Heeyyyy guys. I got back in last night from an amazing trip to south California. Where do I begin this?
My flight there was awesome, Delta airplanes are great! Every seat had a personal screen where I could watch television, movies and listen to a wide variety of music (it had Death Cab, Fleet Foxes, Lupe Fiasco and a whole lot of other amazing stuff). I got to Orange County right after the khutbah ended which was a bummer, I really really like the Imam at the masjid that I used to go to. I got a rental car and upgraded to a Ford Fusion so I could have a car with built in Bluetooth and better gas mileage. This car was pretty nice actually, it had dual climate control, heated seats and a button that changed the internal mood lighting in the car; it was unnecessary but cool. I couldn't find a USB port anywhere to charge my phone/play my music so that was annoying.
I had planned to have lunch with a group of my friends right after Friday prayer but our plans weren't well-coordinated and nobody could hang out for about an hour. I drove to the masjid and met with a friend I hadn't seen since I moved away. Him and I picked up another friend and we went out for halal wings. That first night was very tiring as I had only gotten 2 1/2 hours of sleep the prior night. We could not decide on a place to eat. I really wanted to go to this pizza place called BJ's because they brew their own root beer (delicious). We drove to one in Huntington Beach but the wait was 45 minutes, we waited 20 and then left; I drove across the road to Bella Terra shopping center but then we couldn't decide on a place to eat there, so then we decided on Ruby's on the pier in Huntington Beach but after I parked, we passed another BJ's restaurant and ended up eating there. I fell asleep around 1-2am that first night, my friends whose house I was staying at stayed up until around 5am.
The second day, I woke up in my friend's house before everybody and made myself breakfast. It was funny because his mom came out and saw me and insisted that I let her make me something and she thought it was funny because I was using some cookware she didn't even know they had. My friend woke up around 11am but looked really tired so I told him to get more sleep and I could just gallivant around until him and his brother were ready to go. I ended up going to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and got a red velvet hot chocolate. I drove to Newport Coast, which is the town I want to live more than any other. I saw some giant mansions and took some pics (I saw Paul Merage's house, he invented Hot Pockets!) That second night was wonderful, we got a small group together and had a bonfire on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. After that we all went out and played pool until about 2:00am.
The third day I had planned to have a beach day in Malibu. I woke up around 7:00am and was out the door by 8:00am. My friends were still asleep so I made my way to L.A. I stopped by University of Southern California and had breakfast with a friend I had not seen in two years. After that, I drove to and around Malibu for a while. I stopped at the Malibu Country Mart and shopped around a little bit. I headed back to USC to meet with another friend for a few hours. This friend was like my little brother (at least everybody seemed to think so). I then headed to Irvine to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with the friends that I was staying with and some other people. We then drove to get frozen yogurt after that. It was around midnight and we were bored so we met another friend who suggested we go to a really high-end karaoke place in Irvine. Only in Orange County would you find a place like this, it had private rooms for your friends and soundproof doors/walls. This place was a blast! We sang and danced our hearts out until 2:00am, when the place closed. What really sucked was that I left my rental car keys at that place and nobody noticed.
I realized my mistake later that night but it was too late. I looked up the phone number and left a message for the karaoke lounge but it didn't open until 7:00pm the next day, my flight was at 1:00pm that day. After calling the airline, calling priceline and calling the rental car place, nothing could be done to catch a later flight or get a spare set of car keys. I ended up having to buy a second ticket and leave a day later than scheduled. I made the most of that whole day though. One of my friends picked me up and we went to the beach together, where we met up with another friend. We walked around in the water for a while but sat on the beach and talked about life, primarily marriage. Apparently one of them had this crazy awkward rishta thing going on and she was telling me all about how weird the dude was. After we left, another friend took me back to the karaoke place right before they opened and to my extreme delight, they had found my rental car keys.
That reeealllly took a load of stress off and we all made a plan to go bowling that last night. So many different friends that didn't know each other all came out so we could all go bowling. It was my team (The Harry Potters/Team Gryffindor/Bad Girls Club) versus the other guys, I forget their team name. Well, we ended up getting beat but it was a narrow margin. We played until around 11:00pm and then all went out for food and ended up sitting in my car at The Block in Orange. We talked for about an hour and I was thinking "You know what? It's my last night here, let me show my friends something they might not normally see". I ended up driving us all really far from where we were to Newport Coast so that my friends could see the huge mansions and check out a view of the city lights that they might have never seen before. We drove around there for a while and then I took them to Laguna Beach where we ended up at a spot called Top of the World. This spot has an amazing view of the ocean and city lights but it's in a quiet canyon area. I was a little worried about getting caught there at night but my friend proceeded to take pictures with the flash on his camera. As we were leaving, a cop showed up but we left and were not bothered by him. We drove back to their town and said our goodbyes. I left Monday afternoon but not without thanking my friends and their family for such a fun few days and letting them know that I would be back sooner rather than later.
Being back in Orange County made me really think about how much I feel at home there, even though I only lived there for two years. The culture and the vibe there is really made for me. Sure, there is a lot about Southern California that I cannot stand but for the most part, I love it out there. I cannot wait until my next visit.
