What I Loved || California Edition

This is part of the “What I Loved” series where I jot down some of the best things about the many places I’ve gotten to experience first-hand, as a Touristy Semi-Local. (Is that a thing? Well if it is, I would be it!) More to come!

I actually lived in California for a significant amount of time. We moved up, down and around the state for several years. So many good memories there, such as:

–You could buy an entire bag of beautiful, soft, buttery avocados for $10. Pick your jaw up off the floor. I had no idea how privileged I was to have those bags of edible gold. Fresh avocado and guacamole will never measure up ever again.

–The cruisin’. We had a Trans Am (Traaaaaaans AM!) and there was nothing more incredible than taking the T-tops off and cruisin’ the Pacific Highway, watching for dolphins and Lambos.

–The laundromat. Yep you read that right. I went to a laundromat down in the ghetto of El Cajon at least once a week. It was the best place ever. The sweet Vietnamese family that ran the establishment were SO nice to me. I had just had my first baby and it was a little bit of a circus act getting my laundry out of the pickup without upsetting my rather up-settable baby.

They would aways help me by bringing out a laundry cart, carrying my soap, even closing the truck door for me. Then, a lot of the time, the wife would “tsk tsk” and start my laundry for me while I dealt with my upset baby. The husband would give me bottled water and add credits to my card for free washings. They were so kind to the fragile, frazzled, new mom that I was and they didn’t expect a thing from it! I have always aspired to cultivate those kinds of traits in my day-to-day life after experiencing their genuine care and concern.

It was also the place that I was barraged by Spanish. I would just smile and respond the best I could with the little I knew, then go home and study. It was nice to be included in the culture there even though I wasn’t a part of it at all.

I also learned that I had real mother bear instincts at this laundromat. It is actually a very humorous story. I had my back turned, with my baby in her car seat, just off to my left side, so that I could see her out of my peripheral vision.

I saw someone start reaching for my baby. I spun around, fists a-flyin’ and landed a solid one on Mike Honcho! He had seen my pickup on his way past and decided to surprise us with lunch at the neighboring pizza place. Needless to say, he doesn’t surprise me anymore.

–The border patrol. These guys are on their game! We had so many interesting experiences with the border patrol as we used to live just a few miles from the border and went through border checks on a regular basis.

There was the time someone must have fallen asleep on the job and the spike strips flew up, ravaging a poor little old lady’s tires…but she didn’t notice! She drove to the top of the grade before they were able to flag her down. I hope they gave her some new tires and wheels after that!

Then there was the time the FBI took down a border patrol agent. It was insanely efficient. They rolled up in their black suburbans. They jumped out in their black suits and black sunglasses. A border patrol German Shepherd leapt up in defense as the dark wave descended toward him and I kid you not, an agent face-blocked the dog with his hand, leaving the dog cowering in his wake. They converged around a border patrol agent, and then all involved swept back into the black suburbans. Then they were gone. It was an eerie 30-second black ballet.

Mike Honcho and I also got stopped by a border patrol agent that materialized out of nowhere. I hadn’t seen the border fence at that point, so we drove down to Campo, California and parked in a dusty little pull-out. We weren’t even close to the fence, but all of a sudden a white and green Tahoe pulled in behind us. The agent immediately dismissed my burly, red-headed viking of a man Mike Honcho as a non-issue and turned his full attention to me. (Remember how people would strike up conversations in Spanish with me at the laundromat?) The officer questioned me, respectfully of course, as Mike Honcho had returned the favor of putting his full attention on the agent. I was asked where I was from, what I was doing there and if I knew who Mike Honcho was. At the time our pickup had Wyoming plates on it so I think I said some kind of flippant “I’m from Wyoming, USA!” He firmly told us to move along. We did.

-The pig barn. We rented a house in a town that had grown way too big, much too fast and was all around an awful town to navigate. The house we rented was still out in the country, but on a main road to get in and out of town. It was a strange setting where we had these beautiful views, but traffic like we lived on Main Street. But as the heading states, the traffic is not the point of this story.

No, on one side of our house was a dairy. Ohhhhhhh the smell of a dairy on a warm, moist morning. Not one of the high points of the place. Across the street was a horse boarding facility where I boarded my nutcase Arabian horse for a while, and then next door to them…was The Pig Barn. Now here are where things get interesting. Have you ever heard the sound of hungry pigs? Breeding pigs? Happy pigs? Sad pigs? Sleepy pigs? It is horrendous. It sounds like some strange kind of alien life is dying a slow, tortuous death. Now I understand why our landlord was so insistent on the very specific times she was willing to show us the house.

-Horses. California was a horse Mecca. I had the dream there. I had a beautiful four horse slant with a tack room, a gorgeous King Ranch with which to pull my trailer and one of the most perfectly built horses in the world. He was soooooo lovely. I had a great time boarding my little herd at all different kinds of facilities. I made some lifelong friends in the horse world there. Most of the San Diego/Los Angeles area was extremely horse friendly so there was always plenty going on. It is a time I look back on very fondly.

Look at those gorgeous boys frolicking in the golden California sunshine

-So much glamour. California equals money. Money, money, money! Cars, houses, stores, parties…everything. Obviously, not everywhere is glamorous but it sure is fun to drive around the ritzy parts and let your imagination run wild!

-The best four wheeling.

Whether it was taking the four wheelers to the sand dunes or going for mountain rides along the access roads for the power lines, the space and opportunity to go explore was an incredible and surprising positive to living in California.

Some other high points of the Southern California area that we enjoyed immensely:

Poppy season in the high desert, specifically at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. The colors and the depth with which the poppies blanket the ground is a sight to behold.
The San Diego Zoo and the resident pandas there. The good news is that this zoo has a fantastic trolley that you can ride around and see the sights. Why do I bother mentioning the trolley? The zoo is built on some very hilly terrain and there are some significantly steep hikes to get to different sections of the zoo.
Seaworld, obviously. We were so lucky to get to visit both the zoo and Seaworld many times. Every time was an entirely new experience!
Coronado. Gorgeous beaches set with the iconic hotel as a backdrop. If you’re any kind of Anchorman fan, you will also get significant enjoyment from just being able to drive across the Coronado Bridge. Click here for the quickly escalating Coronado Bridge scene with Ron Burgundy himself.
La Jolla affords wonderful shopping, excellent dining and a very California experience, that is similar but on a different level to visiting Balboa Village, which is also a must visit, with the mini amusement park onsite. In the same vein, Balboa Park is a place where you can spend an entire day.
So many dedicated outdoor spaces and trail systems that were horse friendly AND great for hiking. We loved going on day rides around the different cities we lived in. The terrain was always moderately challenging with beautiful overlooks.