There ain't nothin' like fatherhood.

On Sunday, dads across North County, the fathers who relish the role of papahood, are planning to mark Father's Day by maybe stuffing themselves at big brunches, tossing a baseball with kids who are just learning the sport or just hanging out with family.

OK, and maybe get in some marathon TV watching: The final round of the U.S. Open and the NBA finals will be on.

Dads are supposed to be the family protector, the jokester, the one who sweats over the grill with fat slabs of steak.

And lots of them just like being a dad.

"My favorite part is just being married and having kids," said Gary Taylor, 43, of Santa Ysabel, as he watched his daughter play at an Escondido McDonald's last week.

What makes him happiest as a dad are the little things, from pushing his 4-year-old daughter, Autumncloud, on a swing to playing catch with son, Nighteagle, 11.

"And listening to them tell jokes -- jokes they think are funny," Taylor said with a sly smile.

His wife, Kimberly, 43, was quick to sing praises of a man she said "takes care of me, the kids, the house."

"My husband is a saint. The perfect man," she said. "No matter what's going on at school, he's there. He takes off time from work" to attend events at the children's school.

Among his roles: driving the kids from their home on the reservation in Santa Ysabel to school in central Escondido, about a 35-mile trek, one way.

Kent Landa of Escondido made a long drive himself this week, up to Palm Springs to pick up daughter Rebecca, 13, from her mother's home.

They and his three younger children -- ages 2, 4 and 6 -- will spend Father's Day at the San Diego County Fair.

"I think just having little people that love you" makes it great to be a father, Landa said. "Taking them out, making new experiences for them, showing them things your parents showed you. That's what does it for me."

In Carlsbad, under skies gray with marine layer, Ethan Alesna, 3, hurried to keep up with his dad, Jason Welch, as they left the beach.

Welch takes the little guy, who lives with his mother in Orange County, to the shore whenever the child visits.

Watching his daredevil son ride a scooter in the driveway of his Carlsbad home, Welch smiled.

"It's cool seeing a little you," he said.

None of Welch's three kids lives with him, which he said can be tough.

"If feels like you can never talk to them enough," he said.

Up the coast in Oceanside, with high tide lapping near the rocks along Wisconsin Street Beach, dad Gabriel Clyde, 23, cuddled 14-month-old Caleb as the little one pointed at the water.

"We just love each other a lot," Clyde said. "My whole life, I wanted to be a dad -- and he is Daddy's baby."

Clyde, from Ohio, travels the country with a gospel singing group and is usually gone weeks at a time. It was a treat to bring his wife and child to California.

As they enjoyed the coastline, a man and a little boy rode past on a bicycle built for two.

But sometimes kids don't have a dad or male mentor in their lives.

Enter people such as Glenn Zajic of Fallbrook. He doesn't have children, but for the last two years, he has volunteered to spend 90 minutes each week with a group of at-risk kids between the ages of 9 and 14 as part of the Guide, Nurture and Support program, an offshoot of the Fallbrook Citizens Crime-Prevention Committee.

Zajic and other mentors play games with the kids, go on field trips and do crafts. In one recent session, Zajic taught the kids to build kites -- from scratch.

It took three weeks. And after each session, when the youths were gone, Zajic would make any repairs needed on the kites without the kids knowing.

It was important to him that each kid succeed, that each got their kite off the ground.

"To have that male figure active in their life routinely, that is something that they all need," Zajic said Friday. "And I just try to fill that gap for them."

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.