trying to reason with hurricane season...
I just saw a story at drudgereport.com that said 2003 will be an above average hurricane season. If there are schools on the west coast of the state they will probably be less effected than east coast schools.
I've lived in Florida and California as well as other states and would opt for California in September. I don't know if Flying Vikings in Hayward is still around but they typically have many foreign students and instructors for that matter. They also may have some deal on housing set up as well.
The flying in CA is much more interesting than the flying in Florida. You can shoot some approaches into foggy coastal airports and do mountain flying on the same day. San Francisco is a great city to visit.