A State Better than Hawaii

[Mokihana]

Re: A State Better than Hawaii

I've lived in California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio and Illinois prior to moving here.

Of those, I'd live in Oregon or Northern California again. Of those two, Oregon takes the cake.

Oregon is absolutely gorgeous. I lived in Salem, which is 45 minutes south of Portland, but if I were to move back, I'd live in Portland or Eugene - Salem is a town for old people . Anyway...It's an hour from the snow and an hour from the beach. Lots of skiing (Mt Hood/Mt Bachelor), lots of hiking, camping, hunting, the beach normally is pretty chilly, but it has its quirks. There's green mountains, there's lots of sandy desert. (If you're an outdoor recreationist, the Northwest is your playground). Lots of quality beer and wines. People are pretty nice but can be totally crazy. The shopping available in malls/towns is pretty nice and if you can't find it there, you will find it in Seattle. It's about 3 hours from Seattle, 5 hours from Canada, 5 minutes from Washington Course there's the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, which is quite a drive, but worth it. OOooh and Oktoberfest in Mt Angel. The rain isn't as bad as it sounds, though the snow was a bit harsh the year I left (towns in the Willamette Valley arent really prepared for snow...maybe they are now, who knows). Ooooh and how could I forget? DUNGENOUS CRAB! It's everywhere. I love watching people fish for crab off the beach.

And Speaking of car registration - I paid $68 for two years for a truck ($213 here for 1 year). That's not a bad perk either

Ditto... Oregon is absolutely beautiful. I am so happy living here. Yes, I miss home... but given the revised question, I answer Oregon too. All of the above answers, plus:

Wonderful changing seasons
Lots of local peeps live here
Easy to get local kine grindz
Rivers and lakes in abundance
Friendly people
Uncrowded country roads

to name just a few...

even if people still have pilikia pronouncing my name!

[Mokihana]

Re: A State Better than Hawaii

Hawaii will always be "home." Honolulu is my birth place. I lived half my life in Hawaii.

But after having lived the other half in the SF Bay Area (the southern part, actually), I really, really like this place. Definitely not the entire state of California, just this area.
For me, this is pretty hard to beat.

Not putting you down in any way; I'm glad you like SJ. We lived there for awhile and I just hated it. After Hawai‘i, it was so brown and dry in the summer. The heat killed me. I hated the brown hills all summer. We would drive to Santa Cruz whenever we could (scary drive over Hyw 17 tho!), or up to Boulder Creek, just to get out of town and into some relative green.

We did love driving up into the Napa Valley and up to Tahoe. But trying to get out of town was the pits, esp on a Friday night. Over 2 hours to get over Carquinez! Traffic is a killer there.

I think SJ has some things going for it and I'm glad you like it. You make some good points about living there. But I couldn't wait to leave!