Peak Season

The skier's springtime penance is over. The yard is clean, the patio furniture in place and the lawn has been mowed. It is time again to go skiing. On snow, of course. Not waterskiing, that pale imitation where, tethered to a tugboat, one can make some of the moves but has little of the freedom of snow skiing. Most skiers are willing to suffer through the eight-month hiatus between seasons, but the fanatics among us never bury our ski paraphernalia too deeply in the closet and we often think of ways to retrieve winter.

In recent years, visitors who wanted to tour Independence Hall during peak season often had to stand in line for an hour or more. Starting Monday, they may still have to wait, but they will be able to spend the time doing other sightseeing or having lunch. That's because the National Park Service will begin to issue timed tickets that will guarantee entrance to the nation's birthplace at a specified time. The ticket system will be in effect from April 6 through October, the months of heaviest traffic.

The Comtrex Cold and Flu Bug was bugging passers-by yesterday on Chestnut Street, warning them that it's the peak season for sneezin' and a lot of other pesky symptoms. The 6 1/2-foot character handed out Comtrex samples to deal with flu miseries. Today ol' runny nose takes his act to 9th and Markets streets.

As if the hot weather wasn't bad enough, how about some baked trash on your curb? Since April, the city's Streets Department has been one to two days behind in collecting trash in many neighborhoods, officials say. The heat wave has made affected residents particularly sensitive to the delay. Further aggravating the problem was last week's three-day holiday weekend. It threw the department an extra day behind in pickups citywide, officials said. To correct the problem, the city is asking residents to put out trash one day later than the usual collection day - but only for this week.

There was a time when a drive to the Jersey Shore was almost entirely through farmland, past rows of corn and orchards whose branches hung heavy with peaches. By July, roadside tables, gray with the age of summers past, were piled high with bright red tomatoes and sweet corn. Even though the landscape has changed, you'll find that New Jersey is still a garden state - especially if you leave the throughways and parkways and choose a more leisurely route to the beach. Soon local farm markets will display stacks of fresh produce, much of it from nearby fields.

Driving a rental car in Europe is a mixed experience. Certainly, for out-of-the way travel, nothing is better. Making a left turn in the British Isles sometimes means nothing is worse. And you haven't experienced the ultimate thrill of driving the Autobahn in Germany or Autostrada in Italy until you have had a speeding Mercedes sail up to your rear bumper, flash its lights, and gently nudge you out of the passing lane, at speeds that tingle. There are other ways to go, trains being one of them, but more American travelers, particularly seniors, are getting acquainted with the slowest movement through inland Europe: river cruises.

It is only a coincidence that one of the driving forces of the Jekyll Island Club on the coast of Georgia should have been named Hyde. But it is an appropriate one, for today the resort, with three golf courses and built as an exclusive hunting and social club for the richest tycoons of the Gilded Age, now caters to two classes - the rich and those far from it. It is a place of wide, fine-sand beaches where you can feel like a robber baron...

Philly likes to visit here, and not just in the summer. The resort draws three million tourists a year, and 153,000, or 5.1 percent, come from Philadelphia, according to the most recent figures. Stephen LaFond, who runs the Barclay Cottage Bed & Breakfast, says 6 percent of his guests come from the Philadelphia area, many in the off-season. "There's a lot more than the beaches," LaFond says. "They like the quiet. Some like the whale-watching packages in the winter. Some have relatives in the area.

Things are a tad dormant in the ice cream businesses this summer. The lines are shorter, and it's uncharacteristically quiet. In fact, it is so quiet, you could hear an ice-cream cone drop. Face down. Summer is usually the peak season, but ice cream establishments are feeling the heat of declining sales. "Sales are slightly off from other years," said Ronald Tinari, manager of Joseph Sweets on Main Street in New Hope. "Everyone in town is saying their sales are down.

On a sparsely populated country road near Lansdale, tucked inconspicuously among the trees, there is a spa of sorts. Among its amenities, a pool, daily exercise sessions, and about a dozen special activities. The food on the menu is varied and abundant, and for those who require something different, custom-made cuisine is available. Sound like a place you'd like to escape to some day? Sorry, Molly's Run Country Kennels Inc. is strictly for your pet. Molly's, at 2205 Wentz Church Rd., has positioned itself as a kind of Club Med for animals.

The party wasn't really going to get in gear until around 5 o'clock, when, as Euclid Avenue tradition has it, the barbecuing would begin. But by early yesterday afternoon on this Ambler street, the grills already were in position, as were the kegs. A kiddie pool sloshed with youthful exhuberance, and grownups with babies on hip or with plastic cups in hand chatted in the bright sunshine. To come: the party band, water balloons, shared side dishes, the hula-hoop contest, the outdoor movie, and more.

