Places I could totally live

Have you  ever taken those quizzes that tell you which towns would be the best for you to live in, based on the climate, city size, activities available etc?
There are a lot of places in the world I would love to visit, but I also have a list of cities I think I would like to live in. Of course, once you actually stay somewhere for an extended period of time, you find that it's not at all what you may have idealized. Similarly, a place you might not be enthusiastic about at first can slowly grow on you and you can't imagine what you had against it in the first place. Where I live now comes to mind in that respect: I hated it when we first got here, but now there is so much I would miss when we move someday.
I've found over the years that your life situation influences where you'd be comfortable living as well. I loved living in Seattle as a single person, riding the bus late at night and walking along the waterfront after work. It was okay as a young married couple, though slightly more inconvenient in the car respect. (I never really liked Everett very much either way, to tell you the truth). But once I had a baby it was much less pleasant. I wouldn't want to take the bus with a baby, but I wouldn't drive in the heavy traffic; there were high crime rates, and very few close-by places to take my kid to play; and the weather made me miserable when I was stuck at home all day.
I don't know if I'd have liked Logan, Utah as a single person, but when we moved there it was perfect for our family, with our neighborhood full of other families in the same stage of life as us.
So, I think if jobs, cost of living, and housing weren't issues, there are a few towns I've visited that I'm sure I'd love to reside in. Also, there are some places I've actually never been to, but in my mind I think I'd love them if I could live there. ( A few years ago I did a post on places we might like to get jobs, this is different in that we probably wouldn't be applying for jobs in  most of these places.)
First some places I've visited that I like:

• Snohomish WA

 Snohomish is beautiful. It is a smaller town just East of Everett, with a touristy main street and beautiful countryside all around, including a winding river and waterside parks. It's fairly close to Seattle so you could still go to the city every once in a while, but it was a distance away from the crime and traffic of Everett, Lynwood, and all the other towns along the I-5 corridor. It was lovely. Other cute towns in WA: Poulsbo, Bainbridge, Mukilteo,but you need to be rich to live in those places.(Downside: Washington is a very expensive place to live, and pretty far away from family.)

• Spearfish, SD

We've discovered this little treasure over the past two years, getting to know it well as we went there for my doctor appointments for my last pregnancy. Everyone else in the area always goes to Rapid City for their shopping or outings, but we've found little Spearfish to be a much more pleasant destination for our monthly Wal-mart runs or park visits. There is a college there, so it's not just a blue collar town or a farming community like most of the towns of South Dakota, and it's in the Black Hills so its beautiful and green. I love Spearfish! (Downside: teaching jobs pay the same as where we live now, so it's pointless to move there, really.)

• Logan, Ut

When I initially moved away from my hometown in Southern Utah, I didn't think I'd ever want to live in Utah again; I wanted something different and exciting. Joseph was the one who wanted to move here because the University had such a good rating in the education field. To my surprise, I loved Logan! It was large enough to not be boring, and removed from the Salt Lake valley so it didn't feel like just another stop along the freeway. A University meant a more diverse culture and things to do. It was close to Bear Lake, a beautiful canyon or two, not too far from my family, and there were tons of things for kids to do there. I could have stayed there for a long time. In fact the only reason we moved, is the town has this little problem of an inversion every winter, creating a worse smog problem than Salt Lake City! This caused Joseph to get sick every year, so we knew we just couldn't stay. It was very sad. If Joseph were to die (heaven forbid), I might move there again. Just sayin'.

• Cedar City, Utah

Speaking of Utah...I never thought I'd say it, but Cedar City is a pretty nice place to live. It wasn't until I researched other places as Joseph has gone to school and looked for jobs, that I've realized how great Cedar City really is! The high school has so many opportunities that smaller towns might not, with AP classes, clubs, bands, and a variety of competitions. There is a good University with a beautiful campus, and it's close to mountains, deserts, and everything in between, not to mention close proximity to Zion and Bryce Canyon. There is the Shakespeare festival every summer, with the free greenshow and excellent plays for date nights. It's close to family so the kids could see their grandparents more often, and there are parks galore. Downside: It's maybe too close to family, and I would hate the feeling that I hadn't gone anywhere from where I'd grown up, even if it is a great town.

• Lander, WY

Another place I've been contemplating lately is Lander, WY. Joseph almost got a job near here, and we were pretty excited about it. Wyoming has some fairly unpleasant (at least at first glance) towns, but this one is lovely. Maybe I'm just idealizing this one because my grandparents used to live here, so I have many a pleasant memory of visiting the park, the swimming pool, and nearby campgrounds, but I think I could live in Lander and my kids would like it. It is near mountains and  a bigger town with more shopping options, but its not ugly like the bigger city . Bonus: Wyoming has excellent pay for teachers, which is why Joseph wants to live there so badly! Other Wyoming places that seem nice enough: Star Valley, Gillette, Casper.

• Mt Shasta, CA

Northern California has an almost mythical quality about it, with the Red Wood Forest, the coast, etc. One place I've been several times is Mt. Shasta, and it's beautiful, with lakes and mountains. Any other town in the vicinity would probably be nice too, like maybe Redding. Downside: California is a ridiculously expensive place to live, and everyone knows that someday it will fall into the ocean. ;)

Now there are plenty of other places I've never been , but I could see myself living there (realizing of course, that I might change my mind if I actually visited and found it to not be what I thought.)

• Astoria, OR- 

I've mentioned before that I want to go here, many movies have been filmed here, and the nearby beaches are gorgeous. I think that most of Oregon looks beautiful, especially along the Columbia river..so places like Portland, The Dalles, etc. all seem like good places to live. Downside: I think it rains more in Astoria than it does in Seattle, but I don't know if it would affect me as much if I can drive around and have things to do.

• Boulder, CO

Never been here either, but everything I've read about it sounds great: beautiful scenery, college town, pretty downtown etc. Downside, I hear it's wicked expensive to live here.

I think if I wasn't married with kids, my list would be a little different: bigger cities, maybe more liberal communities. Maybe when our kids are all grown up we'll move somewhere completely new? What kind of places would you like to live?