SLOW MO IN LAGUNA : THERE'S NO HUSTLE, NO BUSTLE IN UPSCALE BEACH TOWN.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily Staff Writer

Everything happens in slow motion in Laguna Beach.

Maybe it's a reaction to all the fog that blankets the coastal town this time of year. Folks struggle awake, get a gander at all that wet, gray stuff, and roll over to snooze a bit longer, knowing it will take hours for the sun to show itself. The day will wait. After all, this is Laguna.

Most of the shops - which sell everything from beach kitsch to fine art - won't open until at least 10 a.m. The galleries don't come alive until about 11. And there's no chance of getting up a good beach volleyball game until at least noon.

So what's the hurry?

``We've been here for two days and we've done everything there is to do,'' the male half of a honeymoon couple said one recent morning over breakfast at a local inn.

``Yeah, we went to the beach,'' his new wife responded. ``Then we went shopping. Then we went to the beach again. And after breakfast, we're going to the beach again.''

What do you expect from a town whose main street is busy Pacific Coast Highway, on which traffic screeches to a halt at a half-dozen stoplights so pedestrians can cross over to - what else? - the beach.

There's a choice of 30 beaches and coves, where the kids can frolic in the sand, athletes can surf and swim, and the rest of us can loll on a beach towel. Main Beach, where Broadway joins Pacific Coast Highway at the town's hub, is the next best thing to Venice's Muscle Beach, with beach volleyball courts, basketball courts and a boardwalk for strolling or roller blading.

Other swim-and-surf spots dot the coastline above and below Main Beach; most are accessible by steep stairways that reach from the cliffs down to the sand.

For those who don't like the feel of sand between their toes, a slew of restaurants overlooks the beach; two of the most popular are Las Brisas de Laguna, an upscale Mexican restaurant a bit north of Main Beach, and Laguna Village Market and Cafe, a funky cliffside eatery smack dab in the middle of a clutch of art galleries, gift shops and a flower shop just south of Main Beach.

Today's visitors aren't the only ones who have found Laguna Beach's que sera, sera attitude addictive.

Some 2,000 years ago, the Ute-Aztecas, and later the Shoshone Indians, inhabited the strip of coastline, dubbing it ``Lagonas'' - their word for ``lakes'' - because of two fresh-water lagoons in the canyon areas. In the 1800s, Spanish explorers knew the area as ``Canada de las Lagunas'' (Canyon of the Lakes), but due to an oversight, it was not included in land grants parceled out by Spanish and later Mexican rulers - leaving it ripe for the picking by settlers.

The first permanent non-Indian settlement was homesteaded in Aliso Canyon about 1870 by Eugene Salter; fellow Mormons established the town of Lagona in 1876 at the intersection of what is now Laguna Canyon Road and El Toro Road. The town's destiny as an artists' colony was set in 1903, when a stagecoach pulled into town and Norman St. Claire - watercolor painter of surf, hillsides and lagoons - got off and set up shop.

His fellow San Francisco artists visited and were so impressed by the area's beauty that they came to live here, too. By 1917, the area was home to nearly 40 artists, many of them specializing in the ``plein air'' style of Monet's French impressionists.

With the artists came the movie stars, drawn by sun and sea - and booze. Gilbert Roland and Ramon Navarro threw legendary parties here during Prohibition, when rum runners found shelter in the area's bays and coves. At one time, the town - renamed Laguna Beach after a similarity in names saw its mail habitually misrouted to Long Beach - was home to actors Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand.

Writer John Steinbeck penned ``Tortilla Flat'' while living in a Laguna Beach cottage, and residents Bette Davis and Gregory Peck participated in Laguna Beach Players productions and helped raise money for the group's Laguna Playhouse, now the oldest continuously operating theater on the West Coast.

During the Depression of the 1930s, Long Beach artists hung their artworks from trees along the coast highway to attract buyers.

