"Santa Cruz is Surf City."

That's what Dean Torrance, famous for the hit song "Surf City," told me on a recent visit to Huntington Beach.

OK, what the member of the Jan and Dean band actually said was, "If Santa Cruz invites me back to perform at the Boardwalk, I'll say they're Surf City, and when I get back home to Huntington Beach, I'll deny saying it."

Dean and city officials are celebrating the recent federal ruling allowing Huntington Beach the right to trademark the name "Surf City USA." Santa Cruz may have lost this round of the good-natured feud over which town is the real Surf City, but the publicity has been a win-win. Both Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach officials say the public battle has boosted tourism. It worked for me. My husband Rich and I took a road trip to see what this southern surf city has to offer tourists.

HB, as the locals call it, is part of the OC Orange County, but until recently it was the poor cousin to spots like Newport Beach. I say recently because housing prices have tripled in the last decade. Marketing the surf name may be helping.

Everyone in town is on board with the Surf City theme, from restaurants to shops to hotels. When we checked into the new Hyatt resort/convention center on the PCH Pacific Coast Highway, our key was enclosed in a picture of a 1950s Woody. This luxurious, yet casual, hotel has couches outside next to fireplaces. You know it's warmer in SoCal when you see outdoor living rooms. A stone massage in the Hyatt's Pacific Water Spa eliminated my kinks after the long drive. If you don't want to shell out the big bucks, take a tip from the locals ... a nominal day fee gives you access to the saunas and pool.

Revived, we took a short walk to HB's downtown.

The bad news is that Huntington Beach doesn't have the quirkiness of Santa Cruz; the good news is that it doesn't have the quirkiness of Santa Cruz. There was only one street performer who sang the same line incessantly, "I will survive, I will survive". That was annoying, but it was refreshing not to have anyone bug us for spare change.

"We're the Midwest by the sea," explained Nathalie Kotsch, founder and manager of the Surf Museum, who claims the city only has one homeless person in town. When she proposed a surf museum in the mid-'80s, she says city officials laughed at her. Wondering why she persevered with the project, I asked if she surfed.

"A surfer would never create this museum," she said with a laugh. "They'd have to work too hard." Hidden on a side street, this tiny museum tries hard, but it can't compare to the location of the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum at Steamer Lane.

Walking around downtown you might accidentally step on Wingnut's hands. The star of the movie "Endless Summer II," who lives in Santa Cruz, has a concrete square with his signature and handprints on Main Street. Close by, another famous Santa Cruz denizen, wetsuit inventor Jack O'Neill, has a square on the Surfing Walk of Fame, modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Guess it's not enough to steal our name, now they want to claim our surfing legends, too!

As for shopping, there are two large surf stores, Jack's Surfboards and Huntington Surf and Sport. Boutiques probably can't compete with the huge South Coast Plaza shopping mall in Costa Mesa only 10 minutes away. Rumor has it movie stars hang out in the dive bars downtown, but although I searched high and low purely research, I never saw George Clooney. The closest I came to a celebrity was talking to the charming Dean Torrance.

As luck would have it, Torrance was holding a reception at the Hyatt hotel's art gallery when we visited. While his partner Jan was recovering from his tragic car accident in the '60s, the singer became a graphic designer to make a living. He is using those skills today to create retro-style paintings with colorful beach scenes. Although he was doing a brisk business selling paintings that evening, his art is a hobby,

"I make maybe enough to buy stamps," he quipped.

Torrance became involved in the trademark controversy when a reporter wrote that one of the men famous for the song "Surf City" lived in Surf City. I reminded him of his concert at the Boardwalk when he said, "Sorry Santa Cruz, you're not Surf City," and the crowd booed. He said Santa Cruz has not invited him back since, and he'd love to return and make things right. For the record, his parents honeymooned in Santa Cruz and he thinks the Boardwalk is pretty cool.

When my sister Carrie, a real housewife of the OC, joined us at the party, Torrance suggested we get a picture of "two girls for every boy," a lyric in the "Surf City" song, which was actually written by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

The next day a junior surfing championship was taking place on the beach, which holds a surfing or volleyball event just about every weekend. The waves couldn't compare to the swells in our town, and the scenery lacked mountains and trees. But if you like long walks, Huntington Beach boasts eight miles of sand, said to be the largest stretch of uninterrupted beachfront on the West Coast.

Santa Cruzans know HB is not Surf City USA, but it's a fun getaway. Sometimes you have to leave to appreciate your hometown.

Ruth Carlson is a Santa-Cruz-based travel writer. Contact her at ruth@ruthcarlson.com.

HB Insider Spots

1. Car shows: My brother-in-law Andy wakes up at dawn each Saturday morning to catch an informal car show. It started in a Huntington Beach parking lot but has since outgrown the space and is now held in nearby Newport Beach. 'The rich guys want to show off their expensive cars so they take them out of their garages once a week and drive them along PCH to this event,' says Andy. This unadvertised event is only known through word of mouth and yet lines of vintage and rare cars cause an early-morning traffic jam as they make their way to a strip mall called Crystal Cove Promenade. The two coffee shops do a brisk business serving car fanatics who come from all parts of the OC to see rare Bugattis, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. (Crystal Cove Promenade, 7772-8112 East Coast Highway, Newport Beach, 7-9 a.m. every Saturday.) Muscle car fans should check out HB's Donut Derelicts. Every Saturday at 6:30 a.m., hot rods take over another strip mall parking lot ... this one tucked behind a Chevron station at the corner of Magnolia and Adams in Huntington Beach.

2. Wingnut's tips: Dawn patrol coffee and muffins at Java Junction inside HSS (Huntington Surf and Sport-300 Pacific Coast Highway, (714) 841-4000), breakfast at the Sugar Shack (213 Main St., (714) 536-0355) and best burgers ever at Ruby's Diner at the end of the Pier

3. Happy hour: A real OC Housewife, my sister Carrie, enjoys happy hour on the beach at Duke's, named after the legendary surfer and Hawaiian King Duke Kamehameha, (317 Pacific Coast Highway, (714) 374-6446) and the margaritas at Chimayo on the Beach (315 PCH, (714) 374-7273).

4. Market: A farmers market and art fair takes place most Fridays from noon to dusk on the plaza next to the pier. It's a great place to pick up an organic lunch to eat on the beach.

5. Surfin' Sundays Concert Series. Free live music at the International Surfing Museum, 411 Olive St., 1-3 p.m. Sundays. Contact the museum at (714) 960-3483 for more info.

For more information on any of these activities or places, visit www.surfcityusa.com