If you haven't already, register at The Deco Stop (
www.decostop.com) - a big chunk of their forum is devoted to cave diving and all the weird and wonderful locales you can go (as well as great advice on accomodation, guides and so on). Perhaps can can search through some old threads in case someone has asked the same question, or if not, start a thread of your own. Another great resource is the Cave Diver's Forum (
Cave Diver's Forum - The Cave Diver's Forum Front Page). Both sites are also great places to ask questions about cave diving certifications, instructor recommendations and the like.
For honest-to-God cave diving, Florida and Mexico is where it's at, and I'm willing to bet that Californian cave divers think nothing of making pilgrimages multiple times a year, if their work, financial and family obligations allow it.
Like you, my SO and I live nowhere near cave country, so we have to compromise to cave dive. We know that even if we devote all our vacation time to the caves, we can't match the people living in northern Florida and the Yucatan, who get to cave dive a couple of times a week, if not more. Untill we can retire to the Yucatan in oh, I don't know, 30-years, we'll only ever be 'cave tourists'. It sucks, but whatever. To that end, we plan our dives conservatively and try to keep our skills up - to the full extent possible, anyway - in open water (we're lucky enough to boat/shore dive a couple of times a week). But it's so worth it. To cut a long story short: don't let your distance from cave country dissuade you.
