City Relocation for Young Family (school, university, to live in)

[RelocationAddiction]

Hello all,
I'm Relocation Addiction. I'm a California native looking to get out of the state. I've been in undergrad for a couple of years now and will be finishing up a degree in Mechanical engineering with a minors in Mathematics and History. I plan to get my Ph.D. in architectural history while duelly working on my JD in an eastern university. After I finish graduate school, I would not like to return to California. I'm looking for cities you all think would fit my criteria so that I can visit them on various internships and conference trips (and then move there after I finish my schooling).

I interned in northern Virginia this last summer, which was an awesome experience. I absolutely loved it even though it was "terribly humid" as the locals would not stop telling me. It never really bothered me. It was around 90 degrees with 80%-90% humidity in the areas I worked. I would like to live in a place not so humid all the time(i.e. Florida), but it is okay if the duration of humidity is short.

I want to live in a big city (500k+ population) with many job opportunities. I would love to teach at a local university where I could conduct research, but I could also hold an engineering job while conducting private historical research in-home.

I'm currently a leading local political activist. I am conservative-leaning libertarian, so a city that is not so intolerant of concealed firearm carry, offensive speech, etc. cannot be considered (such as Boston). But I would love to live in or be near a historic citie(s) - we don't have many of those out in CA and obviously, I adore anything historical.

So short and so important; I love cold, snowy weather. A place with some nice, distinct seasons would be amazing. Last winter I rarely sported a sweatshirt and I haven't bought a jacket in four years - it's always hot here.

Lastly, I would like to live near some mountains (within 3 hours). I currently live within 3hours of Yosemite and 2 hours of the beach, so there is a lot of activity options that I would like to have wherever I move to.

My top cities right now are as follows:
Virginia Beach, VA
Richmond, VA
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Boise, ID
Nashville, TN
Wilmington, NC

[ckhthankgod]

What about the Philadelphia area?

[gladhands]

Have you been excepted into any doctoral programs? If not, I suggest you work on that first. Considering you want to do a PhD and JD concurrently, I'm sure getting accepted into both programs at the same school will narrow down your choices quite a bit.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by RelocationAddiction

So short and so important; I love cold, snowy weather. A place with some nice, distinct seasons would be amazing. Last winter I rarely sported a sweatshirt and I haven't bought a jacket in four years - it's always hot here.

Lastly, I would like to live near some mountains (within 3 hours). I currently live within 3hours of Yosemite and 2 hours of the beach, so there is a lot of activity options that I would like to have wherever I move to.

Based on this Dallas and Austin are out. No real winter and no mountains within a 3 hour drive.

[kyle19125]

Based on political leanings it could prove problematic in cities like Austin, Dallas, Nashville and Richmond which are becoming more left-leaning as we speak. Boise is probably most ideal in my opinion as Idaho has become very Libertarian over the past several years and seems to be continuing along that path.