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Now that spring has sprung and it looks as if an end to the pandemic might be in sight, many Americans are again planning vacations and they're booking beach destinations in a big way, says Trivago.

The online global accommodations platform, based in Dusseldorf, Germany, has seen "clickouts" users clicking on trip deal links to other travel booking sites steadily increase since the start of the year, with 27% month-over-month growth in March, compared to 17% in January. (Increasing clickouts indicate more people are looking to book travel, according to Trivago.)

Source: Trivago

Most of those clicks were for trips to warm weather climes.

The top destinations for March 2021 as tracked by Trivago included Miami Beach and Panama City Beach in Florida; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Cancun, Mexico. Also trending with U.S. travelers were San Juan, Puerto Rico, and other overseas sun-and-fun destinations like Playa Bavaro in the Dominican Republic and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

"With many Americans craving safe, warm weather getaways, beach destinations have been the No. 1 choice for travelers as the country reopens," said Axel Hefer, CEO of Trivago. "In fact, our recent consumer travel survey found that nearly a fourth of U.S. travelers' idea of a 'dream vacation' post-pandemic is being on a tropical island."

More from Personal Finance:Top-rated frequent flyer programs can cut travel costsHere's what post-pandemic travel might look likeHow travelers could benefit from hotel industry struggles

Hefer said a year of lockdowns and new progress in the fight against Covid is behind the surge in travel interest to sunny stretches of seaside sand.

"The pent-up demand, as well as significant progress in recent weeks on the vaccination front, has led Americans to pursue spring break trips to coastal destinations where social distancing is easy, as well as neighboring international cities like Cancun and Playa Bavaro," he said.

In other findings, Trivago said domestic travel represented 79% of clickouts by Americans in February and March, and same-day and next-day travel remained the most popular to book accounting for 14% of total clickouts in March.

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Beaches top dream vacation wish lists for Americans as travel takes off - CNBC

As the weather grows warmer and vaccination rates steadily increase, beaches and other popular attractions throughout California are once again experiencing packed crowds some of the largest theyve seen in over a year.

Over the weekend, thousands of people descended upon tourist hotspots such as the Santa Monica Pier, the Venice Beach Boardwalk and Old Town Pasadena to celebrate spring break and relish in visiting with friends in person. However, local health experts have expressed concerned about the lack of masks worn by the crowds, as well as the sheer number of out-of-towners flooding the streets.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles County public health officials announced plans to move into the orange tier, expanding capacity at indoor venues while allowing businesses including outdoor bars that dont serve food to reopen. Expanded activities were permitted the next day, but many businesses wont officially resume operation until Monday, April 5, said public health director Barbara Ferrer.

California again seems keen on jump-starting its economy, rolling out reopening dates for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Universal Studios Hollywood and Disneyland this month alone; however, Ferrer urged visitors to exercise caution and continue to wear masks as experts eye a potential surge in case rates. More than 30% of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the L.A. Times, but health officials estimate that percentage will need to be as high as 85% for the population to reach herd immunity.

It will be essential that each of us not get sloppy, Ferrer said last week as she reported 26 additional deaths and 386 new cases in Los Angeles County.

Even so, more than 100,000 people visited the Santa Monica Pier over the weekend, reports the Guardian. In response, city leaders announced plans to restrict numbers on the pier Saturday by cutting off access to newly arriving visitors at 7 p.m. three hours before the attraction closes. Theyre also planning to assemble a handful of health ambassadors, who will pass out free masks at the pier and remind people wear face coverings.

MORE: 'I hit the lottery': Here's how 7 SF Bay Area residents got vaccine appointments

Dolores Park filled up with sunbathers on Mar. 31, 2021, when skies over San Francisco were clear and sun-filled.

In San Francisco, 46% of residents over 16 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and as temperatures climbed toward the mid-80s last week, crowds began to congregate across the city from Dolores Park to Ocean Beach.

Meanwhile in Oakland, officials led by City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas have established new policies at Lake Merritt due to reported crowding, traffic, high noise levels and littering.Illegal street vendors were another topic of concern, and though the city is setting up a designated area for them to resume business, many refused to go because they believe the cost to operate there is too high.

