Deciding between Medina WA, Boulder CO, and Hanover NH — looking for honest input and new suggestions

family and I are considering a relocation, here are some of the considerations:

- would like to be surrounded by nature, preferably mountains and greenery (not too arid) and / or bodies of water - though we are not beach people

- despise intense heat, much prefer cooler or 4 season climate

- we have young family and want to give kids access to top notch educational and peer opportunities (we are coming from New England and there are many things we don’t like about where we are but it is certainly hard to walk from the insanely good private / public schools here and networking

- we enjoy club sports so any combination of ski, sail, tennis, squash, xc ski, golf culture would be prioritized (doesn’t have to be all of them but will take advantage of what is available to us wherever we go). we also enjoy soccer and basketball among other things but want the kids to play lot of club sports that they can play for life

- would love to be in an area that also has lot of other high motor entrepreneurs and builders. For instance, boston/nyc/dallas/houston/sf obviously check this box but there is a certain trade off here between this and some of the other factors.

- safety is a high priority. We want kids to have agency to grow and explore independently in a safe place

- we are libertarian by nature, would generally prefer a non activist political environment

in summary are looking for a place that is not ungodly hot where the children can receive a rigorous education, challenge themselves in a safe environment focused on outdoors/athletics/nature, have agency over their lives as they get older and be generally competent and good people.

some of the places we have / continue to consider are:

- Hanover NH (great public and private school options, formidable outdoor environment, club sports, nearby institutional networks and big cities without leaving New England, Dartmouth backdrop, no tax)

- Medina/Belleveue (tech hub, great nearby nature, great private school options, favorable tax vs other west coast states)

- Boulder (great outdoor lifestyle, lot of successful people, great public schools, co tax code pretty reasonable (for now at least))

would love to get feedback on any of these and hear more ideas along these lines that may make sense for us. thank you!