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PNW:
The Cascades Mountain Range (North Cascades National Park +Rainier National Park)
The San Juan Islands
Olympic National Park
Expanding this, to the urban: Seattle metro area, our brilliant NW gem, called the Emerald City for good reason. The place I dreamed I'd live as a kid, and now more by coincidence than not I have for past 21 years. One of the top places to live in the US, as long as you have money and aren't "broke", else you'll end up alongside the bums and vagrants plaguing our streets.
1. Pike Place Market: totally worth a visit, I'm a local and go there often for best seafood (fresh) around. Hope you like salmon!
2. Ballard Locks: fascinating day trip.
3. Ferry to Bainbridge or Bremerton, with a dusk return to Seattle: you'll be astounded what you see both out on the island(s) or Peninsula, plus a lit-up urban area that is best landscape-mode shot I know.
My husband and I are going to be in Oslo for a few days at the end of July. We're also going to be taking The Bergen Railway from Oslo to Bergen, and then the Flam Railway. We'll also be taking a boat out to Aurlandsfjord and Naeroyfjord and will be going by bus to Stalheimskleiva. We've traveled quite a bit but have never been to your part of the world, so we're super excited.
There are some wonderful cabins and mountain resorts in the east TN and WNC mountains, but you want to avoid the main tourist drags in places like Pigeon Forge. More outdoor rec than you shake a stick at.
Hilton Head is always a good time. So are the Outer Banks. I can't do the highly trafficked areas around Myrtle.
I live in a small city and miss big city things. I'll take an overnight trip once a month or so to Raleigh or Charlotte.
South Central MN - we are already "up north" to Iowegins! A ten minute drive from me is the most beautiful little spring fed sand pit lined with trees where I spend a lot of summer days. I've never seen anything more beautiful and it's in my back yard.
Minneopa State Park with it's hiking trails and double drop waterfall.
New Ulm, MN, a little taste of Germany in Minnesota.
For history buffs the area is the site of the Dakota War of 1862 and is rich in historical artifacts and sites.
Home to Betsy, Tacy and Tib of the Deep Valley series of children's books by Maude Hart Lovelace and one of the Little Houses on the Prairie.
So...everything west of what, the Missouri River? is lumped together. I'm guessing you're on the east coast and have one of those maps where New York is bigger than Texas.
For the "West", I'd have to say Yellowstone, Waikiki, and Carlsbad caverns.
I think this is why vast regions are not a good indicator of "your region". When people say that Waikiki is close to LA or San Francisco - having traveled there, I'd have to laugh. Hawaii is not close to the CA coast. Many East Coasters think they are "almost in Hawaii when they pass the CA coast. They are in for a rude awakening. I know I was.
Similarly, the area we call The Midwest is vast. I live in Eastern Ohio, which is closer to Niagara Falls, (NYS and Canada), New York City, any thing in PA - Pittsburgh is close - and Morgantown West Virginia (great overlooked place to visit) - which is in "the South" - but is not at all close FL or NOLA.
I am closer to NYC than I am to Chicago, and I'm very far from the Twin Cities.
So...everything west of what, the Missouri River? is lumped together. I'm guessing you're on the east coast and have one of those maps where New York is bigger than Texas.
For the "West", I'd have to say Yellowstone, Waikiki, and Carlsbad caverns.
West of the Missouri River is not considered the Western United States. I don't know anyone who would call Kansas "out west". At least not since the days of the Oregon trail.
West of the Rocky Mountains is typically what's considered the West.
The census bureau defines the Western United States as
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Hawaii
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New Mexico
Oregon
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
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. Many East Coasters think they are "almost in Hawaii when they pass the CA coast. They are in for a rude awakening. I know I was. 
