Vail

Within 48 hours of agreeing to sell the Dodgers, team owner Frank McCourt officially surrendered his claim to what had been his Los Angeles homes. Under a divorce settlement filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jamie McCourt kept four homes — two in Malibu, one in Holmby Hills and one in Vail, Colo. Frank McCourt kept two homes, both in Massachusetts. The McCourts sold a second Holmby Hills home in August. Representatives for Frank McCourt did not immediately return messages asking whether he intended to move back to Massachusetts, where his family is deeply rooted.

San Diego-based Sunland Housing Group has purchased the 2,088-unit Vail Ranch residential development in Rancho California for $25.5 million from Harry L. Summers Inc. The 460-acre purchase was financed by the Pennsylvania-based Radnor Corp. Sunland plans to develop at least two of the eight residential villages within Vail Ranch itself, selling the remaining villages to merchant builders, according to Tom Dobron, president of Sunland Consolidated, Sunland's holding company.

Colorado's Vail Valley is synonymous with skiing. But in recent years, the resort area has added a slate of festivals, concerts and discounts that makes it a year-round destination. 1 Shop. The village teems with galleries, jewelry shops and specialty stores such as the Swedish Clog Cabin and Scotch of the Rockies, which features dog-themed gifts and jewelry.

Explore, a travel group for seniors, has announced its annual fall week of learning, Sept. 21 to 27. The program takes place in Colorado's Vail Valley and the surrounding White River National Forest. Guests participate in workshops and recreational clinics. Every day the topics are different. This fall's program includes global issues, history, astronomy, music, watercolor painting, creative writing, photography, cooking, fly-fishing and fitness walking.

Vail Resorts Inc., one of the largest ski resort operators in North America, has agreed to spend $18 million to acquire Kirkwood Mountain Resort along with undeveloped land at the base of the mountain in Lake Tahoe. The deal would give Vail ownership of three of the seven major resorts around Lake Tahoe: Heavenly, Northstar and now Kirkwood. Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border is encircled by seven major ski resorts and several smaller ski and cross-country operations in the Sierra Nevada.  Vail Resorts, a publicly traded company, is considered among the largest resort owners in North America.

One daughter, barely 16, lives in Houston, where she has developed into the country's best gymnast. Another daughter, 14, lives in Southern California, where she is making a name for herself as a figure skater. A son, 18, the eldest of half a dozen children, has returned to the family nest in Northfield, Ill., an upper middle-class suburb of Chicago, after sharpening his speed skating skills for a year in Butte, Mont., and Calgary.

Investigators officially blamed arsonists for a series of fires atop Vail Mountain that caused an estimated $12 million in damage. A group calling itself the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the fires that destroyed three major buildings and portions of four chairlifts. Vail beefed up security and said it would protect skiers at the jet-set playground, which is scrambling to salvage the season.

For those who like to fish for catfish, the bite at Vail Lake has picked up dramatically, according to a spokesman there. Clare Bacon, a resident of Encinitas who has fished the Riverside County reservoir twice a week for several years, caught his biggest catfish ever at 23 pounds 8 ounces. William Randall of Los Angeles caught two catfish totaling nearly 35 pounds.

Catfish and largemouth bass seem to be the primary target of anglers these days, and Riverside County's Vail Lake appears to be one of the better locations for both species. Roger Rogers of Rancho Palos Verdes caught a 12-pound 1-ounce bass and several other catches of more than 10 pounds were reported. Joe Green of Compton, meanwhile, caught 7 catfish weighing 64-pounds 9-ounces, the largest a 17-pounder.