I moved to California after living in New Jersey for most of my life. Here are 7 things I miss — and 3 things I definitely don’t.

Pumping my own gas? Sorry. Not a fan. Kirsten Acuna/Insider I moved to California during the pandemic after living in New Jersey for most of my life.

While I love the Cali sunshine, there’s plenty I miss about the Garden State, which often gets a bad rap. Life’s weird without pork roll and Wawa. Pumping your own gas sucks.

But I don’t miss jug handles. There’s nothing I miss more than a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese sandwich. When people ask me what I miss most about Jersey and I tell them Taylor ham, egg, and cheese sandwiches, I often get a look of confusion, followed by, “A what?”Kirsten Acuna/InsiderEvery time I visit home, my first pit stop off a red eye is to get a Jersey breakfast staple: a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese on a Kaiser roll with a dash of salt and pepper and ketchup.

 What is Taylor ham aka pork roll? (The name is a huge dividing factor among Jerseyans. )I always try and describe the thinly sliced meat as fried bologna, Canadian bacon, or better Spam, but none of those descriptors is quite right. Invented by John Taylor in 1856, the processed meat became a Jersey favorite and is difficult to find outside of the tristate area.

(Why? I suppose it’s something Jerseyans wanted to keep to ourselves. After all, many enjoy trashing the “armpit of America. “) If you go to the right place — like Nora’s where I grew up in Woodbridge Township — they’ll pile on the pork roll.

   I never fully appreciated the gas attendants who pumped my gas until I had to start doing it myself. I can’t believe (most of) the rest of the country got suckered into pumping their own gas. Kirsten Acuna/InsiderPumping your own gas in New Jersey has been illegal since 1949.

It’s one of two states in the U. S. (the other being Oregon) where you simply drive up to the pump, roll down a window, tell an attendant what kind of gas and how much of it you want, and offer them a form of payment.

They take care of the rest. If you’re at a gas station in Jersey, it’s pretty normal to hear a variation of “20, regular, cash” or “Fill it up, credit, please. “I’ve since gotten used to pumping my own gas — after all it’s not rocket science — but it was weird to start doing it myself after not being allowed to for 30 years.

Honestly, I’ve always wondered why every state doesn’t offer this as a job. When I go home now, I savor the tiny perk of staying in my vehicle as someone else fills the tank for me. I realize now it was something I took for granted.

On that note, I definitely miss the cheaper gas prices. This is the price of gas near me on September 29, 2022 in Burbank, California. Pain.

Kirsten Acuna/InsiderWhen I was recently home and saw gas under $4, I started to laugh. As of September 2022, gas is hovering close to $7 per gallon where I live in Burbank.  According to AAA, the national average gas price is $3.

78. There’s simply nothing like Wawa. A perfect weekend starts with a Taylor ham, egg, and cheese and a Wawa coffee before you hit the Garden State Parkway to go down the shore.

Kirsten Acuna/InsiderIf you’ve never been to a Wawa, the convenience store carries snacks, drinks, and customizable sandwiches and drinks to order. They also have a self-service area for coffee, with a row of different brews ready to pour. I also appreciate the many alternative milks the store offers to put in coffee, free of charge.

 My favorite thing is that you can pull into a Wawa, have a gas attendant fill your tank, and leave it there while you go into the convenience store to grab a coffee. It’s a small comfort that you just can’t do in LA. Cali has convenience stores called AM/PM, but they feel more like a fancy 7/11 to me.

It’s not the same. There’s nothing like an oversized Jersey Shore slice of pizza. One paper plate can’t contain the size of an enormous Jersey slice of pizza.

Kirsten Acuna/InsiderI think people exaggerate a bit when they say all of LA’s pizza is terrible. Some of it definitely tastes cardboardy and is a bit thin, but I’ve also found pizza that claims to be NY-style and it’s pretty decent. The real problem is that you get more bang for your buck with a Jersey slice.

A slice on average in LA will run just under $4. For a dollar or two more, you can get a slice nearly double the size down the Jersey Shore from a 3 Brothers or Maruca’s. Whereas Jersey and New York City are all about pizza by the slice and getting a quick pie, Los Angeles seems to turn the pizza experience into more of an art form.

