You wrote:
>>wants to spend time at some beach towns &are looking for recommendations of great places to explore. They will have a car. She thought there was a town which had a Swiss theme.

I live in Northern LA county right on the Ventura border so i cannot help too much with Orange county but i can offer some advice:

I am not an expert on Orange County, since i prefer the more ethnically varied Los Angeles and San Diego Areas. I find OC to be extremely homogenous and boring, except the areas of Laguna. This is my own personal opinion.

Laguna is a nice town, good food, good weather and lots on culturally interesting things to do and you cannot beat the scenery. Also, there is lots of diversity here so its well rounded in its offerings of things to eat and do.

http://www.lagunabeachinfo.org/

Another interesting area is Balboa Island, which i have not been to in ages but used to be fun-went there with a huge girl scouts troop, something you are likely to find there still :

http://www.balboa-island.com/

The only town around here that doesn't have a western theme/Ghost town theme is Solvang, which is not on the Ocean and above Santa Barbara. Here is some info on Solvang(Danish Capitol of America):

http://www.solvangcc.com/

i love Santa Barbara and highly recommend a visit, but this area is several hours north of Anaheim. But its WAY better than Disneyland :

http://www.seesantabarbara.com/

http://www.santabarbarabotanicgarden.org/

http://www.sbnature.org/

http://www.santabarbarazoo.org/

http://www.santabarbara.com/

I am not sure what kinds of things she is interested in but i always recommend a visit to our missions, which are always interesting and scenic:

http://missions.bgmm.com/

There is a Mission in San Juan Capistrano, San Gabriel, San Luis Rey, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, Ventura and Santa Barbara and Solvang. The Solvang Mission is quite lovely......

If there are specific things that she is interested in doing please feel free to ask me :)

Glad you are getting some heat relief, here in the Valley we are baking in the triple digits.....

Best, Amelia Hesson Los Angeles http://www.meyerandassociates.com