Cailifornia is roughly 3 times the size of your state ,Georgia, or Florida, the two biggest states on the East Coast.
Having grown up in the Southeast, I understand it and the people from there. To come to California and try to look at it through Eastern eyes is the biggest mistake to make. The scenery, climate, population density are somewhat uniform in the East. In California, you can be in a different micro climate 5 times in a half an hour. You can go from a massive population density to literally in the middle of now where in 30 minutes. I am right now at an altitude of about 800 feet, staring at a mountain peak 15 miles away almost 11,000 feet in height.
Easterners, because of the uniformity of thier surroundings, tend to place a lot of emphasis on nondescript places, whereas Californians seem to blow off incredibly scenic surroundings. Most Easterners tend to go into sensory overload in California, numb out, and completely ignore what's going on around them simply because of perspective. Then they go home and complain about the people or traffic.
What you want to do in California is going to depend on your time and how much you want to spend. But please don't come here, stay holed up in a Motel 6 in Compton for 3 days, and then profess to having gone to "California". If you are really serious about it, e-mail me, and I'll put together a list of places and routes to see and travel.
