4th August - Orange County

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Today was quite a productive day, had a number of experiences. Started the day looking for a rental car, initially wasn't planning on anything special but the only car available at Budget Hollywood was a Ford Mustang. For $100 day and a few dollars extra for GPS it wasn't too bad and was worth the money as I had good fun driving it today. Its a massive coupe and had extremely poor vision from drivers position but hell did it sound sexy as the v8 kicked into life and roared.

First stop today was to be Long Beach which was south of LA and gave a first hand experience of the extensive freeway system. A little daunting at first especially driving on 'other' side of the road but roads became quite intuitive after a little while but we would have had no chance without the GPS unit. I was in awe at the whole thing and is something I'll never forget. An added bonus is that the speed limit is a guideline, you go as fast as everyone else. I gave up on the 65 mile speed limit when I was constantly being overtaken so I simply just sped up to keep up with everyone else! Arrived safely at Long Beach and walked around the marina which had so many moored private boats which I simply explained as too many rich people! There were boats for as far as the eye could see, all you could see were masts dotting the horizon. Shoreline Marina was a nice area for restaurants and cafes by the water. Long Beach itself is just a vast expanse of sand bordered by expensive property on one side and the water on the other.

It was then time for brunch so we headed inland to Westminster which is home to a very large Vietnamese population. We knew we were in the right area as all the strip malls contained Vietnamese businesses. Walked around a little bit around intersection of Westminster Ave and Brookhurst and decided on having Pho at a busy place with a 50% discount on beef Pho. It was pretty good fare and was a bargain meal as 2 bowls of special beef Pho and 2 Vietnamese iced coffee cost a grand total of $14! We then ventured into a massive Vietnamese grocery store which was awesome - for Asians it would be the 1 stop weekly shopping haunt.

Another awesome joint we found was Lee's Sandwichs which is like a Maccas but sells Vietnamese bread rolls. Much further along than any of our bread roll shops in Sydney. You can get a breadroll, drink and dessert all at once and sit down like you would in Maccas and eat. There is also another branch that even does drive thru!

Next stop was Huntington Beach and I was not prepared for the scene that awaited us. It was full of people and I found out later that US Open Surfing championship was currently in full swing. The large expanse of sand to either side of the pier was packed full of bathers and sunbathers. Stages and carnival style tents had been setup for the surfing championship which was in full swing on one side of the pier. The pier itself was also packed and there were heaps of amateur fishermen catching fish that would not be deemed of legal size back home in Australia. There did not appear to be any such regulations here that we could visually see.

Huntington is a pretty cool area with heaps of eateries and bars. Normally would be less crowded and more relaxed with the surfing carnival but for us it was good experience.

Next stop along the Pacific Coast Highway was Orange County's Newport Beach, made famous on the tv show The O.C. It was a much more relaxed atmosphere at Newport and they also had a pier with plenty of fisherman. I came to the conclusion that there was plenty of money in the area due to the number of seaside housing and sheer number of expensive boats moored on the other side at Balboa pier.

We then had a few hrs to kill before dinner so my local friend from the OC suggested I do some shopping at South Coast Plaza in Costa Meca. It is an impressive shopping centre and I didn't get near checking out the whole place. Had the big name chains - Macy's, Nordstrom and all the boutique expensive brand names. Bought a couple of cheap shirts as I don't to be lugging around too much luggage at this stage.

It was then time to head back to Garden Grove for dinner at a place called The Boiling Crab. My childhood friend Mimi who has now lived in Orange County for the past 14 years picked it to give me a chance to try a local institute. Judging from the queue it must be pretty good - The average wait time is 90 minutes for mid week dinner as they don't take bookings. Basically its seafood ala Lousiana style with Cajun spices. Crawfish and shrimp (prawns) boiled in a spicy broth with corn and garlic thrown in for good measure. They bring out the food in bags and you eat with your fingers licking the spices off your fingers and generally making a mess. Indeed it was an experience and I was glad Mimi chose it because it was definitely something we couldn't get back home.

After dinner, our kind hosts took us to a classy drinking lounge in Costa Meca which was nice. We only had a few each whilst having good conversations about differences in Australia compared with the States. I drove home making the most of less traffic and the grunt (plus noise) of the Mustang.

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