Ditto to what Dayle said. Provo is beautiful, but if you are not LDS - forget it. My good friend was raised there and was not LDS. He is still bitter about his experiences of being left out as a child! I have heard that things have not changed. It truly would be hard on your kids. Salt Lake is somewhat different because of the larger University and medical school - people from all over are there. Park City is awesome!
Colorado would be very nice as well. Under 10,000 people though? Ft. Collins wouldn't fit that bill, but it's a nice town. Breckenridge is a great mountian town.

There are any number of communities in Oregon with proximity to both mountains and the ocean that meet your criteria.

Knoxville and Asheville definitely have more than 10K inhabitants. I think it is difficult in most areas of the South to find that level of tolerance that you are looking for in a small town. You may be better off looking north of the Mason-Dixon line. Maybe somewhere in MD...There are some cute towns in SC and GA but I think maybe it would be a pretty dramatic change for you over Mass.

You might check out Boone, NC, a nice little college town in western North Carolina's high country. It's about 10,000 population, and just under two hours from Charlotte. Real estate is expensive, but so are a lot of the other areas mentioned here.

You are right about the schools in Niceville and Navarre - they are excellent. The cost of housing is quite high though. Real Estate has doubled in the last five years. Seems others around the country are finding out about the area and the beautiful white sand beaches. But if you are use to prices in Cape Cod - this should be affordable for you - maybe even cheap. I personally love the panhandle - the people are open and friendly. You do have seasons here - without the snow and bitter cold. Winter is highs in the 60's. One problem is that Hurricane Ivan did a huge number on Navarre - Niceville being on the other side of the bay and farther east made out much better. Good Luck wherever you choose.

cctraveler: I don't know if you still want opinions or not but I just had to offer mine.

I have lived in Tallahassee, FL all my life (50 years) and I love it here. I'm a semi-world traveler and have been all over the US. There are very few places I would even consider living over Tallahassee or the Big Bend/Panhandle area. We are 20 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico; Pensacola is 200 miles to the west and Jacksonville is 200 miles to the south; Georgia is 30 miles to the north; we are the capital city of Florida and have 2 major universities here; we have about 250,000 citizens with a good portion of those being students. The Apalachian mountain chain dumps into the Gulf of Mexico right here (St. Marks) so we are quite "hilly" but if you want to see mountains a weekend drive up US27 to Pine Mountain, Ga is fantastic. It takes no time at all to get around Tallahassee - we have a slow, friendly pace of life. Our cost of living is MUCH cheaper than central/south Florida. The education system in Leon County is excellent (ok, I had to say that, that's who I work for). After all I'm a 3rd generation graduate of the local schools - lol. With all the above in mind, the Tallahassee area offers many wonderful & interesting things to see & do.

You can email me with any questions about North Florida if you put this area on your list ([email protected]). I don't mind helping at all.

What about New Mexico? I don't know about the job market or education there, but it's beautiful scenery, less expensive than Arizona and Colorado, and multi-cultural.

Breckenridge (mentioned by someone else above) is a lovely town but since it's a ski town the prices are really high and there's little in way of tech careers up there (and I can't imagine commuting from there to Denver on a daily basis). With all the growth along the Front Range, they can't seem to build schools fast enough. Doesn't mean education is bad, just that many schools are at or past capacity.

Tech sector in Colo. (much of the West, I believe) is still recovering from lots of layoffs over the past few years. Might not affect you, depending on what you specialize in, but something to be aware of.

We've been looking for places to "retire" (although we're not REALLY retiring for another 7-8 years) and just spent 3 days in North Carolina. It's a lovely state and there are some great and inexpensive towns easily within 1 hour of a "city" (Raleigh/Durham) and not too far from either mountains or the ocean to preclude easy weekend trips. Checkout Pittsboro, Burlington and Mebane. Plus, with three kids under age 9, you will find good schools and access eventually, to probably the best state college system in the US (maybe excepting CA).

Thanks to all for the feedback! I really appreciate all the leads.

