As I understand it that’s a big part of when the American movie industry is centered in Los Angeles. Because pretty much any kind of scenery you can’t recreate on a sound stage you can find with a couple hours drive from LA – desert, mountains, farmland, forests, and of course beaches all relatively close by.
I experienced that as a little kid. It was all kinds of wonderful. I grew up in Culver City, and we rode our bikes all over creation. In high school, we’d just go driving around for pleasure…and end up some place unique and cool. Oh, and Apple Pan. I’d miss Apple Pan more than In-n-Out.
I’ve camped all over the state from the far north to the Mexican border. You can get way out away from everybody. Sigh.
It’s arguable where the butthole is, but it, and the many anal fissures, are all in the Central Valley. Mind you, some of the best Country-Western music west of Nashville comes from those oozing apertures.
This is my image of California:
Must be interesting to live there however.
I’ve lived all but seven of my 58 years in California and will die here unless I decide to move to another country similar in climate like Spain or New Zealand which have the advantage of being a lot less crowded than California. I grew up in LA/ OC beach communities when there were about ten million less people there. The crowded surf spots and traffic drove me away. Luckily, the Central Coast is a nice approximation of what it was like in Southern California 40 years ago.
Heh, like the drought has left us any waterfalls.
^^^
This about a million times over. I’ve lived in California for 58 years, off and on, and there isn’t another state I’d choose over the Golden State. Yes, we have wildfires, earthquakes and Bakersfield. The Mexican and Thai and Vietnamese food more than makes up for it. I don’t even mind the high taxes. As Oliver Wendell Holmes noted: “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”
I think he was talking about Texas.
Hey buddy, you got the wrong thread!
I have only visited 2-3 times over the last 10 years or so and never lived there, but would say that the places I visited were beautiful . . . but I’d never want to live there. I spent about 4 days visiting my wife at SLAC in Menlo park, and spend about the same in Claremont. Both those places were pleasant, but outside a few campus areas, felt really over crowded to me. And of course, getting to and from those places on the freeway was an adventure. So nice to visit and that’s about it.
Actually (and feel free to turn this rant off) my biggest issue with California is both in Colorado (and also for my friends living in Austin TX) is the second hand increase in cost of living. Specifically, a CA resident gets tired of the cost of living or other issue, sells a property for 500k plus, and moves to Colorado (or Austin) and then buys a home at (from their POV) a steal. As the trend repeats, it drives a lot of lower income locals out. It isn’t wrong by any means, it’s their money after all, but the effects can be unpleasant. One of the consequences of freedom of movement and capitalism, both of which I support in general, but feel free to complain about in the particular (like everybody else).
Okay, /rant off. Sorry to both you folks.
I’m not just a native of California, I’m 3rd generation (Bay Area all the way back). I’ve lived in Sonoma County, in the delta of the Central Valley, the San Francisco-East Bay, San Diego (north county), and the South Bay of Los Angeles.
It’s a big state, in every sens of the word. I don’t think those who haven’t spent much time here realize- the third largest state geographical, the biggest population, the 5th largest economy in the world, and the biggest agricultural economy in the country.
What I like:
Weather- You can find any climate you like, except humid summers and sub zero winters (I never understood the attraction of states that have both).
Economy- California is the land of opportunity if you’ve got skills. I love the fact that with super majorities of Democrat pinkos in the legislature and under the guidance of Governor Moonbeam, we managed to run a surplus and put away a rainy day fund.
Food- Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese…name a country and we’ve got plenty of restaurants with the cuisine. In Los Angeles and Oakland (based on personal experience), we definitely have great barbecue.
Geography- spectacular seacoasts (a friend from the Northeast called the northern coast “Maine without the miserable weather”), real mountains (the Appalachians? Ha!), high desert, low desert, a delta, riverboats, redwood groves, sun drenched vineyards… you name it, we’ve got it.
Earthquakes- Keep the riff raff out. I love the days after a decent shake as folks are interviewed at the airport vowing to never set foot in the state again.
See: Californicating (another part of the country)
Yeah: the locals elsewhere are none too pleased at the thought or, or the reality of, this happening to their area.
Growing up in California, I always felt the state’s relative newness was both an advantage and a drawback. I loved living in an open-minded, non-traditional, non-conformist part of the country. Plus, we were far better integrated than the cities I saw back East.
On the other hand, compared to the East Coast, much of California lacks a sense of the past. Amid our endless residential and commercial sprawl, there’s not much in the way of historical sights or architecture. To me it always felt a little two-dimensional that way.
My experience in Washington state is that the loudest of those complaining “locals” are former Californians who got there 10 years earlier.
I don’t like summer here, where it’s only three months long. (Granted, San Diego is better than Hawai`i.)
[quote=“SCAdian, post:34, topic:939181”]
I lived in San Diego county for almost ten years. It’s a stretch to say San Diego has seasons at all. There is always low humidity, temperatures swing between 70 and 80 degrees throughout the year, sometimes its overcast (and 70 degrees) and sometimes…it rains!
I will agree that it sounds great, but it is really, really boring after a while.
To each their own, to be sure, but I never tired of the weather.
You knew just by looking out the window whether … weather was going to be a factor in your motorcycle ride/bike ride/jog/hike/beach outing, etc., etc.
It was either raining (rather rare) or you were ‘all systems go.’
At least in the parts of San Diego where I lived (many, but never particularly far from the coast), it came down to long pants, closed shoes, and/or a light jacket (vs. the default shorts and flip-flops).
Yes: for people who grew up with four seasons, four seasons can be a thing to be missed.
But I don’t say that from personal experience 
Is ‘brown’ beautiful (in a semi-arid region) when you grew up with the lush greenery that much more rainfall provides ? Again: personal preference.
But I loved and appreciated the desert and the mountains, and – again – that sort of climate is just one of an innumerable number of climatic options that CA offers.
It’s huge. Enormously huge. Not like Texas that’s just a big literal and figurative desert. Not like Alaska that’s just a giant block of ice more than twice as big as Texas. California is as big as 100 normal sized states and it has stuff everywhere. It has deserts, it has a high desert and a low desert, it has a long long coast, it has mountains and lakes and Mexican food and Hollywood. I think California is too much state.
I’ve lived in San Francisco for 40 years now, having grown up in Oregon.
Minuses: forest fires so big they poison the air; frequent water shortages, although so far they tend to sort themselves out over several years; earthquakes, although we’ve only had one serious one since I’ve lived here, Loma Prieta in 1989, but I’m certainly not looking forward to the next one (maybe I’ll die first, or maybe it will kill me); cost of living, although we’re managing pretty well, thanks to what my Dad left us; traffic, but I’ve learned to keep my cool and go with the flow.
Pluses: pretty much everything else. The only other place I might move to if I ever become a widower (because my husband won’t leave no matter what) is to the Morro Bay area, or maybe Pismo Beach.
I was born and raised there, mostly in the Bay Area, and the majority of my family is still there, scattered up and down the state. At this point, I’ve lived elsewhere for twice as long as I lived there, but it’s still what I identify with.
The traffic is worse. The air quality in the Bay Area is worse, although it’s much improved in the LA/Inland Empire area since when I was a kid. Still, real mountains, beautiful coastline, great food, substantially progressive (although often silly) politics, …
My wife (who’s not Californian) is the one who lobbies to move there every time we visit. I’ve told her just as soon as she lands a job that will keep me in the manner to which I’d like to become accustomed.
Bakersfield is west West Texas. Rodeo, country music, oil rigs, dust, burning heat, and all the rest of it.
Frisco is a town in Texas. No place named that exists in California. Give me that rolled up newspaper.