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The nice thing is Cary isn't an island. From where I live, I can be in the downtowns of Raleigh, Durham or Chapel Hill/Carrboro in about 20-25 minutes. I have friends who live in Raleigh that have about the same drive into Raleigh's downtown, and much longer for the other cities. And I have a 5-10 minute commute to RTP instead of sitting in I-40 traffic.
Cary itself lacks stuff that the downtown areas of the bigger cities provide. If your lifestyle is such that you need all that stuff on a daily basis, especially within walking distance, then you might want to look to live downtown. The biggest thing is just lack of an active nightlife. For me, driving into Raleigh to go out was never that big a deal.
Cary has lots of parks and greenways, which I love getting out on to exercise and decompress. Plenty of restaurants. Even has a fair number of bars nowadays (these tend to be the chilled out corner bar/pub variety, not like the downtown nightlife). There are festivals, concerts, etc right in Cary (I tend to bounce all around the Triangle depending on the event). Running clubs, gyms, sports leagues, etc.
There is some good natured ribbing that goes on here between residents of the various communities within the Triangle. Each community has its stereotypes, but there's often little truth in them.
We moved from Toms River, NJ in 2005. I had my friends, my gym, my dance class etc in NJ. Kids were settled at daycare....
Now I have new friends, a new gym, kids are at elementary school, I have a new kid, I joined Triangle Mommies - met some new friends, I have a new dance class, new book club - I'm barely ever home!! So you will just recreate your life back in NJ!!! I miss being able to go into NYC but I probably only did that once a year. This year I have seen three Broadway shows at the DPAC - I probably saw one every two years when I was in NJ. We go to tons of stuff at the RBC Center (Circus, Monster Jam, Disney On Ice, Elmo etc) and it's a 15 minute drive as opposed to the 1 hour drive to the PNC Bank Arts Center or the 1.5 hour drive to Giant Stadium. I saw Green Day in concert at the RBC Center my first summer down here. This year, Coldplay is coming to the Walnut Creek Pavillian which is about 20 mins away from Cary - so is Gwen Steffani! Cary has it's own ampitheater and TONS of concerts are going on this summer...
So no, it's not boring down here!! You just have to get out and make new friends!!!
Going from being a working musician to a "typical suburban Mom" would, stereotypically, be ramping up the "boring" scale no matter WHERE you did it, IMO. I have been neither, but Cary definitely has the "suburban family" thing down. My one data point is a dear friend (who is in fact a working musician, of the classical variety) who is a Cary Mom, and what I hear of her life comes from Facebook status updates along the lines of "time to get in the carpool line again" or other "Mom the Taxi, sigh" types of statements...but again, this would be true wherever you were.
For a time in my day job I hired new engineering grads from colleges across the country and moved them here. I did hear complaints from them about this area being boring for young single folks. They wanted out of the college scene, but they didn't find the singles activities that they were used to in places like Dallas, DC and Atlanta.
They pretty much agreed it seemed like a great place to raise a family but they weren't quite ready for that ...
Standard disclaimer: I live in Cary, and I'm happy.
Cary is the quintessential suburban town. It is not even a city. So if you think you'll be bored living in suburbia, you should look at Durham or Chapel Hill or even Raleigh. Skip the suburbs.
I have lived in Cary most of my life. I agree with Sayants. Cary borders Raleigh. One minute you are in Cary, the next you are in Raleigh. It's a good central area to be between Raleigh and Durham. There are tons of restaurants and shopping in Cary. If you want to go downtown Raleigh, it's only like a 10 minute drive or so depending on what part of Cary. If would be different if you were further out like Fuquay or Holly Springs.
I don't know about entertainment though. There are some places for live music and stuff, but I don't know about hitting up any clubs. But then I would rather relax and at home and drive 10 minutes to the club. I don't want to live around noise.
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Cary was a starting point moving from out of state.
