euripides, "Helen," turns the myth of Helen of Troy on its head. In this version, the face that launched a thousand ships never ran off to Troy with Paris but lived faithfully in Egypt while an impostor took her place. The play reading is directed by Jon Lawrence Rivera. Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. 8 p.m. Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Free ($15 parking before 5 p.m.; museum ticket required). (310) 440-7300. www.getty.edu.

One man was killed and another was clinging to life Thursday after their Ferrari jumped a center median on Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach and crashed into a flatbed truck traveling in the opposite direction. The accident occurred about 5:15 p.m., resulting in the closure of Pacific Coast Highway between Bayshore Drive and Jamboree Road, said Sgt. Jerry Lowe of the Newport Beach Police Department. The highway was blocked for hours. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the Ferrari to spin out and cross the center divider, which in that section of the highway is either a raised curb or a median strip, said Sgt. Evan Sailor, public information officer for the Newport Beach police.

It was like a scene out of a sci-fi movie: A behemoth threatens an innocent town from atop a cliff, shrugging off all capture attempts. Only this real-life besieger was a 116-ton boulder, which gave indications in February 1979 that it might plunge onto Pacific Coast Highway and possibly squash a BMW or two, if not some beachfront architecture. The innocent town was Malibu, so naturally elements of show biz were involved. It was movie producer/ writer Robert Radnitz who led a campaign lobbying Caltrans to bring the big rock down from its 186-foot-high perch.

Here are six coastal family lodging possibilities, all with rates that start at less than $150 a night. San Diego The Bay Club Hotel and Marina, 2131 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego; (800) 672-0800 or (619) 224-8888. www.bayclubhotel.com. Shelter Island isn't an island at all. It's a man-made finger of land, lined with hotels, restaurants, boat slips and yacht brokers, plopped into San Diego Bay. The Bay Club offers 105 rooms; all have decks or balconies, and most have big marina views.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign the state budget today, his office said. That would mean the budget becomes law 85 days after the fiscal year began, a record in state tardiness. Schwarzenegger is expected to veto line items amounting to millions of dollars in spending. Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary, said the governor would sign the budget in his office without the public ceremony that often accompanies such events. About 80,000 unpaid state bills have piled up during the impasse.

Two motorists died in Malibu on Wednesday when the driver of a big rig lost control of his truck, barreled down a steep canyon road, crossed an intersection and plowed into two cars, authorities said. The accident occurred about 10 a.m. when the driver of a gravel truck made an illegal detour onto Kanan Dume Road, a steep canyon pass that is off-limits to heavy trucks, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.