Lived in North County San Diego for about 20 years, but have been in the Pacific NW for almost 15 now. When we moved up here a San Diego coworker had left the company to work in Europe, came back, and the hiring managers in San Diego said to interview in Washington first as they were tired of loosing so many people with families to the area.
San Diego is a beautiful area, one of my favorite is on the back side of Mt Palomar overlooking Lake Henshaw, in the rolling hills country. From there you can head to the coast, go up to Palomar or Julian or Idylwild in the mountains, or head out to the desert. Lajolla is a nice place, Balboa Park (during the day), and I liked travelling thru Camp Pendleton instead of I5 sometimes (I suspect that is harder to do now).
But, traffic for me got pretty bad, I got tired of finding parking, waiting in lines, etc. as I was spoiled from when it wasn't a problem. I don't like month after month of 130 deg in the car, dust everywhere, and a landscape that looks like the state starts spraying Roundup in the spring. Even worse is the apparent state program that provides spray paint for taggers.