What part of California? I don't even have a want to see anything but the giant redwoods there. Not sure why. I would love to see Oregon and Washington though.
I lived in Los Angeles, right on the LA/Burbank border for my first 14 years out here; but a few months ago, we sold our place and moved about 60 miles east of LA, near my mother- and father-in-law...in what's known locally as the Inland Empire. The IE does have a few nice areas, but generally is considered a poorer area (and "poorer" may be a generous term). Riverside is pretty nice area of the IE, Loma Linda...Redlands...Rancho Cucamonga are some other really nice areas out here, but much of the IE is pretty sad...lots of poor Latinos, white trash, gang problems & copious amounts of Meth. San Bernardino, near where I currently live, has to be one of the saddest places in the U.S. The
LA Times just ran a feature on the place a couple of days ago, "Broken City"...just depressing. (link:
http://graphics.latimes.com/san-bernardino/)
I'm working in the area, but my wife still works in LA. Over the next year or so, we plan on finding a place somewhere in middle between Riverside/San Bernardino & LA.
Still, for me, the great thing about California, a person here is usually within an hour or two of the mountains (hiking & skiing), the beach, the desert, and amazing agriculture. (Ok, this is where I get really hippy-liberal-wholefoodish...but the farmers' markets here are great...tremendous fresh fruits, nuts & vegetables. My wife and I try to hit a farmers' market at least a couple of times a month.) On top of that, I love the diversity here. I love meeting and working with people of different backgrounds and cultures, and we've got all types here. This also means the food choices and things to do are almost endless.
Just one recent example, about three weeks ago, my wife and I met up with my son's best friend and his parents (Dad is this guy:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0131541/ ...who doesn't love
Summer School?) at the Kidspace Children's Museum in Pasadena. And who else happened to be there with their kids?...Gwen Stefani & Gavin Rossdale. And about a year before that, we saw Claire from
Modern Family at the same place with her kids. I realize many of you wouldn't care, but I thought it was a cool deal, seeing them in the real world, acting like everyday parents.
Anyway, I really like it out here...like many, thus the traffic problems...and it is mind numbing.