California, my home, does things just a little different than everywhere else

Hugehugehugehuge trees that smell really good, next to Manzanita trees that smell really good. Especially on a hot day.

They filmed 'Return of the Jedi' in Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Cty.

for a couple decades now. i took my boys on a road trip. we hit northern calif. your on and off ramps are a work of art trying to figure out wtf is going on. the first one i hit that took me full cirlce i sighed.... remembered, and loving told boys i grew up on these.

bbq, right on.

but.... you are absolutely right about the fundamental christian. i did not know what a fundamental christian was. it was texas i learned about the republican christian.

It has " the 2 lane and the 4 lane" roads, even I-65 and 1-10 is called a "4-lane"

seat belts are apparently for sissies, as are speed limits.

You can have a nice conversation with perfect strangers for 15 minutes or more.
This tends to slow down the grocery checkout lines.

There are green trees every month of the year.

Perfect strangers will provide hospitality during hurricanes.
"Give you the shirt off their back" is not just an expression, it is a reality here.

Most of the state has small towns which are just like Mayberry, and they are wonderful.

Whole generations grow up without ever seeing snow.
This is NOT a plus when 1/2" of snow does fall every 10 years or so and people try to drive on it.

Best place on earth to retire, cost of living is half what it is on the coasts.

Just like I said

I will not be able to fit into my Raiders Cap!

was about me
Lol.

Philly and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between.

/Alabama native.

But you said it beautifully.

I might disagree with you on highways. I've driven through Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, and most states inbetween. California still ranks number one on my book for drivable and well labeled highways.

Just including our fellow Californians in the desert

Why, we're neighbors.

I just moved to West Virginia, so I don't know much about it. I grew up in NJ. The show Jersey Shore ruined it. So I'll talk about Oklahoma.

It's not as flat as one thinks. There are mountains in the east, complete with forests. There are mesas in the panhandle.

The Red River separates Oklahoma from Texas. You can pretty much walk across parts of it. Especially if there's a drought. Many of the lakes were man made.

In the book The Worst Hard Time, the author describes the feeling that settlers felt underneath huge open sky. Freaked out. I felt the same way when I moved there. But now trees and mountains make me claustrophobic.

Tornadoes can be scary as hell, but the weather folks are the best. On the planet.

People are mental about their sports teams and Jesus. It's true. Don't talk Jesus or politics with strangers and they'll like you just fine.

Oklahoma is beautiful in the spring, brutal in the summer, colorful in the fall, and haunting in winter. And it's windy as hell 365 days/year.

Oklahoma girls are beautiful too, but tan too much on the whole.

We don't ride horses to work, unless we're cowboys/cowgirls. There are actual roads and actual cars.

There are a ton of churches here. It's unnerving.

There's nothing like an Oklahoma sunset. It takes a long time for the sun to dip below the horizon.

Our politicians are idiots, but the people are a good lot. It was a hotbed of socialism in the '30s. Too bad people forgot their political roots.

I love Oklahoma and I miss it every single day, despite having grown up near NYC and living in Los Angeles. It's real, the people are genuine, and the weather is exciting.

I'm from western Pennsylvania. I think parts of WVA is just beautiful. It has a great state park system, and it gets a great deal of money from it, however all of it goes back into the Park system. It would be better if they would take even a small percentage and put it toward the poverty in the mountains.

It also amazes me that WVA has less of a population than the county I live in. It only takes me about 30 minutes to get to WVA.

The traffic in Morgantown is as bad as anywhere I've lived. But the people really are very nice. It's a gorgeous state (I say we won the nature lottery for sure), and I really love my job.

Czech girls in California? Czech!

Korea can give the Czech Republic a good run for its money

So can the UK, Ukraine, India, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and South Africa for that matter.

There are beautiful women all over this world. And a good deal of them come to California.

Then they meet beautiful men, and breed.

Then you get more beautiful people, like Lenny Kravitz or Olivia Munn.