My flight there was awesome, Delta airplanes are great! Every seat had a personal screen where I could watch television, movies and listen to a wide variety of music (it had Death Cab, Fleet Foxes, Lupe Fiasco and a whole lot of other amazing stuff). I got to Orange County right after the khutbah ended which was a bummer, I really really like the Imam at the masjid that I used to go to. I got a rental car and upgraded to a Ford Fusion so I could have a car with built in Bluetooth and better gas mileage. This car was pretty nice actually, it had dual climate control, heated seats and a button that changed the internal mood lighting in the car; it was unnecessary but cool. I couldn't find a USB port anywhere to charge my phone/play my music so that was annoying.
I had planned to have lunch with a group of my friends right after Friday prayer but our plans weren't well-coordinated and nobody could hang out for about an hour. I drove to the masjid and met with a friend I hadn't seen since I moved away. Him and I picked up another friend and we went out for halal wings. That first night was very tiring as I had only gotten 2 1/2 hours of sleep the prior night. We could not decide on a place to eat. I really wanted to go to this pizza place called BJ's because they brew their own root beer (delicious). We drove to one in Huntington Beach but the wait was 45 minutes, we waited 20 and then left; I drove across the road to Bella Terra shopping center but then we couldn't decide on a place to eat there, so then we decided on Ruby's on the pier in Huntington Beach but after I parked, we passed another BJ's restaurant and ended up eating there. I fell asleep around 1-2am that first night, my friends whose house I was staying at stayed up until around 5am.
The second day, I woke up in my friend's house before everybody and made myself breakfast. It was funny because his mom came out and saw me and insisted that I let her make me something and she thought it was funny because I was using some cookware she didn't even know they had. My friend woke up around 11am but looked really tired so I told him to get more sleep and I could just gallivant around until him and his brother were ready to go. I ended up going to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and got a red velvet hot chocolate. I drove to Newport Coast, which is the town I want to live more than any other. I saw some giant mansions and took some pics (I saw Paul Merage's house, he invented Hot Pockets!) That second night was wonderful, we got a small group together and had a bonfire on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach. After that we all went out and played pool until about 2:00am.
The third day I had planned to have a beach day in Malibu. I woke up around 7:00am and was out the door by 8:00am. My friends were still asleep so I made my way to L.A. I stopped by University of Southern California and had breakfast with a friend I had not seen in two years. After that, I drove to and around Malibu for a while. I stopped at the Malibu Country Mart and shopped around a little bit. I headed back to USC to meet with another friend for a few hours. This friend was like my little brother (at least everybody seemed to think so). I then headed to Irvine to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with the friends that I was staying with and some other people. We then drove to get frozen yogurt after that. It was around midnight and we were bored so we met another friend who suggested we go to a really high-end karaoke place in Irvine. Only in Orange County would you find a place like this, it had private rooms for your friends and soundproof doors/walls. This place was a blast! We sang and danced our hearts out until 2:00am, when the place closed. What really sucked was that I left my rental car keys at that place and nobody noticed.
I realized my mistake later that night but it was too late. I looked up the phone number and left a message for the karaoke lounge but it didn't open until 7:00pm the next day, my flight was at 1:00pm that day. After calling the airline, calling priceline and calling the rental car place, nothing could be done to catch a later flight or get a spare set of car keys. I ended up having to buy a second ticket and leave a day later than scheduled. I made the most of that whole day though. One of my friends picked me up and we went to the beach together, where we met up with another friend. We walked around in the water for a while but sat on the beach and talked about life, primarily marriage. Apparently one of them had this crazy awkward rishta thing going on and she was telling me all about how weird the dude was. After we left, another friend took me back to the karaoke place right before they opened and to my extreme delight, they had found my rental car keys.
That reeealllly took a load of stress off and we all made a plan to go bowling that last night. So many different friends that didn't know each other all came out so we could all go bowling. It was my team (The Harry Potters/Team Gryffindor/Bad Girls Club) versus the other guys, I forget their team name. Well, we ended up getting beat but it was a narrow margin. We played until around 11:00pm and then all went out for food and ended up sitting in my car at The Block in Orange. We talked for about an hour and I was thinking "You know what? It's my last night here, let me show my friends something they might not normally see". I ended up driving us all really far from where we were to Newport Coast so that my friends could see the huge mansions and check out a view of the city lights that they might have never seen before. We drove around there for a while and then I took them to Laguna Beach where we ended up at a spot called Top of the World. This spot has an amazing view of the ocean and city lights but it's in a quiet canyon area. I was a little worried about getting caught there at night but my friend proceeded to take pictures with the flash on his camera. As we were leaving, a cop showed up but we left and were not bothered by him. We drove back to their town and said our goodbyes. I left Monday afternoon but not without thanking my friends and their family for such a fun few days and letting them know that I would be back sooner rather than later.
Being back in Orange County made me really think about how much I feel at home there, even though I only lived there for two years. The culture and the vibe there is really made for me. Sure, there is a lot about Southern California that I cannot stand but for the most part, I love it out there. I cannot wait until my next visit.
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