Hot weather in Marin brings out the beachgoers

April 30--Doug Turner picked up his cellphone and held it in the air, to show that Tuesday wasn't a day off. Not entirely.

"I had a conference call a few minutes ago," said Turner, an events producer from Mill Valley. "I got dropped from the call, though."

Turner and his wife, Michelle, spent the middle of their day lounging on Stinson Beach and soaking in sun rays -- and doing some work -- on what was the hottest day of the year in Marin County.

"It's stunning," Michelle Turner said. "No wind, very few people. But there are a lot of flies."

Stinson was forecasted for 81 degrees on Tuesday, though locals said it was probably a tad less than that. Inland temperatures were even warmer. San Rafael hit 89 degrees, tying a record for April 29 set last year, according to the National Weather Service.

Kentfield reached 87 degrees, which fell short of the town's 91-degree record for that date, last reached in 1996.

For those who couldn't take advantage of the outdoors on Tuesday, the heat wave will continue into Wednesday. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 80s and low 90s throughout the inland parts of the county, with 90 degrees in San Rafael and 88 degrees in Kentfield.

Wednesday "is looking just as warm, if not a few degrees warmer," said Larry Smith, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Though the beaches weren't packed Tuesday the way they were during spring break -- or how they would be had the hot weather hit on a weekend -- Stinson attracted a few hundred people who were craving beach weather and had the free time to take advantage.

"The second I saw the weather, I said, 'I'm going to Stinson,'" said Savannah Thrasher of Novato.

Thrasher, a 21-year-old student and Starbucks barista, said she usually makes the trip alone, since her friends have different schedules and aren't as free to pick up and head to the beach. Not that she loathed the solo trip to soak in sun rays.

"It's so nice," Thrasher said.

Jeff Castro, a 24-year-old pianist who lives in Fairfax, said he took the beach for granted while growing up in Stinson Beach. But now he tries to make it to the sand on most Tuesdays, when he is in town for the open mic night at Parkside Cafe.

"It's magical here," Castro said. "People come from so far to come here."

Despite the long, winding drive to get there, Stinson Beach attracts plenty of beachgoers from the East Bay and beyond.

Melanie Bell made the 90-minute drive from Moraga with her daughter, Caroline Bell, and her daughter's friend, Destiny Simmons -- both 19-year-olds who just finished their freshman years at Brigham Young University in Utah.

The Bells don't consider themselves sun worshipers, "but we make a commitment to come to the beach when it's nice out," Melanie Bell said.

Simmons, who is from Cambridge, Ontario, in Canada, had only been to the ocean once in her life before Tuesday. She said she was excited for her second ever trip to the beach and to try out boogie boarding.

"I'm stoked out of my mind," Simmons said.

Frank Lee, a 69-year-old insurance agent from Oakland, took off work for a day of boogie boarding.

"Today was a play day," Lee said. "I decided to clear the decks and go have some fun."

When he wasn't in the water, Lee was stationed up on a dune near the lifeguard tower, with his wetsuit half off, an ice chest containing a prepared lunch, reading material and a cigar he brought back from Spain.

Having been in the water once before noon, he said he planned to ride the waves a few more times before heading home at the end of the afternoon.

"It's such a long drive out, you might as well make a day of it," he said.

Melanie Alejandra, 27, and Amanda Moriarti, 26, crossed the bay from Richmond, with intentions of making a day out of their trip to Stinson.

"We were going to go hiking and then go to the beach," Moriarti, 26, said. "But then we decided just to go to the beach."

and Deborah Betz, neighbors in San Anselmo, said there is nothing else they would rather be doing than hanging out at Stinson Beach. But the weekday trip to the beach had a quick turnaround for the two mothers.

"We've got to pick our kids," Betz said. "This is just a little mom's getaway when nobody knows we're gone."

Contact Laith Agha via email at lagha@marinij.com

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