(11-10-2025, 01:58 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: I used to grab a coffee in downtown Orange at the Starbucks regularly. It’s convenient, near home, and had a motorcycle parking area right outside.

Unfortunately, this location and one I frequented in Newport Beach on bicycle rides were among the 700 that recently shut down. However, the Urth Cafe next door makes a good cup of coffee and is also a great bathroom stop.


If friends are in town and a full breakfast is in order, Kimmie’s Coffee Cup is our go-to choice.



Talking about other types of liquid refreshment, for years I’d swing through Rod’s Liquor’s pull-through driveway and grab a Coke and bag of Doritos on the way home from work. Rod’s was a neighborhood fixture, and it was a sad day when it closed to make way for a somewhat fancy restaurant called Bosscat. 

Bosscat paid tribute to Rod’s by keeping the “Liquor Parking” sign on the street corner where the drive-through was, and that area is an open-air dining area. They also mounted the front of Rods’ old, rusty outdoor ice cooler in the wall of the dining room.

Here you can see Bosscat’s neon sign in the foreground with the liquor parking red sign in the distance at the corner.


Those who wax nostalgic can still buy  a Rod’s Liquor t-shirt at a nearby shop.

The local train station is also a good source of libations and live music. While waiting for a morning train, I’ll grab a coffee at the Streamliner Cafe, and Mrs. and I enjoy an occasional cocktail there in the evenings.

(12-06-2025, 11:59 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: I stopped at the town plaza on the way to the museum this morning. There are a few decorated trees, like this one. 

The big, empty looking pine is actually the City of Orange’s official Christmas tree. Looks empty now, but tomorrow night will be the official lighting ceremony and workers had the area closed off to get the decorations and lights up. They’d better hurry!

(12-08-2025, 12:48 PM)Gone in 60 Wrote: So this is interesting. That big pine tree I mentioned? Looked a little too trimmed. They usually let it grow out quite a bit to hold the lights and decorations. Plus, I thought it was weird that they hadn’t done any decorating a day before the tree lighting ceremony.
Finally, they’ve never put a tree in the central plaza like that - the decorated tree my bike is pictured with.

I went to the lighting ceremony yesterday, and that new tree is the city’s new “official” Christmas tree. They’re not using the big pine anymore. So, that picture should qualify ?

The area under the big pine was still blocked off for setting up grandstands for a big choir that sings during the ceremony, and a big podium with a giant switch that the mayor uses to ceremonially turn on the lights.

They still did the choir and lighting, but it was weird seeing it light up a tree on the other side of the plaza, and not the big pine directly over the actual ceremony.

Seems like a smallish tree to be a city’s official Christmas tree, but the city is broke. They have cancelled most ceremonies and functions but ya can’t cancel Christmas!

The new tree is in a precarious place, however. There have been a recent rash of drivers crashing through the town’s central plaza, and someone barreling north on Glassell Street can probably take out the tree. 

If you have a minute Google “Orange CA Plaza Fountain Crash” for some of the most spectacular examples.

(12-08-2025, 01:02 PM)pdedse Wrote:

(12-08-2025, 12:48 PM)Gone in 60 Wrote: So this is interesting. That big pine tree I mentioned? Looked a little too trimmed. They usually let it grow out quite a bit to hold the lights and decorations. Plus, I thought it was weird that they hadn’t done any decorating a day before the tree lighting ceremony.
Finally, they’ve never put a tree in the central plaza like that - the decorated tree my bike is pictured with.

I went to the lighting ceremony yesterday, and that new tree is the city’s new “official” Christmas tree. They’re not using the big pine anymore. So, that picture should qualify ?

The area under the big pine was still blocked off for setting up grandstands for a big choir that sings during the ceremony, and a big podium with a giant switch that the mayor uses to ceremonially turn on the lights.

They still did the choir and lighting, but it was weird seeing it light up a tree on the other side of the plaza, and not the big pine directly over the actual ceremony.

Seems like a smallish tree to be a city’s official Christmas tree, but the city is broke. They have cancelled most ceremonies and functions but ya can’t cancel Christmas!

The new tree is in a precarious place, however. There have been a recent rash of drivers crashing through the town’s central plaza, and someone barreling north on Glassell Street can probably take out the tree. 

If you have a minute Google “Orange CA Plaza Fountain Crash” for some of the most spectacular examples.

Didn't we walk through this area when I visited fall of '24?  Seems I remember you talking about the plaza crashes.