My dad got out of the Air Force in 1952 and planned to move to southern California, since one of his college classmates lived in Huntington Beach and had told Dad how nice it was there. Dad decided to take a month or two and see more of the West before settling down with the family (only two kids then), and ended up deciding to stay in Portland, which is where the other four of us were born.
Portland was a great place in the 50s and 60s, even on well into the 80s. Now I have no plans ever to go there again.