Newport Beach!!!! If you head down the Newport peninsula, you'll find the fun zone, Ruby's restaurant on the Balboa pier, great beaches, and a ferry over to Balboa island (shops and restaurants on Marine Avenue.) There is a playground at the elementary school right on the beach with a beautiful view of the ocean near 13th street, and the Stuft Surfer is a tiny burger place with picnic tables on the sand at 15th Street. (Fry's market on 15th also sells little beach toys, etc.) I loved it as a child, and our boys love it now!
We've been to Huntington and Laguna, too, and there are very good things to say about both. But we love Newport - been vacationing there almost annually for almost 30 years!