I live on the coast of Washington. I'll try and help a bit.

Vancouver, WA, is a wonderful smaller city. Western WA has cooler summer temperatures than Eastern WA but Vancouver tends to be one of the hotter areas in the summer months. I believe it also gets less rainfall than most other parts of Western WA as well.

Its proximity to Portland, OR, means that you have ready access to a large city. Portland is a very cool area so you can enjoy their theatre, sports, etc. quite easily. If you're into sports though, they have no major teams. You can also do your major shopping in Portland and not pay sales tax (Oregon has no sales tax), so that's handy.

You're close to some of the best recreation areas in the world. The Columbia River Gorge is just a hop, skip and a jump away. In the Gorge area you'll find great hiking, paddling/kayaking, windsurfing (among the best in the world), camping, etc. opportunities. Skiing isn't too horribly far away at Mt. Hood, Oregon. I believe skiing in Washington is a tad farther away. You're also not too far from the Coast so going out there for a daytrip or weekend is easily done. The Long Beach Peninsula and Ilwaco areas are fairly close with beach activities, fishing, and other stuff like that.

I'm not real familiar with Vancouver itself. I attended a 2-day conference there a few years back but I'm usually driving through it and not stopping when I'm down that way.

Even though Vancouver area is drier than most of Western WA, it still rains quite a bit. If rain doesn't bother you, than that won't be a problem. But that might be an adjustment from LA weather so you might want to think about it. WA doesn't typically have the same problems that LA has when it rains. I know I hear on the news how dangerous your highways can get when it rains....real slippery. That doesn't happen up here. I don't know why. Maybe since it does rain more, the oil on the highway doesn't build up as much?

The Seattle area is very cool. It's a great city. But I could never live there because of the traffic. Seattle's rush hour traffic is horrid. I-5 and other highways around there can be like a parking lot. But it is gorgeous and has a great culture. Portland's rush hour isn't nearly as bad. Many people live in Vancouver, WA, and work in Portland. In fact, the entire I-5 corridor from Everett (north of Seattle) to about Dupont (south of Tacoma, WA) is horrid during rush hour. It's starting to get much worse in Olympia as well. But Olympia is also a gorgeous little city that you might want to check out.

As another poster said, the Eastern area is mainly farming communities. Spokane is a nice city. So is Moses Lake and Yakima. I'm not as familiar with the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick & Richland).

The rural coast is amazing. I love living out here. However, jobs aren't as plentiful as they are along the I-5 corridor.

Hope that helps a tad bit.