I was born in California, but mostly lived in upstate NY until I was 15, then we moved to Arizona. I still spent a lot of time in California, as my mom, grandparents, and other relatives lived there.
There's a lot to be said for California. I actually like California overall, but I think their biggest problem is that it's such a nice, attractive place to live that everybody and his mother moved to that state. Now their population is close to 40 million. When I was born, it was less than half that (around 15 million).
The traffic is terrible, but sometimes it's pretty.