That roadside show evolved into two midsummer events that the town shakes itself awake for: the Festival of the Arts, founded in 1932, which includes juried art shows, workshops, demonstrations, music and food, and the Sawdust Festival, started in the 1960s, which lets visitors watch glass blowers, sculptors, jewelers, ceramic artists, painters and other artists at work in an outdoor gallery setting. The Pageant of the Masters, the traditional capper of the Festival of the Arts, presents tableaux of famous paintings re-created with human models, all set to classical music.

Even when it's not the season for the two festivals, the laid-back town still has a few points of interest sure to entertain those who just have to find something to do after shaking the sand out of their swimsuits.

Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center: You'll hear seals and sea lions barking as you get out of your car next to the animal shelter on Laguna Canyon Road. Here is where sick and injured sea mammals are brought for rest, medication and nourishment before being returned to the sea. The center, which has rescued more than 2,100 animals in its 25 years with a 70 percent to 80 percent survival rate, is manned by about 150 volunteers and operates on an all-donations budget totaling about $3,000 a week for food and medicine.

Many of those rescued are seal and sea lion pups, weaned and abandoned by their mothers at a young age, but unable to fend for themselves, said volunteer Kirsten Sellwood as she force-fed herring to ravenous pups who hadn't yet learned how to eat on their own. Another volunteer pumped liquefied fish down the throat of a squirming, even tinier pup.

``A sea lion or seal, if it's injured or sick, will come up on the beach to rest,'' said volunteer Jennifer Saitz, a marine biologist. ``They often get pneumonia and have breathing problems and can't hold their breath to dive for food, so they become malnourished.''

Volunteers provide food and medication, but try not to coddle the wild mammals, which are usually released back into the ocean after about three months of care, said Saitz.

``We're keeping them as wild as possible,'' she said. ``We don't want them to be too comfortable with people, to swim up to fishermen or somebody who could hurt them.''

Visitors are welcome to watch feeding and medicating, but are not allowed to touch the seals and sea lions.

Cathedral Chapel of St. Francis by the Sea: Listed in the 1980-83 editions of the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest Catholic cathedral in the world (a Kansas bishop has since established a smaller cathedral as his headquarters), the chapel was built in 1933 with rubble from the Long Beach earthquake to minister to the area's American Catholic congregation. (The American Catholic religion follows most Roman Catholic tenets, but does not recognize the pope as the infallible head of the church and allows its priests to marry.)

The tiny chapel, popular with locals and out-of-towners alike for 9 a.m. Sunday Mass and a favorite spot for weddings, seats only 48 people.

Outside, the chapel is concrete and old brick, reached through a wooden archway and a brick walkway lined with a riot of colorful impatiens that act as magnets for butterflies. Inside is an altar backed by a stained-glass window depicting St. Francis of Assisi, colorful tilework and paintings.

``The cathedral is only 60 feet long and 17 feet wide,'' said Bishop Simon Talarlzyk, head of the church in California, who has made the chapel his headquarters for 30 years. ``It's very small, but it's a most beautiful place. People who've read about us come from all over the world to see it.''

On Location When you come to Laguna Beach, bring quarters. Or sturdy walking shoes. Or both.

There are a few city lots where you can park all day for $5, but they are small and fill up fast. If you're lucky enough to find a parking spot along Pacific Coast Highway or on city streets, you'll pay dearly for the privilege: A quarter buys you only 15 minutes on the meter, and the police are prompt with tickets for overtime infractions.

The best solution is to head downtown early in the day, before other sightseers and beachgoers are awake. Or plan breakfast or lunch on a weekday, when restaurants are not so crowded, at an eatery with a large parking lot and leave your car there while you explore a bit. Otherwise, you can leave your car at your hotel and hoof it downtown or to the beach. Be careful when crossing PCH, though; those cars move really fast.

You'll need a car to explore further afield.

The Sawdust Festival, at 935 Laguna Canyon Frontage Road; [phone], runs 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, Thursday through Aug. 25. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $1 for kids age 6-12. In addition to artworks and demonstrations, there'll be food, music, minstrels, jugglers and magicians in a canyon shaded by oak trees.

