Places to live - input please?

[Capray]

Another vote for AZ.
We live about 30-40 minutes South of Phoenix and love it. We don't have to deal with the craziness of the big city unless we want to. Mountains and snow are about 2 hrs away. Vegas is 5-6 hrs away. The CA beaches are 5-6 hrs away. No natural disasters.
The only somewhat negative is the extreme heat 115+ in the summers and yes for the most part it is dry, but July and August can get rather humid with Monsoon season.
It is fairly herp friendly, except venomous and crocodilians. You can possess native non-protected venomous with a hunting license.
And now we have 3 shows a year(2 in Phoenix and 1 in Tucson). Plus the Super Shows in LA and San Diego are close enough to drive to.

Pheonix is soooo spread-out. And bland-ish...lol. But there's some hip little campus town that's fun to go to. I'm obviously not a big fan of the desert, disregard my negativity.