Presidents Day at the movies

Lindsay Sandham

Monday’s sporadic rainfall put a damper on plenty of plans for

Presidents Day, a holiday from school and work for most.

With the majority of kids home from school, parents and grandpar-

ents were left in charge of entertaining the kids with indoor

activities.

“We were going to go to Disneyland today, but it got rained out,”

Mindee Gorman, of Huntington Beach, said outside the Metro Pointe

Edwards theater. “So we decided to come see the ‘Heffalump’ movie.”

Gorman has three kids -- 6, 4 and 18 months. She said they weren’t

too upset about the canceled trip to Disneyland because they have

annual passes and go all the time.

“It was just going to be a day that Daddy didn’t have to work so

we could all go together,” she said.

Although there are movie theaters in Huntington Beach, many make

the drive to Costa Mesa to the cinema at Metro Pointe, she said.

“I think it’s just a bigger selection with more times available,”

Gorman said.

Sherry Kennedy of Huntington Beach also took her three children --

2-year-old twins and a 6-year old -- to see “Pooh’s Heffalump Movie.”

She said they had originally planned to visit her sister, but she

didn’t want to drive too far in the rain.

Marsha DuMontier of Huntington Beach got to spend the weekend with

her grandson, Brandon Kelley, 10, of Long Beach.

“We went to a movie yesterday because it rained,” she said. “And

then we’re going to a movie today. After the movie we’re meeting his

mom and baby brother and having dinner at Ruby’s, the favorite place

around here for them to eat.”

She said they had planned on seeing the 2:15 p.m. showing of “Are

We There Yet?” but the tickets were sold out, so they shopped and ate

and waited for the later showing.

“The boys shopped,” DuMontier said. “We went and had Starbucks and

we went to the French place and got French bread and pizza for them.

They bought me a Beanie Baby.”

Brandon was with his friend Andrew Caldera, 11.

Ben Bajak of Irvine took his daughter, Sophia, to see “Because of

Winn Dixie,” because Sophia loves dogs.

“It’s a good daddy-daughter thing to do on a rainy day since we

can’t go play outside or go to the pool or something like that,” he

said.

Bajak was going to buy Sophia a new outfit, but the stores were

very crowded because of all the Presidents Day sales, he said.