Richard8655

UkWinds5353

California is a beautiful fun progressive state to live in for families, single people and every other group. But if I had very young pre-teen kids, I'm not 100% sure I would pick California as the state where to raise them. Having said that it's a state that can be a great place to raise your kids with open minded progressive thinking and to learn acceptance for everyone's personal choices. But to live in California it helps to really know a lot about the demographics of the state and where best to set up a home base. San Diego and many areas of Orange County imo are the better options to raise very young kids in California. That's not to say parents couldn't live in San Francisco and Los Angeles and raise well adjusted children but in all honesty those places wouldn't be my first choices. And as far as consumerism and the keeping up with the Jones mentality in California, I agree it's pretty intense there. But it's a personal choice to allow that into your life. Probably similar to the Pub lifestyle in the UK which again is a individual's choice to be involved with. I rarely drink any type of alcohol including beer and wine and for that reason the motivation to visit Pubs is not a high priority. I can block out the consumerism in California the same way and simply enjoy the beaches and awesome weather not to mention the beautiful state parks like Joshua Tree, Yosemite and many others. It's a rare state that has awesome city, country, beach and mountain lifestyles.

Moses2013

That's the problem though and California is so large that most people can't visit the places you mention, because they are stuck where they work and simply don't have the money to travel around. It's 850 miles from Crescent City to San Diego. From the UK (Dover) you could drive to the French Riviera, Bay of Biscay, Swiss Alps, cities like Milan, Barcelona etc. and the distance is shorter or roughly the same.

UkWinds5353

Moses I agree with you about the size of California. It's like four states fitted into one. A huge landmass with differing types of terrain. That's one of the attractions that made me fall in love with California. It's one of only a couples states in America that you could visit beaches with warm weather, and visit multiple big exciting cities, and go Sking and mountain hiking or simply get away from it all in a cabin in the woods in a national park. Talk about having it all, that is California. And you do need some money to visit these places but not a lot of money. A few hundred bucks and you're off for the weekend. But the travel distance from one end of the state to the other is a lot. If a person would prefer to keep things simple then a smaller state might be a better fit. My favorite place in the state is Orange County because you don't have to live near a big city but you can still have several conveniences and very good schools for children, excellent shopping, and excellent medical facilities and all in driving distance to the beaches.

Folks raised in more rural regions of America probably wouldn't enjoy the travel aspect either. But people that have spent considerable time in large cities like myself just factor travel time into the equation. But again if a person is coming from Europe most big states in America are going to seem huge. Try driving through Texas, it feels like there is no end to that state.. You can drive nearly 1000 miles and still be in Texas.. There are all kinds of people in California. Funny enough, when I lived in California many years ago most of my friends there were actually from the south east of the united states. You can find a multitude of people from every region of the world in California and there are Brits everywhere in America.

Moses2013

No doubt you have a lot of beauty in California and because of that you have so many people wanting to move there in the US. As you say, there aren't that many states that offer all those options and distances are crazy. I must say that we are still very lucky in Europe and no where is really far. For example you could get here (our version of California:-) and less than 800 miles from Calais.

UkWinds5353

What a beautiful looking place. That is what Europe have over America multiple beaches in different countries. We essentially have California, Florida, Hawaii and various areas of the Caribbean.