11 Things Every Californian Wants to Hear From a Visitor

3. That you’ve never seen so many food trucks.

With mild winters, the food truck scene in this state is thriving year-round. From Roy Choi’s Kogi BBQ truck in LA to Bay Area originals like The Chairman and Curry Up Now, there are endless meals-on-wheels to choose from.

4. And that our food is on point.

Bonus points if you bring up Alice Waters, who was highly influential in helping define California cuisine as dishes using sustainable, organic, and locally produced ingredients. Serious brownie points if you mention your love for Chez Panisse.

5. That you’re considering one of our universities.

From UC Berkeley to Stanford, in the Bay Area, to UCLA and Cal Tech in the south, there is no shortage of excellent universities to receive a world-class education from. Now if only we could get in…

6. That we’re wildly successful when it comes to inventing.

If it weren’t for Silicon Valley, we wouldn’t have Google and Apple. The Golden State is also responsible for creating fortune cookies, blue jeans and waterbeds — all important creations in their own rights.

7. That you’re rooting for our sports teams.

The Giants were on a two-year winning streak from 2010 to 2014. The Golden State Warriors took the championships in 2015. The LA Kings have won the Stanley Cup in both 2012 and 2014. Let us also not forget our college teams: Stanford, UC Berkeley and USC (the U.S. university with the most athletes to compete in the Olympics).

8. That you recognize our unique history.

California may be a relatively young state compared to its eastern counterparts, but it still has plenty of its own rich history to claim. In Gold Country, around the Sierra Nevada foothills you can still see traces of gold mining towns. Up and down the coast, the beautiful Spanish Missions are a reminder of the influence Spanish Missionaries had on the state.

9. That you love our two world-class cities.

San Francisco may be overshadowed by Silicon Valley and Los Angeles may be overshadowed by Hollywood, but there is so much more to these two cities than those reputations. San Francisco is known for its diverse food scene, wide variety of outdoors activities and fine arts scene. Los Angeles is known for its culinary options, variety of entertainment, and dizzying selection of natural wonders to explore.

10. That you’ve seen how diverse our landscape is.

Within less than a day, you can travel from the continental U.S.’s highest point to its lowest — all within California. Mount Whitney is 14, 494 feet and Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level. Not bad for natural variety.

11. That you respect our multiculturalism.

Out of a list of the top 10 most diverse cities in the U.S., four of them were in California. Oakland was third, followed by San Jose in seventh, Anaheim in ninth, and Sacramento in tenth. And at the very least, we all know that with a diverse population comes a great variety of delicious food at our fingertips — pho, sushi, tacos, kebabs, take your pick.