I lived in california for 7 years, spent every summer in oregon pretty much, and live in washington now.
I gotta tell you, California SUCKS!.. I just dislike every thing about it. end of story. lol..
Oregon is nice, but ALL of the cities you go through will be bare, aka... buildings, and.. thats it.. dead grass, no trees type of thing. (unless you go west towards the ocean and thru the mountains..)
Washington though, to me.. Is perfect. In the summer it is HOT (80-90 mostly) we have green trees EVERY where.. literally.. You will be driving through town and see areas of just forest? Lotta parks, friendly people. In the fall all the leaves drop from the trees, except for the evergreen trees, it rains a lot.. during the winter it occasionally snows.. its kinda like flipping a coin to see how much we get. But drive any where higher in elevation and you have a couple feet. lol. Beautiful lakes and rivers, everywhere. Spring time you will see occasional rain, and a mixture of hot days.
mt hood in the spring. (every one can see this mountain in their backyard, about 45 min away in the winter.)
http://academic.reed.edu/economics/course_pages/noel/Econ352/Mt%20Hood%20and%20flowers.JPG