theperfect.mismatch

Today I was lucky enough to have Rae Marie come on down from Chino to scoop me in La Mirada and take me on an awesome driving tour of Orange County. Getting ready this morning for today’s adventure, I got a text on my phone asking if I liked “Soul Food.” I’ve never really had much soul food besides that of what they serve at Popeyes, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Kennedy’s Fried Chicken (The ghetto NY knockoff of KFC) so I sure was in for an adventure. She picked me up around lunch time as we hit the road in search of Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles down in Long Beach.

Long Beach is a really cool city. It looks like it has been recently developed and the main street is pretty fancy with all it trendy restaurants. I was really irritated because on the way there I shot a bunch of pictures and realized that I didn’t have a CF card in my camera about 15 shots down the road (sadface). Luckily Rae Marie was able to find a Walmart and I was able to “Rent” a card. In the end, CF card rental cost me like $0.48 cents! Not too bad.

“Raemarie: I thought it was funny that u were takin a bunch of pix without it tho”

Roscoe’s has awesome fried chicken. Probably the best fried chicken I’ve ever had…ever. It was kind of interesting that they had fried chicken with a combination of waffles. First time I’ve ever had. If you want my recommendation, hittup the chicken and skip on the waffles because the chicken is the jumpoff!

Once lunch was finished, we got gas around the corner and I managed to get my finger stuck in the pump (freakin’ jersey has spoiled me with never having to pump gas ever. Unfortunately that’s supposed to change [sadface]).

From there we hopped onto the Pacific Coast Highway after confirming directions with a friend we were off on a coastal adventure. PCH is one of the most amazing highways to drive on. The rolling hills, amazing coast line, awesome friend to enjoy the ride with what more could anyone ask for? … A Porsche 997TT =) (okay most people would say j/k but I really want one).

Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Balboa Beach, and Laguna Beach were all the beaches I was able to see / drive by. Newport and Balboa were hands down the nicest of the beaches but I think Laguna was the most unique / had the most character. It was pretty ghetto to see oil rigs right off from the beach at Seal & Huntington. But forreal, for anyone who comes out to California, do yourself a favor and start at Long Beach and then just drive south on PCH. Trust me on that one (It’s definitely the fire sauce).

During our adventure, we stopped at Huntington Beach, Newport / Balboa, and Laguna. At Newport Beach we were taking some pictures out on the beach just where the water breaks against the sand. It was soooo funny as I was walking along and we were taking pictures of my footprints in the sand then all of a sudden a huge wave came and started coming after me. Rae Marie found this hilarious and just started shooting and I have this picture of me running away from the water... haha! We walked around for a bit more and then hunted for a bathroom that literally smelled like rotten eggs and shit put together. It was THE nastiest combination of smells put together. It was an unfriendly reminder of the weird smells you’ll encounter in Manhattan. GROSS!! After that nasty smell of ass, we decided to hit the road again in search of Laguna Beach.

Laguna Beach I thought had the most character of all the beaches we saw. It was nothing like the other beaches as they’re the “stereotypical” beach. When you get to Laguna, it’s a beach perched in between two cliffs in the city. Upon the cliffs was a hotel and houses on the other side with the beach between the two. It was so unique how the beach falls between these two cliffs and how everyone flocks to this beach just to chill. It had a really relaxed atmosphere were you’ll see people sitting on the benches, playing chess, volleyball, basketball, sitting on rock’s talking. Definitely a HUGE change of pace of what goes on back home.

Around Laguna Beach, there were these huge pieces of rocks that come out from the beach where people could sit on. Of course I was walking around on them like they were nothing thinking that there was no way that I would bust my ass on these things. Ha… Running up atop one of the rocks I had admired the view of how everything looks. Amazing I’d say. Rae Marie was so kind to snap a few pictures of me on the rocks. On the way out though one kind gentleman had offered to snap a few pictures of both Rae Marie & I so we figured what the heck. The second he busted out the technical phototalk on us I knew he was a photographer. It was pretty cool to have a photographer setup a shoot of both Rae & I as he snapped a bunch of pictures of us sitting on the rocks.

If you read earlier, you’d hear me ramble on about how much of a hotshot I was walking on those rocks. Well guess what, on my way out I busted my ass on the rocks and fell all over the place. The only battlescar I managed to get was only a scratch on my hand. Let me tell you though, hours later the damn thing still hurts like a hell!

Later that day after my fall on the rocks at Laguna Beach (rocks + water = DANGEROUS!) we headed to Irvine to this Boba Café called Tapioca Express. It was CRAZY how many choices they had for all the different types of bubble tea you could get. It was so good man let me tell you. I haven’t had bubble tea in a mad long time! Along with bubble tea we had some spicy crispy chicken.. mmm soo good. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! Soon after we had arrived Rae’s friend May showed up to join us as we sat on the couch and shot the shits for an hour as we waited for traffic to die down.

Unfortunately Tapioca Express was the last stop for our great Orange County adventure. It was time to bring me back to the house as I didn’t want to show up back home too late.

Thank you SO MUCH Rae Marie! I really appreciate everything you did for me that day and taking the time out to show me a great time here. Whenever you’re in NY just give me a call and I’d be down to do some tourist things with you. =)

Plan for tomorrow: Disneyland. Good night everyone.

Still bored or wondering what the California beach scene is like? click bitches