Is California More Fun Than WA or OR? NOPE! Okay, Maybe Yes

I like to think there is a fun rivalry between the three Pacific Northwestern states of California, Oregon, and Washington state. There probably isn’t, mind you, but I’m creating one inside my “mind”. *said in Franck Eggelhoffer accent*

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Why Is California the ‘Most Fun’ State in the U.S.?

California is seen as the most fun state in America*. Okay, so we don’t have California's gorgeous palm trees, balmy beaches, Hollywood, cute surfers that look like Keanu Reeves, major theme parks like Disneyland, Universal Studios and Legoland, Baja Mex food, easy access to Mexico, Napa and Sonoma Valley vineyards, or Lake Tahoe. But if we DID have any of these things in Oregon and Washington, we would still be just as fun, right? (Amirite, folks? Chime in!)

Out here in the upper PNW, we love our salmon, our marionberries, our beer, and our coffee (so does the rest of the planet because the original Starbucks is in Pike Place Market and gets swarmed with thousands of tourists every day of the week). We also don’t really use our umbrellas except to shade out the sun.

California, Oregon, and Washington state *sung in the key of emojis*

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Let's talk about the similarities between our states though.

We're all of the same "West Coast is the BEST Coast" frame of mind, so that's cool. We're the land of the brave - whether we packed up everything we owned and moved here not knowing a soul or to start a new life with family members already living here.

We each have states with a laid-back attitude that other states don't have. We're not really the "hustle and bustle" type (unless we live in the bigger cities like L.A., Seattle, or San Francisco).

We're also kind of seen as "hippies" in the eyes of the rest of America, whether we agree with that label or not.

California may the state that’s the “most fun”, but it doesn’t have any these Washington and Oregon state qualities:

• You are living in North Face Country

• Easy access to Canada

• Orca sightings on the regular

• Cheese Zombies

• Evergreen Trees

• No State Income Tax (Whoops, that’s just in WA state)

• Seattle Seahawks (What does California have, the RAIDERS? THE 49ERS? THE RAMS? Okay, WHATEVER.)

• Hops

• Award-winning vineyards

• The Gorge

• Mt. St. Helens and Angry Seattle twitter accounts (oops, I meant “X, formerly known as Twitter”)

• Quirky weirdness, unless you count Hollyweird (Portland, here’s looking at you, kid!)

• The Seattle Freeze

• Ice Storms and Snowmageddon drills

• Yeti and Sasquatch

• Lewis & Clark Trail Landmarks

*Washington State came in at #8 on the WalletHub list in 2023 and Oregon was #12.

SEE ALSO:

5 Celebrities You Might Run into the Next Time You Visit Oregon

Celebrity Movie Costume Designer from Yakima, WA: Colleen Atwood

Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay Loves These 4 WA Restaurants A Lot

7 Eats That Guy Fieri Visited in Southern California