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To be honest, I don't have any intention of visting SEA. Seems lame.
But you'll never know if you never go! Honestly, what could be horrible about a trip/vacation? Even if you don't like the city, which you very well may, there's great nature spots not far away for hiking.
I'm from the West Coast and honestly most of the West is arid and libertarian/conservative, not progressive or beautiful. The whole chill/tolerant/beautiful thing is totally overrated, more like stoners who have no ambition, smell bad and wear their jammies to work. And honestly I find hipsters and vegetarians annoying even though I'm pretty much a communist as far as my political beliefs. The bourgeois b*stards lol. Yes there are good cities like Eugene and Santa Cruz but you also have Fresno, Stockton, and Salem in the West.
Some arid areas are beautiful! Palm Springs, Borrego Springs, Phoenix, Las Vegas...the desert sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous, especially with all the tall palm trees in the background! The cactus, mountains...just lovely. Sure, there are some arid areas that are ugly (the Inland Empire has gotten really smoggy and dirty these past few decades, and Bakersfield is ugly too). But there is such great scenery and hiking in the desert.
I guess it's kosher to include Denver ... they're your "rules" after all. However, Denver is neither west of the Great Plains or the Rockies. It's a part of the Great Plains (which is defined as the area between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains), and is east of the Rockies.
You do realize how odd and flawed your outlook is right?
Actually the great plains are from about eastern Kansas to the Rocky Mountains, the states on the west side of the Mississippi river are not part of the Great Plains despite all of them still being pretty flat overall. Also the Great Plains includes many non flat areas such as the Dakota's badland areas and the Picket wire canyon lands in Southeast Colorado. Simply viewing the Great Plains as just plains is completely false. There are still many flat areas in states like Washington and Idaho that look 100% like the Great Plains.
Using your logic the west and Midwest must merge in the western Denver metro area, so then why would Denver not be in the west? For example Evergreen is just 16 miles west of Downtown Denver and is located in the Rocky Mountains with views all around you of peaks. It is only 25 minutes from Denver so then where does the western region begin according to you if Evergreen is not the west since it's in the Denver metro area. I mean you say "Denver is not west of the great plains" but what is your point here? The Denver metro area encompasses the region where the plains meet the mountains and downtown Denver is just 12 miles from it!
Western suburbs of Denver like Lakewood and Golden and southern suburbs like Highlands Ranch are very hilly and Golden has views of small mountains to the east as well as the big ones to the west and all are still technically located on the great plains and are only a few miles from Denver! Are you really saying Denver is not the west simply because its downtown is 12 miles from where the "west" officially begins? (base of Rockies). There are still plenty of hilly areas in the Denver area too. You do realize that the great plains have lots of hilly and geographically interesting areas right?
A city like Spokane WA which everyone considers western is even less western than the southern or western Denver metro area since Spokane is only mildly hilly and has no big visible mountains close by compared to Denver. At least the hilly areas of the Denver metro have a beautiful mountain backdrop. So using your logic Spokane WA is not in the West either.
Denver is on the plains at the base of the Rockies. Yes it is east of the Rockies but it's right next to them! Why does the east/west argument matter when the region is all the same? Even the mountainous cities of Aspen or Vail for example are not "west of the Rockies" they are in the Rockies. You too obviously only use the fact that there are no mountains east of Denver as the reason that Denver is not western, and this is very narrow minded and odd as I've mentioned. Just because there is no mountain range visible east of Denver means that the Rockies just to the west are meaningless? WOW! Plenty of other western cities are also flat despite having mountains visible in all directions, and most of those mountains are smaller than the Rockies near Denver are. So according to you all that matters is having a view of something in all directions even if it's less impressive and spread apart compared to the mountains that are only to the west of Denver. HUH?
I could say Portland, OR is not western since it has very few big mountains near it and is just hilly. Or that San Francisco is in Maine since there are only hills and coastline. Portland could be in Pennsylvania or even Arkansas using this outlook!
I've always assumed that if Denver were built just 30 miles south of where it is in the area where Castle Rock is located that 100% of people would consider it western simply because that area is surrounded by large hills and mesas and the Rockies are the same distance away to the west Huge and Beautiful. However this region is still considered the great plains and is in fact longitudinally east of where downtown Denver is located. So using the narrow minded "Great Plains" or "views in all direction" mentality would still make Denver "Midwestern" despite the obvious western geography and climate.
I live in Toronto and really can't say it is underrated. The only thing we can boast about is the low crime rate by American standard.
In Canada Vancouver is vastly overrated (it is a Portland OR pretending to be Canada's San Francisco) while Montreal is underrated.
Dude Montreal area is beautiful from the towns around it and the city itself seems clean too. I would say its way superior to San Francisco for being a world class city. And better for Italians I'd say too than SF or anywhere north. We're still an exotic type in the area especially Sacramento and north and I suspect discrimination still even.
Vancouver seems like a crap hole. Bryan Adams is from there I know, The punk band Gob who I really like is but ya, it doesn't go beyond that I don't think. Seems heavily Asian, the grizzlies left, Surrey/Vancouver from what I heard was also very passive aggressive, more than their US neighbors in the NW so, that should truly be a red flag.
Over rated: San Francisco
Under rated: Sacramento or Boise
To get in on the what is the "west" I agree with the majority, anything west of Denver. However, at one time in history anything west of the Mississippi was considered west, thats the reason they built the gateway arch there. I grew up in the great plains and always felt it more similar to the west then even the midwest. We are just the cowboys and adventurers who got stuck in a boring area. Kansas City feels a lot different from St Louis in my opinion. I'm not saying the great plains is in the west, but I've always considered it western in feel, between Kansas city and Denver is the transition area. Like most families I knew we would always travel west for business and vacation. I grew up just west of KC and had never been past KC going east until a few years ago, but I've been to denver 30+ times.
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