Therefore, they cannot be the most beautiful women (or men) on Earth

There is a world beyond the blonde, blue eyed bombshell

Trust me on that!

Yes I've heard people say the czech republic specifically as well. So many super model looking women from Eastern Europe. There is a problem with the exploitation of women there though.

Lot of beauty there as well. Czech republic still wins though as it seems its wall to wall beauty. Iceland as well nearly forgot about that.

They say evolution takes millions of years. It does...unless you live in a country that used to be part of the Warsaw Pact.

During World War II hundreds of millions of men were killed in combat. The ones who survived with sexual organs intact came home and were able to be REAL picky about who they married. Only the most beautiful women were able to find husbands. The not-beautiful ones died without adding their genetics to the post-war commie gene pool.

During communism, beauty aids and nice clothes were viewed by the governments as degenerate. There's an old commercial that shows a "Soviet Fashion Show" with all the models dressed in the exact same gray shapeless garments. Sadly, that was just about the situation over there.

As in "let's BBQ some steaks". In Texas it's a noun. As in "Let's eat some BBQ".

F L O R I D A, not Floriduh :p

Yes, I know, not the most progressive state but we are very slowly turning more blue over time. Orange County is blue, I think Miami-Dade is blue, I think Broward is blue.

Our highways are pretty easy to navigate, in general. The older sections of our interstates suck.

We have people in Florida from many many different countries.

Miami is very Latin. You must speak Spanish to get any decent job there (from what I am told).

The Keys are wonderful.

Lowest temperature ever recorded here was -2 F in 1899. Yes, it has snowed here several times.

Miami Beach and Gainesville would be my choices for most progressive bastions in FL.

Ask me anything, I might know

Cuban-Americans have grown a lot in the Democratic Party lately

Just wondering how further we need to go...

It takes a certain kind of bold "extreme sport" mentality to drive some of those freeways; and a vast, vast store of patience for some of them as well.

That's just par for the course; it takes a bit of that "extreme" mentality to live on top of multiple faults that are always moving whether you can feel it or not.

In much of the state, not all, public transportation is non-existent or just totally inadequate. It's a state about driving.

In addition to the redwood forests, there are also beautiful mountain ranges and incredible deserts. To stand at the lowest, hottest, driest place in North America is an experience. Joshua trees, Mojave Green Rattlesnakes, cholla, creosote...they are also CA.

As are mountain peaks, waterfalls, and the rare and incredible Sequoia, the largest living non-communal organism growing naturally only in one place in the world, and living long enough to have been mature before the birth of Christ.

California is truly a celebration of diversity. I spent 38 of my 53 years there.

My current state:

TREES. Oregon is a state of trees. Forests cover almost half of the entire land mass. Water, too, at least in the west. Rivers and lakes abound. Volanoes and volcanic monuments, and one of our nation's natural wonders: Crater Lake.

West of the Cascades, Oregon is a liberal bastion. That's fine, because that's where the bulk of the population resides.

The best city in the nation, Portland.

And much more. Maybe someone else in this thread can finish Oregon.

Although I will debate you over Portland

San Francisco and it's sister Berkeley/Oakland, will ALWAYS be my city

A fall day in SF, a Spring day in OAK, any day in Berkeley - always good.

I do know that Portland is the only city I'd ever consider leaving rural life behind for. It's the greenest city in the U.S., in more ways than one.

I do like SF, although I've only been there a few times. I like it better than L.A., anyway. L.A. has got a lot to offer, but for me the drawbacks outweigh the good stuff.

Thinking of CA, and So CA in particular, here's something else I love about Oregon: clean air.

You just have to accept it for what it is - a corrupt city in the desert, with water and movies

But hell, most big cities have a certain level of corruption

I like Topanga Canyon, Ojai, Venice, Santa Monica, Clairemont...