CCTraveler,

western Colorado is a great place to live. Specifically Palisade, Colorado in the Grand Junction area. Palisade is small, around 1,500 but if you need city then Grand Junction is only 13 miles away. Palisade has orchards, wineries, and a nice micro brewery. Recreation wise we have everything that Utah has including Utah National Parks (Canyonlands and Arches) are 100 miles away. Plus we have mountains. Check us out, you will like what you see.

BeanMan
Palisade, Colorado

I've done a bit of research on the area surrounding Grand Junction, CO. ( Thanks BeanMan ). Can you tell me a bit more about the economics of the area? I.E. Jobs? Thanks!

CCT,

Sorry to have taken so long to reply, I have been out of town. Jobs can be a little thin here but if you have good skills you will find a job. housing costs are lower than the rest of the state but payscale is lower too. The lifestyle is the payoff.

Cheers,

BeanMan
[email protected]

Missoula would be wonderful but housing prices are quite high and job opportunities are not great.

I'm surprised at the responses suggesting you would find intolerance toward outsiders in the South. I've never seen any evidence of that, although admittedly I've lived in the NW corner of SC all my life. I have friends and acquaintances from all over and I've never heard that mentioned.

As for religion, I'm sure some of your new neighbors would invite you to come to their church. It would only be polite. I don't think anyone will be offended if you decline.

School systems are hit-or-miss. You would have to research each individual school in the area.

Asheville is indeed pricey. Brevard NC is a nice little town. Tryon NC is a "horse-y community" (and Landrum, SC just across the border) Beautiful area, you might feel left out if you don't ride, though. I mention it because it is full of transplants and retirees from up north.

I'm in Greenville, SC. It's one of those "nice place to live but you wouldn't want to visit there" kind of places. Just for reference, we are 3.5 hours from Charleston beaches, 1 hour from Asheville & mountains, 2.5 hours from Atlanta for your "city" fix. Employment is pretty good here, property taxes are not bad. Not sure about software opportunities. I paid $5500/acre for my 42 acres. With a 2400 sq ft house we pay less than $1000 in property taxes. SC state income tax maxes at 7%.

It's not the small town you're looking for, i just wanted to give you some specific data on the region.

Good luck.

We lived in North Carolina and were quite happy to see the last of it when we moved to Iowa. A bill had been introduced into the NC state legislature to convert all public schools into private academies ("The Pearsall Plan"). That did it. We did not want our children made to pay the price of racist politicians who simply wanted to stir up the rednecks in order to avoid school integration. Fortunately, the plan failed to pass. But the bad taste still sticks in our mouths.

The people will smile at you and drip honey all over you, but you will still be "Yankees" and who your grandparents were is a much more important factor in social acceptance than you could ever believe. Times change, we know, and maybe this kind of exclusive attitude has diminished. Just remember; this is the state that elected and reelected people like Jesse Helms, over and over again. The smaller the town, the more backward are the attitudes.

I sure wasn't looking to start anything in regards to my concern about acceptance of outsiders. My main concern is that my children will easily be able to acclimate themselves into the local school system.
As an update, I've got an interview scheduled with folks in Grand Junction Colorado.... so any more information regarding the communities local to there would be great. BeanMan, thanks for the info on Palisades. Another piece of community information that is important to me is town recreation programs. I'm really involved in my current towns program and would like to continue this involvement where ever I end up.

leahinSC: OMG - Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon line!! I just know your not calling us yanks!

Blue Structure - my geographical faux pas...having lived in MD and DC and then in Columbia, SC and Beaufort SC and now in Asheville, NC ... I stand by my opinion that it is easier to be a newcomer in an area that is more "northern" in its attitude...while there certainly are some exceptions in the South (Asheville, Charlotte, Atlanta...), a small town would not be one of them.

CCT,

Grand Junction has a very good recreation program for kids and adults. There are many team type sports, soccer, softball etc. The facilities such as parks, playing fields, swimming pools are good to great. There are also adult learning classes both through GJ Parks and Rec and through Mesa State College. The Avalon Theater attracts good music (we saw John Prine last week) and is a good concert venue. The growing town of Fruita has the cheapest housing, my choice is of course Palisade. The Redlands and North GJ have the higher end housing. If you would like more questions answered please feel free to E-Mail me.

[email protected]

BeanMan