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There are a few places I am seriously considering a relocation to, and many other places that I'd like to relocate to but is unpractical for me, and even more that I'd like to go and spend a year just for the experience.
However when it comes right down to it, there is a certain magic atmosphere that I am looking for to have perfection. A few different factors here:
Factor 1: A small to medium sized town (preferably with a rural to semi-rural feel) with a strong sense of community, people helping out and being neighborly, hard working, making good friends, not just everybody hiding out in their houses being anti-social all day. A place where neighbors and friends can drop by for unannounced visits and be welcomed, and where a trip out to do errands can even turn into a social event (because you'll know so many of the people!). Further more, friendly and honest and good hearted people who judge you on WHO YOU ARE, and NOT on what you have, what you wear, what your house/yard is like, what you drive, etc.
Factor 2: Kid friendly with good schools and other good kids for my son to play with.
Factor 3: An outdoorsy type of place. Lots of natural beauty. Hiking trails, swimming holes, camping, canoeing, any snow activity in winter. Forests, mountains, streams, lakes, meadows, etc.
Factor 4: A change of season. Cold winters with lots of snow. Warm to hot summers, preferably NOT humid. Dry heat is the way to be! (Willing to bend a little though. I've been to Missouri in the middle of summer and the humidity was killing me! Definitely don't want anything like that! But a mild humidity is okay) Hot enough to want to hit those swimming holes from factor one, and not so cold at night not to be able to enjoy the outdoors in the summer even after the sun goes down. (Though I plan to enjoy the outdoors all times of day and night year-round. It's just one of those things though, keep it season appropriate. Don't want to worry too much about packing a bunch of extra blankets and sweats on summer camping trips, for example).
Factor 5: Low light pollution. I like to be able to see stars in the night sky!
Factor 6: Close enough to a large(r) city that I can go there and come back in a day trip if need be. (Though willing to bend more on this one if need be to have the others above).
Finally, any suggestions in the following states to meet the criteria listed above is best: Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Though I am willing to look at suggestions from anywhere else, too, I am just hoping not to go too far out of the beautiful northwest, as it has been my lifelong home (Washington, Seattle area, to be specific on where I've lived my life so far), and wish to remain close enough to keep it a part of me.
PS Any area that allows the use of a small outdoor fire pit, so long as a burn ban is not in effect, is also good, but not essential. (Would love to have a small fire pit in the back yard! My grandparents have one in their back yard out on the coast and the whole family plus whatever friends may be there as well congregates around it at night when we go on trips down there and talk late into the night when it's otherwise chilly away from the fire. It's rather very nice).
A good friend of mine spent several years teaching at the University of Idaho in Moscow, and absolutely loved it. I went out for a visit one summer and liked what I saw as well. It fulfills all of the criteria you mentioned and it's around 90 minutes to Spokane for the bigger cities amenities.
The Chico, Ca. area covers everything you asked for. Dry heat...Small towns...day trip to San Fran...Paradise and other towns get (some) snow...Plenty of swimming, hiking etc.
Moscow sounds and looks nice. From the pictures I looked at, it looks to have more of that rural feeling than the pictures I looked at of Asheville, which I like.
Looking at the climate data for Chico, I can't imagine it a snowy place, with average daytime highs in the 50s and 60s over the winter months. I don't want to be near snow during winter, I want to be right in the thick of it. Lots of it, too. With daytime highs hovering around freezing or lower.
Summer average daytime highs should be from high 60s to mid 80s. If it's a dry heat such as that found in Eastern WA, high 80s are okay, but two months straight of average highs in the 90s is a bit much. I bet temps over 100 hit quite regularly. A few days I could tolerate at that heat, but not many. As of now, of all the places I have been looking at (based on climate alone; started this thread more to find a good community I'd like within a climate I'd like), the highest average high is 88 (in Wenatchee, Washington) and the lowest average high is 65 (in Anchorage, Alaska). Seems a good range to base average summer highs off of, and as I said, winter lows should hover around freezing or be lower than freezing in order to support the snow I want each and every winter. (Of the place I've been looking at so far, lowest average high in winter is 2 degrees in Fairbanks, Alaska, highest average high is 35 in Wenatchee, Washington).
I'm so tired of Seattle winters where some years we get decent snowfall (such as this year is predicted to be, and what we saw in winter of 2008, though wish it has stayed longer than it did), and then other years (more often than not) where snow doesn't even fall at all, or if it does it doesn't stick and/or is gone by the next morning. I want it consistently each and every winter in large quantities and to stick around for more than just a week. (Yet summers still need to warm up enough for summer activity. Outdoor swimming, boating, summer camping, etc.)
I just had a thought. If it gets cold enough for lakes and ponds to freeze over thickly enough for ice skating on in the winter, that'd be pretty awesome too. Not mandatory though! Just a neat thought I just had.
I'd also like to add that I'm tired of city living. I hear traffic, buses, and sirens at all times of day and night. The light pollution is so bad it's difficult to see the night sky without going out into the country. I am not a bit into the night life (ie clubbing) so I wouldn't miss that at all (though a nice neighborhood bar or pub to go to every once in a while is A-OK), I rarely visit malls and don't have even close to an everyday or even an everymonth need for them. A good community, with good friendly people, good schools, a good bar and/or pub, at least one good restaurant, and if possible a movie theater and bowling alley (though could go to next larger town for these two items if need be). I'd be spending most time outdoors though, and would want to get my kids into that outdoor life as well. (I currently have a one year old son, but would like to have more kids in the future).
I need to get out of this concrete jungle and get into nature!
I was going to say Upstate NY, until the geography criteria limited things. Areas like Plattsburgh, Watertown, Glens Falls, Oneonta, Ithaca, Corning, Olean, New Paltz/Ulster County and Saratoga Springs, among others, are smaller cities that offer the other criteria that the OP wants.
I know it's quite far from the NW, but have you put any thought into northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont)? You've pretty much described the region to a T. Summers are more humid than the Intermountain West, but the northern latitude, sea breeze, and higher elevations keep summers quite comfortable.
What is your ideal population size? (Or, perhaps more appropriately, what is your ideal population density?) What do you consider a "large" city?
I know it's quite far from the NW, but have you put any thought into northern New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont)? You've pretty much described the region to a T. Summers are more humid than the Intermountain West, but the northern latitude, sea breeze, and higher elevations keep summers quite comfortable.
What is your ideal population size? (Or, perhaps more appropriately, what is your ideal population density?) What do you consider a "large" city?
I have lived in Seattle my whole life, and have decided that it is far too large for me. I have family in Spokane. It's definitely better, but still pretty big. Couer D'Alene, Idaho getting even better yet as far as size and population goes.
As I said, I'll give any suggestion a look, but deep down I really would like to stay in one of the states listed from my first post. (Although if the best fit is indeed found in such far away places from the northwest, I would definitely consider it much more seriously).
And thank you all for the suggestions so far!
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