If you want to do some serious hour building the worst place to go this time of the year is Seattle or Portland as the WX is bad and low freezing levels.
Check out southwestern US or San Fransisco bay area. WX has been really good for this year and looks like it continues to be like that. And Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys have plenty of places to visit and Los Angeles is not too far away nor is Edwards AFB or Mojave desert.
Las Vegas has plenty of schools who rent airplanes with reasonable cost and are available with decent checkout.
From Las Vegas you are close to everything 2h to Los Angeles 3h to San Fransisco 2h to Phoneix and so on.
I have previously posted to wannabes a post called Hourbuilders check it out has some school numbers.
JJ
Merry Christmas and happy new year