Cool thread! Lots of good input from folks.

+1 for Asheville and Portland. My visits there have been great. Asheville is a liberal pocket in an otherwise rural and conservative part of the South. I don't want to veer too deep into the sensitive areas of politics and religion, but for me, each place has a vibe and energy to it, and I have to make sure that I'm not gonna have to swim too hard against a cultural current.

Athens, Georgia is probably my favorite town/small city. It's hard to capture the Zen of the place in a paragraph, but there's a 30-year strong music scene and a sense of activism in the community. It has the University of Georgia, so there's tens of thousands of young people to hang around with. It gets warm and humid there, to be sure, but winters are mild, and you can use a convertible almost year-round. You would have to get an education on the SEC and college football, though.

Austin, TX is a city I have been longing to visit. I'm sure it compares favorably to my beloved Athens.

Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.