Once, in early June of '09, I junketed to the west coast. With Sacramento as a home base, Nathan, Patrick, sundry others (we kept trading off respective sets of friends), and I blitzed up to Portland, back down to San Fran through Davis, up to Berkeley, over to Oakland, and then finally through Santa Cruz before returning to Sac and ending our travels. Each city was unique, but I think I got a decent sense of a general west-coast ethos/lifestyle/whatnot: (somewhat) relaxed, chosen, and relatively independent of the other 49 estados. Some superlatives: I most liked meeting Portlanders, watching San Franciscans, enjoying the arid sunny climes of Sacramento, admiring the gardens in Berkeley, and feeling the morning haze burn off into a glorious, mild afternoon in Santa Cruz. Take me back!