Hidden Gem

While waiting for my car to get serviced, Best Friend and I took a mini-road trip through Riverside. We both had a negative image of the city in our minds. Insatiable heat, "Bros" in lifted trucks, lack of entertainment, etc. While some of those assumptions hold true, we were both pleasantly surprised to find an area with so much character. I like to consider myself a country girl at heart. Though I've never actually lived or visited the countryside, I feel like I could adapt to the lifestyle very easily. After driving aimlessly through the older side of town and ooh-ing and aah-ing at every charming old neighborhood we passed, we would up in Arlington Heights. Think 1940s-California-orange-groves-palm-trees...Maybe that's a weird description but it was darling and isolated, and the closest thing to the countryside I've seen in Southern California.

*This state park consisted of huge fields full of different government-owned plants/crops/trees. I'm not sure why it says "Chino Hills" on the sign.