Dog days of summer

What’s this, you say, a summer guide in May?

Why, yes it is. Because this is Chico, folks, where the best season of all starts on the Memorial Day weekend, about three weeks before its official calendar date.

Granted, we’ve had some unusually cool weather of late, but consider these tell-tale seasonal signs: The students are packing up and going home to live with Mom and Dad. Rental signs are in bloom. The traffic has eased. There is more elbow room downtown, where lines are shorter and the parking more plentiful. The Silver Dollar Fair is in full swing. The Friday-night and Saturday-night concerts in the park have begun.

Face it, folks, the hot weather is here, and so is our annual guide to making the most of your Chico summer.

Oh yeah, about the dogs. Some of our best friends are K-9s, and any chance we get to slip our furry pals into the paper, we’ll take.

Hole lotta fun
Area swim spots quench summer heat

Frosty makes it better
In search of the coldest beer in downtown Chico

Break out the blockbusters
Bob Grimm predicts which will be the ‘gee whiz, neato,’ the ‘hmm, I wonder’ and the ‘I’d rather wax my toes’ summer flicks

In bloom
It’s music festival season already, and the bounty is great