I moved from CA when I joined the AF in '76 and I only visit family members there, too. CA was once a truly great state, but is now only a deteriorating shell of its former self.
I grew up in San Jose, but left 35 years ago when I enlisted in the Air Force, and Id never go back except to visit relatives.
I’m another ex-AF guy who left California—in my case, in 1994. Only mine and the wife’s relatives give us cause to occasionally go back for a visit (heaven forbid they’d stoop to visiting Arizona!). I have deep roots in California too, about 200 years worth (longer that that if you count my Native American roots there). It pains me that the beautiful land of my fathers has become such a cesspool full of ignoramuses.