The United States of America is a union of forty-nine states on the continent of North America. It consists of a forty-six mainland states stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean as well as Alaska, a peninsula barely connected to Canada; Hawaii, an island chain in the Pacific off the coast of Mexico; and Rhode Island, obviously an island, on the other side of the Rhode Strait from its neighbors Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. There is also Washington D. C., an oddly-shaped island and the capital district of the United States, which, despite being larger in both population and land area than many states, is not actually a state.
Washington D. C. encloses the Potomac Bay, a large bay of the Atlantic Ocean which nearly splits the county apart. Northeast of the bay is a region which includes some of the largest states, such as New Hampshire, Delaware, and Maryland West Virginia. Also in the Northeast region is five independent countries completely surrounded by the USA.
I think that something interesting could actually be made out of that scenario, here's a clearer map: