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San Francisco Bay Area - Being from NJ/NYC I am used to 4 seasons (although not as much as previously, thanks climate change!). What surprised me the most when I first went to San Francisco about 10 years ago was the whacky climates and micro-climates in such close proximity. Also how the temps are so out of whack in the summer months and other times of year compared to what I'm used to here on the East coast. Was not expecting that.
I thought California was always warm but I’ve experience damp cold while visiting San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. San Diego really took me by surprise because it was freezing in Summer…
Portland, Oregon is more diverse than I expected, especially with respect to Asians, and have plenty of quality ethnic cuisine on par with what you can find in bigger cities.
Eastern Washington: I was kinda expecting more forests and rivers, I'd seen a picture of what I guess was somewhere in the Selkirks and thought that was representative of what lay east of the Cascades. Most of eastern WA is dry scrubland and desert like rural Nevada, with a sizable minority being Midwest-like farmland.
Olympic Peninsula: I guess I was expecting it to feel more remote, covered with thick endless tree cover and a permanent layer of fog. Some of the areas of the west peninsula (like Rialto Beach, especially at night) feel like that, but the general vibe out there is disappointingly "generic western US national park, with tourists everywhere".
Springfield, IL: Surprisingly rough and run-down. I'd been there in middle school (late '00s) and didn't remember much, and before I went through there last year, I was expecting more of an average, middle-America-feeling place.
LA: Most of it just felt like a normal city (in a good way), the rich fake parts and the trashy dated neon-filled parts were both pretty small fractions of the whole city. Lots of cool ethnic enclaves.
Salt Lake City: Not actually that scenic imo, mountains were surprisingly brown and the sky looked pretty polluted.
LA: Most of it just felt like a normal city (in a good way), the rich fake parts and the trashy dated neon-filled parts were both pretty small fractions of the whole city. Lots of cool ethnic enclaves.
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Once I finally saw a decent amount of LA, I really liked it. As a Chicagoan, it felt VERY different, more sprawling, but at the same time, dense and huge, somehow. A city I think I would like to live in, except for the fact it's so car-dependent. That part I hated, and would struggle with big time.
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