Philly likes to visit here, and not just in the summer. The resort draws three million tourists a year, and 153,000, or 5.1 percent, come from Philadelphia, according to the most recent figures. Stephen LaFond, who runs the Barclay Cottage Bed & Breakfast, says 6 percent of his guests come from the Philadelphia area, many in the off-season. "There's a lot more than the beaches," LaFond says. "They like the quiet. Some like the whale-watching packages in the winter. Some have relatives in the area.

With the school year winding down, the Malvern Prep crew is revving up. Fresh off two wins Saturday at the scholastic national championships, Friars crews have already hit the road and river for two regattas. "All these kids want to do is race," Malvern Prep coach Craig Hoffman said. "They're young and they're very scrappy. " At nationals in Orlando's Turkey Lake Park, last Friday and Saturday, Malvern Prep received championships from the senior quad of Pat Ryan, Justin Teti, Ryan Coye, and captain Craig Wenger; and the junior double of Carl Jablonski and Brendan McGeehin.

Every spring, Luis Rangel leaves his Mexico City home and comes to Chester County to work for $9 an hour cleaning tuxedos for a formal-wear company. When the spring stampede for tuxedos eases in June, Rangel and about 80 other temporary workers will return to Mexico. "I'm here for the money," said Rangel, 29, who works at After Hours by Small's. "I'm going to invest it in my taxi business back home. " Rangel is one of about 42,000 seasonal guest workers from overseas who come to the United States on special work visas to fill low-skill service jobs viewed by many as undesirable.

Mention steam power, and people are likely to conjure images of 19th-century paddleboats or hissing locomotives. But steam-powered air-conditioning? As unusual as it may sound, the two can go hand in hand. And Trigen-Philadelphia Corp., the local subsidiary of White Plains, N.Y.-based Trigen Energy Corp., considers the combination a prime growth area in an increasingly tough energy marketplace. "We see that as a real opportunity," said Herman Schopman, president of Trigen-Philadelphia, which provides steam through its underground network of pipes to about 300 customers and 470 buildings in the city.

Driving a rental car in Europe is a mixed experience. Certainly, for out-of-the way travel, nothing is better. Making a left turn in the British Isles sometimes means nothing is worse. And you haven't experienced the ultimate thrill of driving the Autobahn in Germany or Autostrada in Italy until you have had a speeding Mercedes sail up to your rear bumper, flash its lights, and gently nudge you out of the passing lane, at speeds that tingle. There are other ways to go, trains being one of them, but more American travelers, particularly seniors, are getting acquainted with the slowest movement through inland Europe: river cruises.

There we were, surrounded by mountains considered among the best for skiing in North America. In the middle of summer. So what is there to do in Whistler, British Columbia, in July? Plenty - including, it turns out, skiing. We quickly ran out of time to do all we had wanted in our four-day stay. For starters, it would be easy to spend that long just soaking up the magnificent scenery. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to Whistler from Vancouver International Airport. But the drive, on the Sea to Sky Highway, is just a taste of things to come once you reach your destination.

In recent years, visitors who wanted to tour Independence Hall during peak season often had to stand in line for an hour or more. Starting Monday, they may still have to wait, but they will be able to spend the time doing other sightseeing or having lunch. That's because the National Park Service will begin to issue timed tickets that will guarantee entrance to the nation's birthplace at a specified time. The ticket system will be in effect from April 6 through October, the months of heaviest traffic.

Traffic engineers have words for the sidewalk congestion that comes daily with the buses and commuter trains, the cabs and cars - terms like street furniture and shy zones. So does Edgar Shapiro - terms like awful and murder. "It's awful, trying to get around," said Shapiro, who likes to spend early afternoons strolling the tree-lined walkways of Rittenhouse Square near his home but finds them pretty clogged these days. "I like the warmer weather, but it's murder trying to walk on these sidewalks.

On a sparsely populated country road near Lansdale, tucked inconspicuously among the trees, there is a spa of sorts. Among its amenities, a pool, daily exercise sessions, and about a dozen special activities. The food on the menu is varied and abundant, and for those who require something different, custom-made cuisine is available. Sound like a place you'd like to escape to some day? Sorry, Molly's Run Country Kennels Inc. is strictly for your pet. Molly's, at 2205 Wentz Church Rd., has positioned itself as a kind of Club Med for animals.