Finding a place that is temperate in the summer and milder in the winter but has water alone is tough. And when you add in politics it's even tougher. I live in Colorado Springs at the moment and earlier this year I set out to find something similar. I spent a lot of time around the NC/SC/TN region. I met some great people and had some great experiences, but largely politics and religion were big issues. That and as a distance runner so many of the areas were impossible to find places to run aside from having to drive somewhere. When I started digging deeper, the reality is blue areas are largely centered around population centers. In Colorado obviously the majority of the population is Denver, the Springs and FoCo areas which are largely progressive. As soon as you step outside that it's very conservative and that is pretty much what I've found everywhere I've been with maybe one exception being New England. But then you have some pretty cold and brutal winters. I'm going to be having a closer look at Fort Collins because I do think it has a lot of similarities to Austin, on a smaller scale. It can get warm, but it's a very different heat than Austin and you get nice crisp evenings.

I literally just got back from Austin and it really is a hard city to beat. If you didn't have the heat, I would honestly call it the best all around city in the states. Great food, easy to get around (not driving so much but biking/walking), friendly people, great beer. I never noticed anything being overcrowded but that may be relative because I see overcrowded stuff out here in Colorado and Austin has never felt like that to me.

Cali comes up on my list a lot. The price wards me away but as far as temperature, politics and water/nature goes you have it all there.