A few times I've been sat in a pub playing the fifty states game. You have five minutes to write down all of the US states you can think of. Usually after five minutes is up, Brits like myself run out of steam having recalled only about twenty-seven states, and there are fifty in total. So then a couple of friends join in, and after some time the total usually crawls up into the high forties. But there are always three or so states that no amount of brain-racking will produce, and that's when it comes time to give up and look online for a handy list of US states.
I've added this page to my site just so I can easily find a text-only list of the fifty US states which is quick to view on a mobile phone browser. This information came from the CIA World Factbook page about the US which is an excellent page, but a bit bulky for reading on a mobile phone.
Note that the US capital city, Washington, D.C., is not a state, nor does it reside within any of the fifty states. It is a district all on its own, located in the east and bordered by Maryland and Virginia. It should not be confused with the north-western state of Washington, home to the city of Seattle.
As a fun exercise I spent five weeks making an online version of The Fifty States Game. So you don't need a pen or paper, just memorise as many of the fifty states as you can and then follow the link to play the game against the clock now. You'll see how your score compares with others, see exactly which answers you missed (unless you get a perfect score) and see which answers have been given most often. (Despite the fact I've been working on the game for weeks, I still get to 48 or 49 and cannot think of what I've missed.)