Free agent: Sell me on your region of the United States.

[anticlimatic]

I will be changing jobs/locations next summer and I am up for an adventure. I am looking for areas outside of small town/city locations with lots of natural beauty, wilderness, and minimal big city issues (crowding, traffic, high cost of living). Looking for ideas from locals as google earth and city-data can only tell me so much.

Come on up to northern Michigan. I live in what I like to call the smallest big city in the country. We have one of everything you need- an art house theater, a movie theater, some craft brew pubs, lots and lots of wineries just outside of town, an all night diner, a grain train (mom and pop style Whole Foods), a historic brick and gaslight downtown district built around train tracks originally, an ice rink, some ski hills, lots of beaches on the Great Lakes. It's about 20 minutes from town to town, zero crime, all four seasons (mostly winter), everyone is warm and friendly. Cost of living is moderate. Plenty of space outdoors you can go to be alone, but plenty of people not far away if you start to feel lonely.