If you will visit any Macy’s store this month to pick up a brochure listing the 30 area museums offering half-price admission in February with the free half-price pass included.

From high school students trying to dunk their principal to local merchants selling their wares to residents dancing their hearts out, it took a village yesterday to put on Pacific Beachfest 2009.

Even baby pandas don’t like shots. A squeal from her baby during a veterinary visit Tuesday cut the exam short and sent panda mom Bai Yun scurrying back to her den to comfort the young one, zoo officials said.

No longer allowed to drink alcohol on San Diego beaches, Aubrey Taylor and her friends moved the party to the ocean by drinking cold cans of Bud Light while floating in giant intertubes a few feet offshore.

Strong emotions and spirited exchanges dominated a packed town-hall style meeting Saturday as a thousand residents from around San Diego County packed into a Spring Valley gymnasium to share their thoughts on health care reform.

An American flag the size of a basketball court, one that has been towed in a small trailer behind a motorized wheelchair throughout the country in the past few months, swung from a crane yesterday in San Marcos.

SAN DIEGO – The Star of India will soon be leaving the Embarcadero for a few weeks to undergo refurbishing and inspections, a Maritime Museum official said Friday. “It’s either that or let her no longer be able to be sailed, and that would be a crime,” said James W. Davis, first mate of the museum.

Giant pandas Zhen Zhen and Su Lin celebrated their birthdays at the San Diego Zoo Monday with tiered ice cakes filled with their favorite treats — apples, carrots and bamboo.

When the San Diego-Coronado Bridge opened in 1969, it became an instant landmark that forever changed the small city nearly surrounded by the Pacific.

Say you want to impress people around the water cooler and feel a bit like Survivorman. Here’s a tip: Go snorkeling in the shark-infested waters off La Jolla Shores Beach. Really. It’s not very dangerous, and it might make for an enthralling story, like it did for people who visited the site one recent morning and watched dozens of the 4- to 6-foot-long creatures troll past them.

As the start of the 2009 training camp draws near, Chargers beat writer Kevin Acee is previewing the team’s roster position-by-position. The ninth installment in the series focuses on the team’s running backs. View multimedia

Bass fishermen see the craziest things on their electronic fish finders, but San Diego angler Duane Johnson couldn’t believe what he spotted as he was idling across Lower Otay Reservoir.

Add playing in the sand to the long list of fun things that may be bad for your health. A new study says you risk getting an upset stomach and diarrhea if you dig into the granular stuff to fill toy pails, build sand castles or bury yourself. You’re better off walking along the shore or swimming in the surf.

A storm a decade ago destroyed a portion of the Mission Bay south jetty, leaving rocks lurking just under the surface – a hazard that has damaged or sunk dozens of boats over the years. The government never had the money to fix the problem. Now $10.5 million of federal economic stimulus money will pay for repairs and dredging of the bay channel.

This is an aircraft that’s represented America for decades, so to play a part in bringing it back to life for the San Diego Air & Space museum is a real honor. And with its fresh new paint job, we’re sure it will continue to dazzle aviation enthusiasts for generations to come.

All along, the county has been challenging the law, but suffered a huge blow last May when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal. But as of July 6 it’s a done deal and Medical Marijuana Cards are available.

San Diego Gas Price Predictor: Subscriptions are strictly limited, so it is possible that all available subscriptions will be taken even before publication begins. Only 2,000 daily subscriptions will be issued. Once these are filled, no more subscriptions to the San Diego edition will be offered. These same limits apply to each of the other local editions as well.

Bikini Week runs wild from Wednesday July 1 to Sunday July 5 picking up hot San Diego models and hitting the poolside runways at our favorite hot-spots for one big week of summer style. For five days of bikini fashion shows and sizzling summer night parties at your favorite rooftop pubs and the crowning of Miss All American Bikini Girl, Bikini Week is one San Diego event you don’t want to miss.

Sun-and wave-seekers took advantage of the clear skies and high temperatures yesterday by packing county beaches, probably a harbinger of the July 4 weekend. By noon, Ocean, Mission, Pacific and La Jolla Shores beaches were almost full, said San Diego Lifeguard Service Lt. Andy Lerum.

Iranian-American women are playing key roles in organizing protests in San Diego, showing up at rallies and communicating through e-mails, Facebook and Twitter. They range from girls to grandmothers. Some were born in the States, some hold green cards. Many care about what is happening in Iran.

The San Diego Zoo has to be one of the places that you can’t just take it all in, in one day. Their prices are great and allow for multiple visits for budget minded visitors. At the San Diego Zoo, a one-day “best value” ticket that includes unlimited use of zoo buses and an aerial tram costs $35 for adults and $26 for children.

For months, San Diego County’s housing market has been ravaged by thousands of foreclosures in low-priced neighborhoods, where families saw their American dreams vanish as their subprime loans went bad. Now, according to figures released yesterday, the pain is lessening in those areas while becoming more acute in high-priced neighborhoods.

He is usually the cynic on such things, at least the cautious observer. Even now, coach Norv Turner is by no means predicting his players’ self-actualization. He remains a show-me kind of dude, as it would be wise for all who have watched the Chargers fall short time and again to maintain a healthy skepticism.

After chickening out last year, Jennifer Irving said she was determined to conquer the Slingshot ride at the 2009 San Diego County Fair. So, on opening day yesterday, Jennifer, 11, and her older brother, Ryan, 13, each paid $25 and strapped themselves into an open-air cage, suspended by cables between two metal poles.

There are more than eight reasons to be extremely fond of the big, bustling event that attracts thousands of locals and visitors. Love those rides andThe Fair will move you, literally.

Even as another scary fire season looms, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to maintain funding for ground and aerial defenses in an era of shrinking state income. Some legislators are taking a closer look at a proposal to levy a flat fee on residential structures in wildland areas protected by Cal Fire, including vast parts of rural San Diego County.

The San Diego County Fair has come a long way since that original opening day in 1880 when it was celebrated as an agricultural fair. Today, it is three weeks of nonstop food, music, rides, …

Just five years after the USS Midway Museum opened on San Diego’s Embarcadero, the retired aircraft carrier has become one of the county’s field-trip hot spots. More than 38,000 students visited the museum with their teachers last year.

NICK CANEPA: The Chargers invited players from each decade to help them kick off plans to celebrate their 50th season, which include Legacy Games and selecting the all-time greatest moments. There was even a Chicken. Past, present Charger greats on 50th season

The views are awesome, especially for the price. The Port of San Diego is offering free boat and bus tours to the public through June, the second year of an effort to publicize its lesser-known industrial side after a failed November ballot proposition tried to push more development there.