SoCal 2023
On my birthday, usually I am far away somewhere taking myself on an adventure. This year, I happened to be at my parent’s house in Norcal. As much as I wanted to spend my birthday somewhere cool, I felt like I should chill out this year and maybe just do something within California. Luckily, I was able to borrow my mom’s spare car and I took it all the way to Socal.
I was only planning on spending a week and a half on the couch at my friends new place. Somehow I ended up staying for a month. Honestly, wouldn’t have minded staying longer but I actually have some business to take care of back north. I mostly caught up with friends, since I used to live in California whenever I visit I never go to Socal. I always just go back to Norcal because I have a free place to stay and my sewing studio to create. Also, when I visit Socal I don’t usually have a car and that is a place you definitely want to have a car. It gets quite boring relying on people to pick me up all the time and Uber is expensive. Now that I had a car this time, I took myself on some fun adventures.
I used to talk a lot of shit about California, because I grew up there, but it’s actually quite beautiful. I can see why people dream of living there and why many people move there. The people still suck, but people suck everywhere.
Every time I’ve come to Socal, all I do is party LOL. I have never really explored that much, even when I went out with friends they’re all local so they just take me to wherever they’re going. Since I had a car, I explored a lot more, the way I like to.
I never realized how large the mountains are down there, and also how many mountains there are! I was stunned by the beauty and nature. I seriously never noticed it all the time I’ve visited. My trip actually began by me taking myself to see the wildflower superbloom in Carrizo Plains, yes I spent my whole birthday driving 4.5 hours. Then I decided to revisit Pismo Beach, really wanted to drive the ATVs but wanted to save money and also didn’t have any friends with me LOL. From there, I drove through Los Padres Forest and was stunned by the beautiful drive. I always thought of Socal as dirty city life and smaller than SF so I was shocked to drive through such beautiful terrain. I spent my birthday night at a Korean spa, slept there, and then hung out with a friend the next day. I mostly went to beaches and also did some waterfall hikes.
Some highlights of my trip:
well this actually sucked, but I totally closed the trunk on my keys. Had to pay a locksmith $100 and just before he came my friend and I figured out a way to get the trunk open from underneath the car (works only for certain cars and is certainly not easy) but some very nice helpful guy was trying to help and doubted our discovery so he tried to help but ended up using a coathanger and damaging the weathering in the driver side door which was frustrating because we damaged the car AND had to pay a locksmith AND I feel like the other method would’ve worked but no one trusted it LOL.
I went for an amazing hike to a waterfall and met a couple of people there. The first guy was definitely a hippie, I know my kind when I see LOL. We chatted a bit and he was really cool. He ended up offering me some fun chocolate and it made for a great trip to the waterfall. Along my way back, I made another friend and he told me I could actually get on top of the waterfall. I kept in touch with both of them, and ended up coming back to do the hike again with the second guy. He took me to the top of the waterfall and it was awesome!
My friend and I took a day trip to the beach and then went to Irvine Spectrum to watch the new Guardians movie. We had such a fun time!
I took my friend on an adventure to the top of another waterfall, 1.5hr away. I did the hike on my own and felt so alive, like I was adventuring in my car again. I had to drive through a cloud to get there, and I was so convinced there wouldn’t be any sun and I wouldn’t be able to see anything because of the clouds. But magically, there was a patch of sun just only where the waterfall was. Convenient, right? I go again with my friend and we take some awesome videos and have a great time traversing further down the waterfall. It felt so good to be in nature, bathe in waterfalls, and go adventuring again.
The house I was staying at adopted two new kitties, and they stole my heart :)
That about wraps up my recent birthday trip where I spent longer than expected, but made new friends and caught up with people I don’t see often. I must say I probably mostly partied the most, but I did go to the beach and relax quite a lot. It was so fun driving up and down the coast beach hopping.
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