Yeah, my high school offered tons of AP classes... it was like 3-4 AP classes REQUIRED for all seniors, and then we had a pre-health and a pre-business pathway, and after deciding to go dental at the end of my sophomore year, they let me take classes from the pre-health side too. Oxford Academy in Cypress, CA, best ranked high school in the state, Go Patriots! Hehehe.
But yeah, the CA CC system is like the best in the country, and you'll find lots of quality teachers and classes, and the UC systems is really well integrated with it all. If you want to see if your classes will transfer, go to ASSIST.org , it's a really great site to go to just to make sure you're taking the right classes.
I just graduated from UCI, (Go ANTEATERS!), and the UC system is very high quality, with lots of research opportunities. I just got an actual scientific journal in the mail today with my first published abstract!