Were just trying to survive, a vendor who went by Drea told KPIX. I lost my job a whole year ago and I havent been able to get a job that pays the rent.

Implemented on Friday, those new regulations have led to the deployment of a new park ambassador program as well as an increased police presence, reports Oaklandside, and will be enforced through Labor Day weekend. Oaklands City Council is expected to hold a meeting to discuss the allocation of funding for the measure on April 12.

With many people vaccinated, more activities nowpresent less of a risk, but health officials still recommend proceeding with caution: continue to wear a mask when out in public, and don't travel unless you absolutely have to.

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California's beaches and popular attractions are becoming flooded with crowds again - SF Gate

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) Police have made two arrests related to Saturday nights shooting in Virginia Beach that killed one teenager and sent two others to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Virginia Beach Police have charged 20-year-old Davoll Deshamp James Jr. with murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and two counts of aggravated malicious wounding.

Also arrested in connection to the incident was 19-year-old Jarquavivs Webb. Hes charged with robbery, an attempt to commit a non-capital offense, and conspiracy to commit a felony.

According to police dispatch, the call for the shooting incident came in just after 10 p.m. in the 1600 block of Hiawatha Drive.

When police got to the scene, they say three teenage victims were found with gunshot wounds, one of them was pronounced dead at the scene. The two others, a male and a female, were sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The preliminary investigation led detectives to obtain and serving a search warrant on Hiawatha Drive. Law enforcement says evidence was recovered but did not say what it was.

Great work by responding @VBPD officers from 4th Precinct and follow-up by our Homicide Unit to bring quick closure to yet another tragic occurrence of gun violence in our city. https://t.co/7dIs7mjepo

This is breaking news and will be updated.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP (1-888-562-5887) or submit a tip online.

Get the free WAVY News App, available for download in the App Store and Google Play, to stay up to date with all your local news, weather and sports, live newscasts and other live events.

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Arrests made in Virginia Beach triple shooting that killed one teenager, injured two others - WAVY.com

Some Huntington Beach residents found flyers near their homes Sunday, promoting the Ku Klux Klan.

The discovery comes about a week before white lives matter demonstrations are scheduled to take place across the country, the Orange County Register reported.

One resident spotted the KKK propaganda on the south end of 19th street and notified police about 7 a.m. Sunday morning, Huntington Beach Lt. Julio Mendez told the newspaper.

The flyers featured a drawing of a robed-and-hooded figure standing in front of a burning cross beneath the words white lives do matter, which was shared on social media posts, the paper reported.

Shaun Wallace was walking his dog down 18th street when he came across a neighbor who appeared upset while holding one of the fliers at about 7:30 a.m., the paper reported. The two of them collected at least 14 that were left in the area, then dumped them in the garbage.

It's really disheartening to see openly racist material in our neighborhood, Wallace told the Register. Almost everyone who lives in this area that I've shown this to feels the same way.

However, Wallace also told the newspaper there are people who hold bigoted views in his community, and other Huntington Beach residents he has communicated with online have defended the propaganda, which asserts that some white people are afraid to stand up for their heritage because they are afraid of being called a racist.

He disagrees with them, but is glad that conversations regarding bigotry, diversity and inclusivity are happening in his community.

We should own this as a community, not push this issue away, Wallace told the newspaper.

More:

KKK Flyers Found in Huntington Beach Week Ahead of `White Lives Matter' Events - NBC Southern California

County officials expect a busy weekend on the beach despite cooler temperatures.

I think it will be a busy weekend, but the weather is calling for some really cool temperatures, so I dont know how busy its going to be in the water as opposed to the beach, said county Recreation and Parks Director Lisa Gurganus. I think that there will be more folks coming our way if gas prices dont keep them from traveling.

Lifeguards wont be on duty full-time until May 28, the Friday before Memorial Day, but sandbar patrols begin this weekend. Until Memorial Day weekend, county lifeguards will patrol the beach and sandbars every weekend during varying hours in the early morning and mid to late afternoon.

We dont recommend people go swimming out to the sandbars, but they do (anyway), Gurganus said.

