Anywhere that's a little more lively than Irvine in OC?

So I preface this post by stating that I love Irvine. It's nice, clean, lots of choices for food. However it just feels a little too slow for my gf and I. I feel like its the perfect city once we have kids and decide to settle down. We would like somewhere a bit more walkable and exciting. Some areas Ive been looking at are Newport, Laguna, and old town orange. I was seeing people were saying Costa mesa like around the triangle square area, but I wasn't too impressed. Anywhere else that I should consider? My work is in Aliso Viejo so I would like to be around south OC.