But I was born in the bay, left for a while and wanted to get away. Saw the world, and there's no place like home.

We don't have the highway problem but driving here is a bit hairy, or so I'm told by others. I've learned to drive in the city now here so I have nothing to compare it to.

Salmon grilled with lemon.

We have BBQ too but it's more about just being outdoors.

We are out doors crazy. Hiking, running, rollerblading, swimming, skiing, rock climbing, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, everyone is out and about. And here in Vancouver you can do most of these in the same day.

Beautiful mountains, forests and trees are just the backdrop against which our cities are built. We are spoiled that way.

Not everyone knows this but the Southern BC interior is a big wine growing region and we like our wines.

We are a big wine and dine culture much like California. Lots and lots of quality restaurants here in Vancouver.

I think Vancouverites could give you Californians a run for their money when it comes to our weed smoking.

Living expenses here are SKY HIGH!!

While nothing on the scale of California BC has a fairly big movie industry. Lots and lots of TV and film is filmed here.

Lots of beautiful women too, remember we are fitness crazy. Add in the wine and dine and the movie industry and you have a similar mix to Cali. Seems to attract the beautiful women

He's conservative?! Is also a negative thing to hear around here, at least in Vancouver.

Vancouver is very very diverse, 20+% of the population is Asian.

Parking isn't easy to find for the most part. Vancouver is hemmed in by the mountains so we don't have a huge amount of room to sprawl.

We are a northern tech giant as well like Washington and Cali, lots and lots of startups here, lots of money.

Lots of foreign wealth here, lots and lots of rich neighbourhoods with expensive homes.

Vancouver, to a less extent BC at large, is a hip place. Like you being in a band is a fine hobby, but then so is any number of other nerdy past times.

We often spent three weeks out of every month away from home, a week in a city was the average duration. Once we were all sitting around drinking and talking about which city was the best to visit. I was new to the job, but all the old-timers said hands down, Vancouver was the best. San Francisco was a close second. When the company had to send someone to Vancouver, it was handed out as a prize to the best performers.

I've never been there, but hope to visit some day. I have spent 52 years within 100 miles of San Francisco and visit there several times a year. I do enjoy California in the more underpopulated areas, like where I live now. 30 Years of Silicon Valley smog and traffic was enough, although there are plenty of positives about that place, too.

But it's nice to hear some independent corroboration I love living here though every city has it's down sides of course.

You may live to regret it.

- - - - -

First, no one ever dies here. A lot of people go to live with Jesus, but no one dies. At least that's what people's obits all say.

We have four seasons, most years.

We are in two different time zones.

Many of our restaurants only serve breakfast and lunch.

The signature cuisine of Idaho is exactly like the signature cuisine of Tennessee. While we are located in the Northwest, it's rare to find a seafood restaurant here. A hundred years ago before there were trucks and airplanes this would have been understandable; today it's less so.

We have four professional sports teams. They're all in Boise, the state capital. We have Class A baseball, minor-league hockey, D-league basketball and semi-pro football.

People who live in South Idaho generally follow the Boise State football team. People who live in North Idaho generally follow the Washington State University football team because the University of Idaho team needed three seasons to come up with six wins, and that's not an exaggeration.

Most of the people who were key officers in the Aryan Nations have written books apologizing for being in the Aryan Nations. None of them receive royalties from these books because federal prisoners are not allowed to profit from their crimes. (There's also the fact that no one wants to read a book about how someone became a white supremacist...)

We are not in favor of The Citadel.

Most of our hardest-core Republicans were born in California.

We have two interstate freeways in Idaho. They both run east-to-west.

Idaho's most significant invention is the frozen french fry. This is a multibillion-dollar industry that has impacted the world; please don't laugh.

The Navy maintains a submarine base in Idaho. This sounds funny as hell but isn't: there is a lake in North Idaho that is perfect for doing acoustic research.

The Apollo astronauts trained for their moon exploration missions in Idaho.