Incoming tides immerse the sandbars under water, often catching swimmers off guard and having to cross deep water to return to shore.

She asks those who go to the beach to be exceedingly careful. Watch out for rough surf and be aware of undertow.

No current advisories had been issued for St. Simons Island or Jekyll Island, but beachgoers should be wary of rip currents, she said.

Currents can be really swift, so even if theyre out in knee-deep water a child could get swept away, Gurganus said.

She also reminds visitors of regular health risks, like dehydration and sunburn.

For your first exposure to the summer sun this season, dont go crazy, Gurganus said, urging sunseekers to apply sunscreen protection.

Lifeguard Paris Wyland reported seeing large numbers of jellyfish on the beach in recent days. Gurganus said the stinging invertebrates are another hazard to keep an eye on.

The county still has openings for lifeguards. Anyone interested in being a lifeguard may apply at glynncounty.org/jobs.

The lifeguard crew was short-handed before, but Gurganus said a recent directive from the Glynn County Commission to assign a new team to monitor Goulds Inlet during the peak summer season has created more openings.

The job is seasonal, offering 40 hours per week between the weekends of Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Were really stressing the need for people to apply. Thats going to be our challenge in the next couple of months, getting people to apply, Gurganus said.

Applications are down this year compared to past years, which she said could be due to any number of factors. Fear of contracting COVID-19 is a possibility.

She said high school and college students are typically their most abundant source of lifeguard candidates. That pool comes and goes as the students take other jobs, have greater scholastic burdens or graduate.

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Busy weekend expected on local beaches | Local News - Brunswick News

The pain wasnt too bad, he said. The whipping sensation felt like a wet towel, and he has experienced worse stings from Bluebottle jellyfish, he said.

Still, he thought it was best to pack up the tent and return to their resort to monitor the lash, which left clearly visible red marks, and make sure it didnt get worse, he said.

As a volunteer lifeguard for many years, he would normally suggest the sting be treated with vinegar, he said. But since there wasnt any available at the resort, they were forced to improvise with another acidic substance: His stood in the bath while his wife poured soda down his back, he said.

The stinging sensation went away almost instantly, he said.

Judit Pungor, who researches octopuses at the University of Oregon, suggested that Mr. Karlson may have coincidentally been struck by one of the many stinging, tentacled, jellyfish that are abundant in Australian waters.

Octopuses, she said in an email, do not have venom in their suckers, and any venom they do have (in their bites, not on their arms) would not be alleviated by pouring something acidic over it.

The animals, which are usually solitary, have been captured on video winding up and punching fish, however. Peter Ulric Tse, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Dartmouth College who studies octopus cognition, said they can express what we would call aggression when they feel threatened or when they feel their territory is under threat, he wrote over email.

My guess is that the octopus here is sending a warning meaning back off, he said after watching Mr. Karlsons video. Octopuses will lunge or shoot an arm out when they feel a fish, another octopus or a human is in their space. I think this is often pre-emptive aggression, meant to signal dont mess with me, rather than aggression seriously meant to harm the invader.

Read more from the original source:

The Angriest Octopus Lashes at a Tourist on an Australian Beach - The New York Times

ROSEMARY BEACH Fla. (WMBB) A certain bunny has been making his rounds around the panhandle to celebrate Easter and made a stop in Rosemary.

Happy Easter, said Sean Couch and his family, who are local residents.

Families from all across the United States celebrated this Easter holiday in Rosemary Beach, with none other than the Easter Bunny.

We took a picture with the Easter Bunny! said Mary Compton and her family, traveling from Birmingham Alabama. Its new for us, its our first year down here.

Rosemary Beach staff tell News 13, each year they celebrate Easter with an egg hunt, but with COVID, they wanted to follow CDC protocol, so they found a different way to celebrate.

We got Easter eggs, said the Compton family.

The Easter Bunny brought To-Go bags with him. Inside there was candy, toys, and of course, Easter eggs.

We are going to the beach, said Camden and his family who are visiting from the Atlanta area.

Many families from out of town tell News 13, they all want to take advantage of the beautiful Florida weather.

