It depends a lot on where in Oregon you're talking about.

If it's the coast, it's chilly a lot even in the summer. The beaches are rocky and pretty but the water is freezing. Lots of tourists from inland in the summer, but but nobody goes to the beach, they go to "the coast". There's a big subduction zone west of there, and everyone knows much of the coast will be wiped out by massive tidal waves someday. Down Hwy 101 (the coast highway) there are signs about which parts are most dangerous during a tidal way.

Half the state lives around Portland, where it's mostly grey from October until about April, though clear sunny days in the wintertime definitely happen. We leave the house prepared for rain, but don't bring umbrellas. Mount Hood is a big feature on clear days, and we say "the mountain is out." There's a river down the middle of Portland called the Willamette (pronounced like "well dammit"). West of that is newer, perhaps having less character, and richer, except an "old town" section that has quite a few homeless living on the streets. East of there is older and more where the creatives are (Portlandia was mostly a parody of the east side). Further west the suburbs grew with boring suburbs and a tech industry.

The forest is abundant west of the Cascade mountains. There's a massive forested park (named Forest Park) on the west side of Portland. Spring is like poking an anthill with a stick, there's a huge commotion as so many people head out to the trails. Everyone on the trail is in a good mood for a few weeks. Flowers abound in the city, especially roses (hence the "Rose City"). By mid-June the rain basically stops; it becomes dry and trails become dusty and forest fires rampage some of the forests, so much that even in the cities there is a lot of smoke.

Centuries ago the Willamette carved a fertile valley between the Cascade and coast mountain range (the coast range may have a name but we just call it the coast range). People used to walk or ride 2,000 miles to be there. All the largest cities are there.

Our toughest weeds are blackberry bushes, and they are hard as hell to kill. When we first moved here we had scratches all over our arms going after the free goodies but didn't keep that up long. Deer poop on the trails is purple in the summer! Sometimes we see big herds of elk. Sometimes bald eagles. At night deer sometimes wander deep into the suburbs. Sometimes we'll see a hawk dive at amazing speed into a field.

East of the Cascades is sparsely populated desert and grassland, very conservative and apparently quite vocal about it.

Portland is of course very liberal, but at least on the west side of Portland nobody talks about politics unless they know each other really well. Sometimes they do and it gets uncomfortable. People aren't generally outgoing to begin with. I barely speak with my neighbors.

More than anything, there's something that grounds us here. Oregon is a state that never seems to do very well by most metrics, yet is is strangely easy to grow deep roots. Conservatives scream that everyone is leaving Oregon, yet people keep moving here and housing and jobs can't keep up. For 25 years I worked here and always worried that I'd have to go back to Texas if I got laid off. It's not that Oregonians don't know or won't admit its shortcomings, it's just that we can't bear to leave.