El Gallo Giro is a Mexican Food restaurant located in Santa Ana, Orange County, California.  If you're from Southern California, then you know how much we like our Mexican Food.  If you're not, then you need to be sampling the variety of Mexican food Orange County has to offer.  You can pick almost any commercial street, drive a few blocks, and find a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant.  They're not always great, but in general, they're pretty good.

But you don't have to guess now, head down to Santa Ana on the corner of Bristol and Edinger and have yourself a Torta from El Gallo Giro.

Electric Daisy Carnival, Las Vegas

Orange County is located 4 hours by car from Las Vegas.  For this reason, Las Vegas is a popular weekend road trip for local Orange County residents.  One long weekend a year is especially popular, June brings the Electric Daisy Carnival music festival to Sin City, and what an experience it is.  Handfuls of the worlds top DJ's flock to Las Vegas to perform and witness what in my experience has been the most spectacular musical event I've ever seen.  Las Vegas has signed on for at least 5 more years of EDC, with a possible extension as well, so this post should be relevant for a while to come.

See An Angels Baseball Game in Anaheim

There has been a lot of controversy in recent years about some name changes for the home baseball team of Orange County (The Angels).  Once the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, then the Los Angeles Angels, now I think they're just the Los Angeles Angels, the one thing they can't argue is that the baseball team is not from LA, they're from Orange County.

If you're a baseball fan in Orange County, Angels Stadium is a great stadium to see a game.  They gave the stadium a major overhaul in recent years, and are still updating things regularly.  Even if you're not a fan, it's still a fun day or night event, come out and see the Angels play, grab a hot dog, some soda or beer, maybe a nachos, and enjoy yourself while supporting the local OC baseball team!

Hiking to Mt. Baldy Summit

If you enjoy hiking and the outdoors, take a day and head north-east outside of Orange County to the edge of the San Gabriel mountains.  Here lies Mt. Baldy, the third highest peak in Southern California. The hike is nice, but a bit grueling for a non-hiker.  When I climbed it I was really out of shape, and it was a challenge.  It's not the distance that's tough, but the climb in elevation; it's a steep uphill most of the way.

During the winter Mt. Baldy changes from a hike, to a ski, being the closest ski resort to both LA and Orange County.

Must Try Fast Food (Mexican) - Del Taco

If you're visiting Orange County, or Southern California in general, you must try one of our fast food restaurants called Del Taco.  There are a few locations outside Southern California, but they're everywhere in the OC.  The food isn't the best in the world, nor is the restaurant anything special, but it's a fast food mecha in Orange County, especially late at night.

You get all sorts of junk food at Del Taco, and it's fairly cheap.  Tuesday evenings they have a Taco Tuesday with discount hard shell and soft tacos.

The Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa

Every year from mid July to mid August, the OC Fair Grounds play host to over a million people at the Orange County Fair.  The OC Fair features all types of rides, a variety of foods, local show animals, and often some big name musical acts.  In recent years the fair has gained a lot of notoriety for their large selection of friend foods.  From fried snickers bars, to fried klondike bars, to friend avocados and brownies, if people are frying it, the OC Fair is too.  With 2011 numbers approaching 1.5 million visitors, the Orange County Fair is the 11th largest fair in the Unites States.  if you're looking for something to do on a summer night in the Orange County area, swing by the Costa Mesa Fair Grounds off the 55 and Fair Drive.

Monster Jam - Angel Stadium in Anaheim

Monster Jam comes to Orange County several times a year at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.  The show is good fun, worth seeing, especially if you've never seen it before.  They usually also throw in another event like a destruction derby, and or quad racing.  The event is loud, the trucks are extremely powerful and it's very clear when you're seeing how fast they go, how high they jump, and how much sound they put off.