"Have a Slice of Little and Big Orange " a Orange Travel Page by marinarena

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Fountain Plaza, Birthplace of Orange County, CA

Orange, the City and County

An orange is just an orange, unless it is referring to a city and an entire county.

The city of Orange , first established in 1871, is quaint yet vast, common but also unique and relaxing yet entertaining. It is quite a mixed bag but indeed full of pleasure for everyone. The beginnings of Orange, little and large is pictured here in Plaza Park, an old gathering spot of locals. How I cherish the water fountain!

Tracing the folklore of Orange, she almost did not become one- instead she was originally going to be called Richland (which is now a street name). Well, Richland could have very well stuck and would made sense since this is a land with good wealth. However, there had already been established another town of the same name. Good thing- that name would not have sounded feminine at all :-)! Supposedly, the founders of the town , Alfred Chapman and Andrew Glassell, then sought to choose another name during a poker game. Possibilites thought to have come up during the game of high stakes were: Orange, Lemon, Almond and Olive. Hmm...well the latter two would have been all right but Lemon- no, that just sucks...lemon!

Look for many Orange county tips on my other O.C. cities travel Pages:

Anaheim (including Anaheim Hills & Disneyland!),
Brea (a quaint night life spot),
Buena Park (family-friendly entertainment like Knott's Berry Farm, a nightlife spot)
Costa Mesa (a hip nightlife spot),
Dana Point (small beach, grand accomodations/services),
Fullerton (downtown bars galore)
Huntington Beach (most populated O.C. beach, surfing) ,
Irvine (entertaining Spectrum),
La Habra (convenient to LA travel & Disneyland),
Laguna Beach (including Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel & Laguna Woods- gorgeous hills, trails and beach to see!),
Los Alamitos (home of famous race track)
Newport Beach (w/ Balboa Island area and Corona Del Mar),
San Clemente (nice beach, close to San Diego),
San Juan Capistrano (w/ very scenic and historic Mission)
Seal Beach (nice beach close to Long Beach)
and
Yorba Linda (peaceful & pretty town to stay).

Be sure to read info on these pages so that you will get a more complete picture of the county & find out about more tips of the area.

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pond in Garden Grove, California

Conjoined Parts of Orange

Like Los Angeles, I consider Orange to be pregnant for purposes of my travel pages. Within this set of pages on Orange, I include central county cities, Garden Grove (Disneyland adjacent and Tustin (features historic Old Town), plus the "baby" city, Stanton (Disneyland adjacent)

Cities of Orange County besides these that may get honorable mention in the future include:

Aliso Viejo (beautiful hill sides)
Coto de Coza (very upscale, not so mentionable if not for the The Real Housewives of Orange county show!)
Cypress (golf, community college town)
Foothill Ranch (quiet upscale area)
Fountain Valley (featuring the great Mile Square Park)
La Palma (quiet town almost swallowed by her neighbor, the LA county city of Cerritos)
Lake Forest (Irvine adjacent),
Mission Viejo (upscale area w/ nice shopping),
Placentia (Disneyland adjacent),
Rancho Santa Margarita (pretty upscale area)
Sunset Beach (lesser known beach town)
Westminster(including Midway City-Vietnam West)

Other communities that are very nice residential communities but are not really on the tourist map:

Las Flores
Villa Park(quiet and tiny-tiny! , city of Orange adjacent)

Other county features are 3 major canyons:

Modjeska
Silverado
Trabuco

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The Block at Orange, California

The Block at Orange

The Block at Orange-
Though many people consider it to be in Anaheim, as it is just a few streets from Disneyland and Angel Stadium, the Block is physically within the borders of the city of Orange.

The best outdoor mall to visit when you're in the Disneyland area. It is just outside of Anaheim, off the 5 and 22 freeway. This O.C. hot spot represents the new, modernized part of Orange. See the pictures in the travelogue!