The Laguna Playhouse, at 606 Laguna Canyon Road; [phone], has two theaters that offer comedy and drama productions from September through June. Admission prices and curtain times vary.

Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center is at 20612 Laguna Canyon Road; [phone]; open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; admission is free.

The Cathedral Chapel of St. Francis by the Sea is at 430 Park Ave.; [phone]. Mass is at 9 a.m. every Sunday. The chapel is also open on weekdays when the organist is practicing.

For more information, contact the Laguna Beach Visitor Information Center, 252 Broadway; [phone].

Outtakes A good place to relax and enjoy the sun and the surf without getting sand in your shoes is at the Crescent Bay Vista Point at the south end of Crescent Bay Drive, just off Pacific Coast Highway north of Main Beach.

There, you can sprawl on the grass, hang over the sturdy railing to watch a mini-island that is a sea-lion habitat or - if you're there early enough on the right mornings - watch volunteers from the Friends of the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center release rehabilitated sea lions and seals onto the beach below.

Another great vista point is Alta Laguna Park (go north on Park Avenue; turn left on Alta Laguna and go to the end); it's a grassy spot that overlooks inland valleys on the north and the city of Laguna Beach and the ocean on the south.

Down Pacific Coast Highway a few blocks from Crescent Bay Vista Point is the Laguna Beach Museum of Art, the oldest art museum in California, celebrating its 75th year. It's at the corner of PCH and Cliff Drive, open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; admission is $5. Information: [phone].

The town is also home to more than 60 art galleries.

To get a taste of 1920s and '30s Laguna Beach, drive through the narrow streets of the town's two historic areas, lined with tiny bungalows that are sometimes nearly hidden by fabulous gardens filled with bougainvilla, ferns and other greenery. Laguna North homes lie generally north of Cypress Drive, south and east of High Drive and west of Hill Street. Laguna South homes lie north of Pacific Coast Highway and south of Santa Cruz Street, east of Cleo Street and Arroyo Chico and west of Diamond Street.

The town has a history of welcoming visitors. Since the 1880s, a townsman has appointed himself unofficial greeter. In the early days, it was Old Joe Lucas. The second, and best-known, was Eiler Larsen, named Laguna's Official Greeter and Goodwill Ambassador by the city in 1963. For four decades, the red-coated, gray-bearded Larsen stood alongside PCH, waved and bellowed ``Hello, there!'' to thousands of visitors. A statue to his memory stands in front of a restaurant on the inland side of PCH just south of Main Beach.

The last greeter, known only as No. 1, voluntarily took over greeter responsiblities in 1981, but is apparently not on the job full time.

A 10-minute drive south from Laguna Beach on Pacific Coast Highway will land you in Dana Point, named after author and mariner Richard Henry Dana. Here, you can visit the Orange County Marina Institute's tiny visitors center and gift shop and see the brig Pilgrim, a floating classroom for local schoolchildren modeled after Dana's fictional ship.

To reach the harbor, turn right off PCH at Golden Lantern; turn right on Dana Point Harbor Drive and go all the way to the west end. The Marine Institute is at 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive; [phone]; open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily; ship tours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free, but a donation is requested.

The institute also offers sailings, by reservation, aboard the 70-passenger RV Explorer, a power boat equipped with underwater remote-operated cameras, video microscopes and other state-of-the-art electronic apparatus to let passengers see what's going on underwater. Information and reservations: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, 2 Boxes

Photo: (1-2--Color) The Cathedral Chapel of St. Francis by the Sea, right, a 48-seat chapel that for years was the world's smallest Catholic cathedral, is a favorite spot for weddings. Below, Main Beach is favored by artists and beachgoers alike.

(3--Color) Crescent Bay, seen from an overlook, is one of Laguna's most popular beaches. It's also where rehabilitated seals and sea lions are released back into the sea.

(4--Color) An old sea captain stands guard at the Laguna Village Market.

(5) Volunteer Kirsten Sellwood feeds herring to a sea lion pup.

Carol Bidwell/Daily News

Box: (1) On Location (See text)

(2) Outtakes (See text)