Anecdotal as well, I suppose, but my experience is similar. I grew up and lived in LA for 20 years, frequenting San Diego (SD) once or twice a year on average b

Anecdotal as well, I suppose, but my experience is similar. I grew up and lived in LA for 20 years, frequenting San Diego (SD) once or twice a year on average before moving there for about a year. I've been to some of the large cities (St. Louis, Newark, Boston, Detroit, NYC, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento) and now live in Seattle. Northern California (NorCal) is very different from Southern California (SoCal), which itself is very different than any other place I've been to. The sun, the sand, the year-round summer-like temperatures -- it all feeds into the lifestyle. This was much more pronounced in SD than in LA. I had trouble conversing with random people on the street or elsewhere in the Northeast or Northwest (Midwest was actually easier than SoCal). The near-constant pleasantness of the weather encourages you to be more active and "out" more often. It was a very regular thing in SD to go watch sunsets on the beach (regardless of season) after work. The proximity to the border made it pretty hard to find a bad Mexican food place and the tacos -- oh, the tacos -- were amazing. There are whole companies (mostly startups) that brand themselves as a "go surf in the early morning, come to work later" sort of place. There certainly is a myth and sort of "magic" to it that I don't even think the movies and media capture.