I live in downtown Long Beach, CA. Like martha said, it rarely gets hotter than 85 degrees during the summer. This has been one of the mildest summers (so far) that I can remember. I never use my central air conditioning during the summer, nor do I have to crank up the heater in the winter. I live a mile from the ocean - and a few miles from a servicable ocean - one that I can go to and just relax on the sand. There are plenty of things to do in L.A. - I've lived in Southern California all my life and I *still* haven't done everything.
So Cal is very diverse and is very BIG. If you were to move to LA, I'd suggest moving to a city that isn't "landlocked" - in other words, you have easy freeway/train access to get you where you need to go instead of having to drive several miles to get to a station or a freeway. I grew up in the suburb of Downey and let me tell you - talk about freeway accessible. It's surrounded by 4 freeways, one of which is a straight shot right to Los Angeles International Airport.
I don't know where you would need to commute to, but Downey, Cerritos, Lakewood and a few other cities in the local area are within driving distance to downtown LA, dowtown Long Beach, and Orange County.
I've been to Portland, Ore and have to say that it is a very beautiful city. I have relatives who live in Oregon - one lives in a posh suburb of Portland and my mom lives in southern Oregon - Grants Pass. She loves it there. Oregon gets very hot during the summer, but Mt. Hood in Portland has snow on it year round (well, when I was there in 1992, it had snow
). My Portland relative loves the woodsy atmosphere of the area and it's a hop-skip-jump away from Seattle. I know that it does rain a lot more in Portland than it does here in So Cal - so you have to decide on what kind weather you'd most rather endure.
I'd suggest looking at the markets on housing/rentals and decide what you can afford. The cost of living in Southern California is one of the top five in the country - I believe we're #3 (New York, San Francisco, and L.A.) and it truly is expensive here. My apartment rent was more than my mother's house payment when she lived in Colorado (and her house payment in Oregon) - and she had a 3 bedroom home. The cost of living is very high and the job rate is bad right now - I should know - I've been searching for a damn job for two months now and I haven't found one yet. I actually went on one interview out of 20+ resumes I sent out. It's not a very good situation right now, job-wise.
Anyway. I really do love it here. Yes, there are rude people (the drivers here are horrid) - but so they are in Colorado and even in Oregon. But, for every rude person you come across, there are nice people, too. I live in a concrete jungle, but only a few miles away lies the beach and the ocean and a respite from the daily grind.
Moonie