My update: the Orange County location ended up working out fine for us. ^
Only minor surprise: they do not accept cash *or* credit cards for payment. You must bring something like a cashier's check, a personal check, a post office money order, or (I think) one of those "moneygram" type things you can get from drugstores to pay the passport fee.
I had somewhat expected that a CC might not be accepted, so we made sure to bring ample cash. Fortunately, there was a PO down the street where I was able to get the money order and bring it back to the county office to complete the process.
I learned that at the PO, you must have cash to get a money order, so I was glad I had it on me already. Interesting little foray into the 20th century for me...
Weird quirk about the State Department's website: their application status search function is
case sensitive and, for us, inserts a very unusual space into my last name. Only reason I thought to search for it is because they've done it on my passport, even though this is not done on my birth certificate or on any other official document anywhere. (I'm always mildly concerned this will someday cause a problem when checking in for an international flight, but to date it has not.)