Zip Line

A bird's-eye zip of Catalina Island The first zip line in Los Angeles County has opened on Catalina Island, where participants get a bird's-eye view of pristine Descanso Canyon as they fly above chaparral and through a eucalyptus tree canopy. The Zip Line Eco Tour consists of five separate lines — one longer than 1,000 feet — that crisscross and drop into the rugged ravine before they end, 440 feet below, near the beach. But the ride promises more than thrills suspended from a steel cable at times 300 feet above the canyon floor with speeds topping 40 mph. Signs on each platform explain the local fauna, flora and history; guides trained by the Catalina Island Conservancy supply interpretation.

Think you know thrill rides? Welcome to something new, a summer attraction with speeds up to about 50 mph and a drop of 400-feet plus, but craftily designed to get your heart pumping in the most intoxicatingly easy and, well, gentle way. That's Flightline, recently opened at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park in Escondido. It's the zip line taken to a higher level.

Reading the stories Steven Gilbar has collected in "LA Shorts," you sense that the sexiest boundaries Angelenos cross are property lines. Borders, both real and metaphorical, run like an electric fence through the streets and suburbs of Los Angeles, separating neighborhood from neighborhood, neighbor from neighbor. Realtors hold the keys to self-reinvention--and sometimes, to their clients' bedrooms (Tom McNeal's "Winter in Los Angeles"). Like the house in the D.H.