TN might be a good spot. I'm in KY and we don't get much of a winter, but we get 4 days of snow and a few months of fairly cold. TN would be a closer drive to the ocean. Though I actually prefer boating and fishing in the bodies of water near where I live. I've never liked the beach. It's too crowded for the most part, though a nice run in the morning is amazing before the heat and the crowds. I love seafood, but I get really bored with the scenery out in the ocean. The bays are pretty nice of course.
The summers are very humid, but not incredibly hot except for a month or 2 each year. Of course I understand when you've got family and how difficult it is to leave. I used to want to go out West or Alaska or something like that, but anymore there's almost nothing I have any preference to do that isn't within an hour of where I live.
It's really difficult with kids, my sister is having that issue with my nieces. They're really in an area with very minimal draw for them, but now the kids have a lot of friends.
My wife and I are working on kids, but we really feel blessed to love being where we're at and how many resources we have around, especially if the kid part will ever start working out. And though I think the nearby schools aren't bad, I just don't think they're challenging enough and I think gov. schools don't teach enough to children, so we plan to home school and being older, financially, everything is much easier moving to 1 income.