Hitting the beach, hitting the pool, getting out, and enjoying the beautiful weather, said Heath Evans from Tulsa Oklahoma. This is our first time in rosemary and its truly amazing.

Just all of the outdoor festivities, just get outside and enjoy this Easter holiday, said Couch.

And from our News 13 family to yours, Happy Easter.

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Easter Bunny makes a stop in Rosemary Beach - WMBB - mypanhandle.com

Rip currents and heavy surf led to over 90 water rescues in Pensacola Beach over the weekend.

93 people. 93 times where, if things had gone differently, a family could be mourning a death. All that in 2 days. Please, please dont become a statistic. People die from this every year. And its usually tourists, and its usually in nice weather. https://t.co/X8Frosctn8 https://t.co/xj51RVYhR9

This is the reason youve seen us talking about this a good bit in the leadup to spring break. Its dangerous, and its a pretty big deal.

While the rip current risk wont be as high this week, the threat is still elevated.

You can check the forecast for the Alabama Gulf Coast and check the daily rip current forecast as well as learn about beach safety on our website. Just click the weather drop-down menu and select Gulf Coast Forecast, or just visit the link here.

Download Live Alert 19 foriOSorAndroid.

Alex PuckettFollow me onTwitterandFacebook

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Over 90 Beach Rescues Over The Weekend - whnt.com

Elementary students returned to classrooms in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday and campuses from Los Angeles to Boston prepared for significant expansions of in-person instruction as a majority of the nations districts have now begun to reopen school buildings, many of which have been closed for more than a year.

On Monday, Burbio, which monitors some 1,200 districts including the largest 200 in the country, reported that 53.1 percent of students were in schools offering daily, in-person classes, and that for the first time, the proportion of students attending school virtually or in hybrid classes had dropped.

The change, Burbio officials said, appeared to be driven by the return in elementary and middle schools to in-person classes, and by the new rules from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention permitting schools to allow three feet of social distance instead of six feet in elementary schools.

But a number of roadblocks to reopening remain. On the West Coast, large urban districts generally have lagged behind their counterparts across the rest of the nation. Surging infections in Southern California after the winter holidays were partly to blame for a slow rebound in the Los Angeles school system.

Part of the slow start can be traced to resistance from teachers, whose unions generally are more powerful in Democratic-led Washington, Oregon and California than in many other states, and who have been wary of returning to what they regard as a hazardous workplace, despite federal guidance that elementary schools in particular are safe when health precautions are followed.

Even some schools where teachers have agreed to return are still experiencing setbacks. Schools in Oakland and San Francisco, for example, are scheduled to reopen next month for elementary and special-needs students. But labor agreements in both of those California cities have allowed substantial numbers of teachers to opt out, leaving some schools without enough teachers to reopen and prompting others to scramble for substitutes.

Public schools in Californias top three districts by enrollment Los Angeles, San Diego and Fresno have said they will begin to allow grade-school students back onto campus later in April, as new coronavirus cases have fallen sharply statewide.

And on Monday, Long Beach the states fourth-largest district, with about 70,000 students began allowing about 14,000 elementary students back into school buildings for about 2 hours each day, five days a week.

The Long Beach school district was able to open earlier than other large California school systems because labor unions there agreed last summer to reopen as soon as health conditions permitted, and because the city was able to start vaccinating teachers earlier than other districts in the state.

Unlike most other cities in Los Angeles County, Long Beach has its own public health department, giving the city its own vaccine supplies and the power to set its own vaccine priorities, at a time when the county as a whole was making teachers wait until after other groups, like residents 65 and older, were vaccinated.

Updated March29, 2021

The latest on how the pandemic is reshaping education.

A city with its own health department has the ability to be more nimble, said Jill Baker, the citys schools superintendent, who called the return to classrooms this week exciting and momentous.

The school district is among the citys largest employers, and two-thirds of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, so vaccinating school employees and reopening classrooms was viewed as economically important, Ms. Baker said.

In-person classes for older students are scheduled to resume April 19, with grades 6 to 8 getting the option to return on April 20 and grades 9 to 11 on April 26. The last day of school will be in mid-June.

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Schools in Long Beach, Calif., Start Reopening This Week - The New York Times