Bakersfield!

So this might be a little strange, but Matt and I decided to take a mini vacay in Bakersfield. Well for all of you who know what kind of town Bakersfield is....let's just say that it's not exactly san diego. or santa barbara. or san francisco. Realistically, I don't know if anyone has ever uttered the words "Vacation in Bakersfield." Bakersfield is the area of California that no one realistically wants to consider California. It's known for it's oil drilling (like in that movie There will be blood). It's kind of like California's own little redneck nation. But we went for a good reason....to visit our friend Alice. And it's also exactly halfway between San Diego and San Francisco, so it was the perfect meeting place.

My friend Alice is dating Laszlo, who drove up with Matt to Bakersfield. We have been friends with them a really long time, and it just seemed like a good idea to meet up in Bakersfield. Overall, I had a great time. Good friends, good food. Well, Laszlo has never been to Chick-Fil-A (I know right. Talk about dying and going to fried chicken heaven when you hear that). Actually this is Saturday. I need to back up a little bit...bear with me.

Pretty almond trees during my drive

So actually I drove down to Los Angeles on Friday to see my dad and visit my friend Andrew. (Yes I did pass Bakersfield on my way to LA, but hey...the extra hundred miles or so was worth it). Anyways, I got into LA around 4, and met my daddy-o at his favorite cafe. Of course, I had already eaten lunch, but that didn't stop him from ordering more food for me (and none for himself, since he had already eaten lunch too...ironic?). It's been a couple months since I've seen the old guy, so it was nice to catch up and just hang out with him. It's also weird eating at anywhere other than his restaurant (but he had the day off). Anyways, even though I was full, I had a bomb rotisserie chicken, so thanks Dad! He kept trying to bribe me to bring Matt and Andrew over for some homecooked steak, but I had to say no. LA traffic....psh. Not worth braving that....even for really great steak. Anyways, I left to meet my friend Andrew at his apartment. Andrew's studying to be a doctor at USC (I know right!?) and we have been friends since 8th grade...which is honestly a HUGE GINORMOUS deal for me (because we moved around a lot as a kid). Sorry...can you say most ADD post in the entire world? Anyways, I met Andrew at his house, and he was kind of having a bad day, so of course...what better way to fix a bad day (and prepare for Matt's arrival) than buy 3 6-packs of beer? Well that's exactly what we did. Since he was kind of feeling down, I told him we could do whatever he wanted...and of course, the nerd chooses to go to the Griffith Park Observatory. As scientifically geeky as that sounds, it is phenomenal. It's beautiful in Los Angeles at night, especially up there. We walked around the inside and I took some great nerdy pictures (and listened to a 5-year old try to read all of the descriptive signs), but my favorite park was the roof. The roof is AWESOME. You can see sooooo much of Los Angeles up there, and it's just so beautiful. The city lights are twinkling (which might be from a combination of the lights and smog) and it makes me like Los Angeles just a little more than before (I actually not-so-secretly despise it there, although I do love the Lakers). Well after a big heart-to-heart with Andrew, we decided to head back to his apartment because Matt was meeting us. We picked up Matt and went to dinner (at that 7-course beef place I loved last time we were in LA) and then tried to play pool, but the one pool hall we went to smelled like pee, so we decided to bounce. Ultimately, since we had so much beer, we decided to just go back to Andrew's place and hang out...and that was our Friday!

Griffith Park Observatory

"Glittering Lights" in Los Angeles

The next morning, we headed up north to Bakersfield! We met up with Laszlo and Alice at Chick-Fil-A. The poor girl had gone to the emergency room the night before, so it wasn't much fun for her. But it was actually both of their first times at Chick-Fil-A. It turned out to be the 2 year birthday/anniversary of the Bakersfield Chick-Fil-A, so it was a big old party. Two competing radio stations, random cheerleaders stunting on concrete, and green receipts. If you brought back your green receipt during the month of march, you got everything you ordered on the receipt....for FREE! Too bad it only works in Bakersfield :( Anyways, i tried their chicken nuggets....nothing special. I'm partial to the spicy chicken sandwich (which matt got, so yay!) Anyways, after watching the ridiculousness that is a Bakersfield fast food restaurant (it has like the most fast food restaurants in the country or something like that), we decided to go....MINI GOLFING :) Las and I had bought groupons a while ago at Camelot Park....2 rounds of mini golf for $6!!!! Thank you groupon, you are the best. Anyways, Alice didn't come with us (because I doubt screaming children and wielding a golf club is good for a nasty headache), but the three of us went on our mini-golfing date. Other than being rushed through 18 holes because some mom was trying to spend as little time with her child as possible, it was so blast. Of course, I lost and Matt won and Laszlo ended up somehwere in the middle (if you don't know by now, I am awful at every "First date" activity, like bowling, mini-golfing, pool, etc.) After our mini golf disaster (well my mini golf disaster...I lost my ball after the first swing), we decided to hit up the batting cages. Needless to say, we did slow pitch softball....for my sake (and maybe the sake of the boys too). But Matt and Las managed to get a couple swings in the fast pitch baseball cage....very entertaining to watch. They couldn't even convince me to step into that cage, much less try to hit a ball. Well, since we were beat from our high stress activities (yes very stressful), we decided to....get some beers :) Nothing beats a little Dos Equis and some Pacifico. We went into walmart....because who doesn't love redneck walmart?  Anyways, it was actually just a normal walmart, although they did have shotgun nerf guns (never seen those before). We picked up some beers and headed back to Alice's house. She was still sleeping, so we hung out until dinnertime.

WALMART!

Dinner was so amazing I had to start a new paragraph. We went to this place called Noriega, famous for serving Basque-style dinners. It was so cool, everyone who comes to dinner (maybe 120 people?) sat at these big long tables. Matt and I ended up next to some completely random strangers, and it was awesome. So they have a specialty there called pickled cow tongue...yes sounds terrifying. And our newfound stranger friend had never had it before (and neither had Matt and I), so the three of us took the plunge and went for it. Not. As. Bad. As. You. Would. Think. There....i got it out. Actually I almost liked it because of how sour it is, but then I realized what I was eating and turned the same color as the meat. Anyways, I probably shouldn't have started by talking about that. Because this place is really amazing, and I just made it sound gross haha. Anyways, the food really makes this place. They just bring you endless courses of different types of food...soup, salad, cottage cheese, bread, pasta, ox-tail soup...and my three favorites: fried chicken, french fries, and ice cream. Wow I sound like such a fatass. But I'm not kidding, the fried chicken changed my life. It was crunchy and garlicky and delicious. If you ever go to Noriega, you must go on Saturday night (because the fried chicken is the special that night). Of course, Matt and Laszlo got a little drunky drunk off the free red wine (I just couldn't do it, red wine is so gross), so that definitely added to the meal. Overall, the best experience ever and I will definitely go back again. and again. A little pricey, it's $20 a person, but totally worth it for all the food you get :)

So this post has gotten a little long, so I'll continue with what we did on Sunday next time. Stay tuned for pictures!