San Juan

Nobody seems to notice as the sun descends toward the shimmering sea. Children frolic along the beach as their parents sit nearby, chatting and playing cards. An old man snores contently in a hammock. Young couples embrace in the shelter of a shallow lagoon as the waves crash against a rocky reef. The aromas of garlic, onion and pepper waft across the strand, signaling that dinner preparations are underway at a beachfront restaurant. The day is ending, but no one wants to let go of the daylight pleasures that draw people to Villas del Mar Hau, a smattering of pastel-colored beachside cottages just outside the town of Isabela, a few miles east of Aguadilla on Puerto Rico's northern coast.

M. Jeanne Bartelt, a physical education teacher who was instrumental in efforts to revise statewide PE standards for California schoolchildren, died May 22 in Sacramento. She was 89. The cause was a heart attack, said her partner, Sandra Archer. A PE consultant at the state Department of Education during the 1980s and 1990s, Bartelt helped create a state physical fitness test for students and helped develop teaching guidelines, handbooks and curricula. She also traveled across California training teachers and administrators on ways to teach PE that engage young people and encourage them to be active throughout their life.

José Enrique, chef-owner of José Enrique in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was just named one of Food & Wine magazine's Best New Chefs (along with Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food in New York, Justin Cogley of Aubergine in Carmel and our own Michael Voltaggio of ink in WeHo, among others). When's the last time you've seen a chef in Puerto Rico on such a list? I'm pretty sure the answer is never. And in my opinion, the award is richly deserved. After spending a few days in Puerto Rico in January, the touted new resort restaurants paled beside the vivid flavors, funk and sheer fun of José Enrique in the ragged neighborhood near the city's covered market on la Placita de Santurce.

American Cruise Lines is offering a new itinerary for summer with a cruise of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands aboard the 100-passenger American Spirit. The islands, many of which are uninhabited, comprise one of the nation's newest national monuments . The cruise begins and ends in Seattle with stops along Washington's coast:  Anacortes, Friday Harbor, the San Juan Historical Museum , Port Angeles and Port Townsend . The sixth day is spent cruising along the Sound to Skagit Bay and Deception Pass, offering views of the islands.

FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. - Two dozen hardy travelers were clustered near me on the top deck of a 114-foot ferry, most of us shivering under cloudy skies as a colorful mosaic of water and land slid by the vessel, the Victoria Clipper III. We were sailing through the San Juan Islands, an archipelago of hundreds of isles between mainland Canada, Vancouver Island and Washington state's northwestern coast. As we cruised north from Seattle, rolling hills were replaced by dark green forests and rocky bluffs that overlooked fiord-like inlets.

Some San Juan Elementary School parents believe their school has been "neglected" for too long for it to have more students foisted upon it. At a Capistrano Unified School Board meeting Monday night, two parents asked trustees to scrap plans allowing a new charter school to operate there. The parents railed against the crowding and noise complications they say could occur if 60 students from Journey Charter School, the district's first charter program, inhabit the campus.

On the final day of the 71-day Santa Anita meeting Sunday, the marathon 13/4-mile San Juan Capistrano Handicap produced a thrilling finish. When the photo showed that Interaction had beaten All Squared Away by a nose, 80-year-old Hall of Fame trainer Ron McAnally got to bask in the glow of another memorable triumph. Ridden by Joe Talamo, Interaction came charging on the inside in deep stretch to pass All Squared Away and give McAnally his third victory in the unique $150,000 race that starts at the top of the hillside turf course and was won 14 times by Hall of Fame trainer Charles Whittingham.

Historical advocates in San Juan Capistrano argued that the jagged hills of southern Orange County were deep under water when dinosaurs first roamed the Earth. No land-roaming dinosaur - neither a T. rex , stegosaurus nor apatosaurus - would have come through unless lost at sea. Many things have changed since the water washed away: Missionaries built a majestic cathedral, settlers established what would become one of California's oldest neighborhoods and a thick cloud of swallows would flock back to their nests here each spring.

A shallow magnitude 3.0 earthquake was reported Friday evening one mile from San Juan Bautista, California, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 10:01 p.m. Pacific time at a depth of 4.3 miles. According to the USGS, the epicenter was six miles from Prunedale, California, nine miles from Hollister, California, 11 miles from Salinas, California and 120 miles from Sacramento, California. In the past ten days, there have been no earthquakes magnitude 3.0 and greater centered nearby.

José Enrique, chef-owner of José Enrique in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was just named one of Food & Wine magazine's Best New Chefs (along with Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food in New York, Justin Cogley of Aubergine in Carmel and our own Michael Voltaggio of ink in WeHo, among others). When's the last time you've seen a chef in Puerto Rico on such a list? I'm pretty sure the answer is never. And in my opinion, the award is richly deserved. After spending a few days in Puerto Rico in January, the touted new resort restaurants paled beside the vivid flavors, funk and sheer fun of José Enrique in the ragged neighborhood near the city's covered market on la Placita de Santurce.

Get out and enjoy nature? Oh please. It's a lot of hard work, and what do you get for it? A backache from lugging all the equipment, a sleeping bag with a broken zipper, and who forgot the matches? Wanderlust Hospitality has a better idea: glamorous camping, or glamping, this summer in three state parks on Washington's San Juan Islands. To celebrate the solstice and the beginning of summer, glamping sites will be in place June 21-24 for a three-night, four-day stay in Spencer Spit State Park on Lopez Island.

The San Juan Capistrano dinosaur is one step closer to extinction after city planning commissioners voted to evict the 40-foot long Apatosaurus statue from a petting zoo in the heart of the city's oldest neighborhood. Commissioners said the dinosaur, which peeks onto historic Los Rios Street from the tiny zoo, does not reflect the history of San Juan, which would have been underwater when such animals roamed the Earth. Carolyn Franks, owner of Zoomars Petting Zoo, said she plans to appeal the commission's 4-2 vote.

Down the narrow corridor that runs through one of California's oldest neighborhoods, behind the perfectly preserved 200-year-old houses, the source of a heated debate in San Juan Capistrano pokes out his leathery neck with a goofy smile. The city resting amid south Orange County's green-covered hills is known for its tight embrace of a rich history: Hundreds of horses march through the streets each year to welcome the swallows' expected return to the mission; an old-world Spanish motif of stucco walls and terra cotta roofs includes even burger joints and banks; and on historic Los Rios Street, there are strict rules about what belongs and what doesn't.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO SAN JUAN ISLAND S , WASH. FROM LAX, Alaska, Virgin America and United offer nonstop service to Seattle; Southwest offers direct service (stop, no change of plane); and Southwest, Delta, Virgin America and United offer connecting service (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $288. By ferry from Seattle: Clipper Vacations offers a scenic three-hour ferry ride through Puget Sound to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island from $70 a person for adults.