Back in Orange County

On Sunday 7th August we returned to Irvine after our 6 weeks of exciting travels. It was great flying into John Wayne (the Orange County regional airport) as it was only a 10 minute or so Uber ride from there to our new apartment.

The apartment is great. I managed to find a fully furnished one-bedroom sublease which fit the dates perfectly for our remaining 6 weeks in California. The apartment itself is pretty teeny tiny, but perfectly adequate for our needs, especially for such a short time. There is a communal BBQ and outdoor tables and chairs in a grassed area very close to our apartment which we have been making good use of. However, the best thing about the new place is the pool. It is awesome, about three times the size of the one at our previous place. I'm going to miss being able to swim whenever I want when we leave Irvine. The pool complex is open until 10pm each night, and evenings are so warm that swimming is possible no matter what the hour. There is also a lovely big outdoor hot-tub in the complex that fits about a dozen people, although mostly Will and I have it to ourselves...   

A couple of weeks after we moved in, the apartment company held a free pool party for residents one Saturday afternoon. Lunch was classic American fare of burgers, hot dogs, chips and beer! A free lunch is a free lunch though, so we weren't complaining, especially since they didn't seem to mind us getting refills on the beers! I seem to remember dinner that night being a bowl of cereal each... 

The new place is a bit further away from the university for Will. About a 30 minute walk door-to-door, although more often he has been cycling which takes less than 15 minutes. A lot of the commute is on off-road trails like above which is really nice.

I've enjoyed reacquainting myself with William R. Mason Park. Pelicans have appeared on the lake in the time we've been away. The leaves on the trees are also starting to change colour and drop as Fall approaches.

Mason Park is also a nice place to play Pokemon Go when I'm out walking. It has numerous Pokestops (places where you stock up on supplies like balls and potions, for the benefit of any non-players reading this!) as well as two gyms. It also happens to have a Pikachu nest. I think on one outing I caught 12 or 13 in a couple of hours!

On one Friday night Mason Park held its final free 'Movies in the Park' evening of the summer with a screening of 'Zootopia'. We enjoyed the movie and had a lovely evening. There is something special about watching movies under the stars. We've seen several of these 'pop-up' inflatable movie screens since we've been here. I guess it helps that it doesn't really rain here at this time of the year, so you can count on warm balmy evenings in which to hold your events.

I've also enjoyed exploring our new local area. The new apartment is walking/biking distance to Bommer Canyon which is a nice place to go for a walk. We also live across the road from a huge church complex, Mariner's Church. This place is pretty insane. According to the wikipedia page it currently averages around 14 000 attendees per week, making it the 25th largest church in the United States! I'm not overly interested in it as a church, I just see it as another nice place to go walking. It has beautifully manicured grounds with ponds and waterfalls galore. It also has a big cafe and book/gift shop, and a thrift store that I made good use of when we moved into the new apartment. Our place is furnished, but the kitchen-wares were pretty basic, especially for somebody that loves to cook! I managed to get a whole swag of stuff, including more dinner and side plates, bowls, wine glasses, a toaster, tea-towels, some utensils and a picnic rug for our outdoor movie night, all for the grand price of $12! When we leave in a few weeks time I'll simply donate it all back to the charity store!

The church also hosts a brilliant Farmer's Market every Saturday morning. This has been very useful for stocking up on amazing fresh produce. There is a really good Asian stall where I can get dirt-cheap red Thai chillies (most supermarkets here only stock Mexican varieties) as well as fresh herbs like lemongrass and Thai basil that is harder to get hold of in the supermarket. Check out the heirloom tomatoes below!

When we arrived back there was a real buzz around UCI as the LA Rams NFL team were holding their summer 3-week training camp on the campus. During this time there were numerous open practices which were free to attend. There was also a buzz around quarterback Jared Goff who was the number one pick in the 2016 draft. It's not bad to be earning 5 million USD your first year out of university! 

Will wanted some pictures of the cheerleaders, but had to settle for Rampage the mascot.. I hope there is a cooling system inside that costume as it was a typical Southern Californian scorcher of a day!

Here's another of the Ram's superstars, running back Todd Gurley who was the 2015 NFL offensive rookie of the year.

The team lived at UCI during the camp. Every now and then I would see them hooning around the campus on golf carts on their way to team meetings. The infographic below is interesting. I can't believe they laid a whole new turf just for the summer camp! The money involved in professional football over here is just scary. 

There is a video which shows off a bit of the campus here. Another video here has footage from the opening day of the training camp. I attended on a couple of occasions during the second week and it was nowhere near as busy. Here's a few more pics from the practice sessions.

UCI was a busy place over the summer break, they also held the New Swan Shakespeare festival. This is an annual event with the cutest little open-air pop-up theatre which they reassemble each year, right next to Aldrich Park in the centre of the campus.

Will and I went to see Hamlet with Mark and Mary who we had caught up with when we visited LA. They had travelled down from LA for the show as they are good friends with the director. We went out for a meal beforehand at a very hip and trendy restaurant in Costa Mesa (Will felt a bit under-dressed because he wasn't wearing a beard...). I really enjoyed Hamlet, it was actually the first time I had ever seen Shakespeare performed live, which is pretty embarrassing really, considering I'm now 39 years old and consider myself reasonably cultured!

With only a short time left in California, we've been trying to make the most of the beaches before we leave. Usually Newport is our beach of choice, but one weekend we decided to go slightly south to Corona del Mar for a change. It was obviously a popular choice that day!

A short walk away was Little Corona beach which was more rugged, but far less populated.

Will has been working really hard this whole trip. As well as his work at UCI, he is also still over-seeing some of the students he supervises back in NZ, and also has regular Skype calls with colleagues in both NZ and Australia.  It might be the weekend, at the beach, but when there are deadlines to be met, the work still has to get done...

I've been walking loads lately. Once a week or so I'll walk to Newport beach which takes a leisurely hour and three quarters, catching some Pokemon as I go. The following was from one of those beach days. 47, 338 remains my record number of steps in a day, it'll take some beating!

I'm certainly going to miss this place when we leave...

On these beach days Will will sometimes take an Uber/Lyft to meet me there after work, we'll hang out for a few hours, maybe grabbing some dinner, before catching another ride home. It's only about $7 for a ride from the beach to home which is excellent value. This means I get to share some lovely sunsets with Will. The golden light in the hour or so before the sun sets is glorious.

The sunsets themselves are also impressive!

There is some seriously impressive property along the Newport Beach/Balboa Peninsula boardwalk. Unfortunately the going rate is about $10 million! Oh well, it doesn't hurt to dream...

The two remaining things on the 'to-do' list while still in California are to visit Disneyland, and visit San Diego, both of which will be covered in the next couple of posts.