NY to CA (San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento: move, commute, shop)

[qanx]

My friend, her boyfriend and her two daughters (ages 5, 3), and I are looking to move in together when I finish undergrad. Right now the most likely candidates are CA (either in the "middle" near San Francisco, Sacramento, etc. or in the south near LA or San Diego), Arizona (Tucson, Phoenix) or NM (Albuquerque, Santa Fe). Personally my greatest preference is CA, but all three are proving equally difficult to find out information about - although part of this is most likely due to the fact that I've never had to plan a move quite like this before.

Some points of interest: since the children are young, a safe area would be nice (not necessarily "in" one of the major cities), I prefer someplace reasonably close to the coast (but if not, then oh well). Also any interest regarding public transportation would be nice - to help us plan out car use. If anyone has done a distance move like this (even not to CA), information about resources you used would be very helpful.

Thanks

[UseJeff]

If you're interested in the Sacramento area take a look at Roseville and Rocklin. Both slightly higher end cities, and more or less merged together. Tons of shopping, and safer than most of the cities you'll look at. BART (Bay area rapid transit) comes through so you can use that to do long commutes if they are needed.

It's about 3 hours to the coast (Santa Cruz/Capitola area), but another hour will get you down to Monterey peninsula. 1.5 hours or so to Tahoe area if you want mountains.