 For what it’s worth, the best pizza I’ve found in Los Angeles is definitely DeSanos, where you can sit down and watch their incredible woodfire pizzas made from scratch, but you need to order a full pie and that starts at $10. I basically refuse to eat California bagels unless it’s a breakfast sandwich. California bagels leave something to be desired.

Here are a few different LA bagels I’ve tried. Kirsten Acuna/InsiderIt’s wild to me that people line up for some of the bagels in LA. There’s something lifeless and bland about the ones I’ve had from popular chains out here like Western Bagels.

Not only are they smaller than Jersey bagels, but they’re also less fluffy.  Plain bagels I’ve had out here taste closer to a toasted English muffin than a bagel. My favorite bagel is pumpernickel.

I tried the equivalent out here and had to stop eating it. I don’t know what that flavor was, but it wasn’t pumpernickel. The closest thing I’ve tasted to a Jersey bagel is Belle’s Bagels.

One thing CA got right? The bagel sandwiches are pretty decent. My weekend go-to stop if I want a breakfast sandwich to fill the pork-roll void in my life is Yeastie Boys, a food truck offering a variety of bagel sandwiches. They’ve become so popular that they’ve started catering for some shows and stars, including Michael B.

Jordan. I definitely miss the smell and sound of rain. It just doesn’t rain here, much.

Kirsten Acuna/InsiderThat may sound like a strange thing to miss, but let me explain. You can go months without seeing or hearing a drop of rain in Los Angeles. That has its pros.

I rarely have to consider the weather before planning a weekend. I can take off a day and it’s likely going to be sunny with clear skies in the 80s.  It’s also weird.

You start to forget that seasons are a thing since most days are the same. That’s not to complain, but it can become a bit monotonous, like “Groundhog’s Day,” especially if you work from home and live alone. It was not until I first visited the East Coast again after moving that I realized I missed the smell of the pavement on a hot summer day after a light drizzle or the soothing sound of rain against a window pane.

 California has some obvious pros, though. I’m really happy jughandles aren’t a thing out here. I’m happy I don’t need to turn right in order to go left in CA.

Kirsten Acuna/InsiderIn Jersey, you’ll often encounter no-U-turn signs at a traffic light. So, if you want to make a U-turn here, you will instead have to take an off-ramp, or jughandle, on your right, turn left to double back to a traffic light, and then turn left again. Basically, you have to go right to go left.

There are at least 600 jughandles in Jersey, which, according to New Jersey Monthly, date back to the 1930s and are supposed to aid with traffic and promote safety. There have been discussions of removing the archaic and confusing traffic pattern in the past, but they’ve gone nowhere.  When I first left Jersey for college in upstate New York, I was shocked that drivers could make a quick turnaround without the extra steps.

Growing up, I assumed jughandles existed everywhere, but it turns out the traffic pattern can be found in at least 10 states. I was thrilled to learn that California lets you make a U-turn at most stop lights.  I don’t miss needing to head to a liquor store for alcohol.

My local CVS has its own fully stocked liquor store. Kirsten Acuna/InsiderI know this is a state-by-state thing, but it always struck me as odd that if you want to buy alcohol in NJ, you usually can’t do it in a supermarket. In most cases, you have to go to a liquor store to buy beer, wine, or liquor.

I expected supermarkets to carry alcohol in California, but I was surprised to discover aisles dedicated to beer and wine in my local CVS and Target. Funnily enough, its prevalence in everything from Rite Aid to Walgreens makes me less inclined to purchase it. I definitely don’t miss paying tolls when I drive on highways.

Once I arrived in Los Angeles, I removed E-ZPass from my car. Another World/YouTubeIn Jersey, you need to pay tolls to drive on the Garden State Parkway and the NJ Turnpike, two of the state’s major highways.  I’ve come across a few toll roads in California, but they’re largely avoidable and aren’t close to where I live.

Now, I just sit in the infamous LA traffic instead. Read the original article on Insider.