Where to Live?

I've had a few places in mind of where I'd prefer to live for a while now. They do have some common threads.

Some of the things that I look for include:

• interesting geography--I like mountains, bodies of water, and trees; I like camping, motorcycling, skiing, kayaking, and bicycling so my ideal locale will permit all of those
• climate--I'm not a particular fan of Hawaii or Florida type of weather, I do like seasonal changes and I actually like some snow; having grown up in Montana I think I have a fundamental appreciation for the change of seasons; if I'm going to be somewhere it doesn't snow I'd really rather that it be mild year-round, such as Marin and Sonoma counties in California
  
• community--I've lived in areas that were bedroom communities that seemed to lack their own sense of identity and while often peaceful, I do prefer a place that can stand on its own and isn't necessarily dependent on the next county's economic prosperity; I prefer a place where people feel like they are active participants and contributors; within this grouping I tend to prefer places with fewer than 150,000 residents
• culture and character--this is a little trickier to characterize but small northeastern towns of 4,000 people can have it, particularly if a local college is a major occupant of the community due to the nature that a college town can bring; part of this is an intellectual curiosity that I enjoy; if the town has some interesting and meaningful history, all the better; I don't require a symphony but a local playhouse or a couple of coffee houses with live acts or the occasional poetry readings take place, I'm pretty happy; a raison d'etre really makes me happy; towns where the local college or university are significant tend to score higher; ethnic diversity is important to this as well
  
• shopping--this is a mixed bag, I'm really not much of a mall crawler or big-box shopper but hopefully I don't have to go much more than an hour to get to those places for the 3 or 4 times a year I might feel the need; most of my shopping is done via the web now, heck, I even have Huggies on a subscription through Amazon delivered to the doorstep! Of course, organic farmers markets and grocers are big with us.

So, with this said, what locales have I identified? This is not a complete list but covers many in the U.S. that hit my radar (in no particular order):

• Missoula, MT
• McCall, ID (though there's not much work outside retail trade)
• Boise, ID
• Pasadena, CA
• Claremont, CA (trees and PhDs)
  
• Camino and Placerville, CA
• Red Hook, NY
• New London, NH
• Portland, ME
• Petaluma, CA
• much of Marin County, CA
• Eugene, OR
• Portland, OR
  
• Medford, OR
• Spokane, WA
  

Of course there are many areas in western Europe that I really like too but job opportunities are limited for a US citizen who doesn't already have work rights in the EU.

So, if you have any other suggestions for places that have the blend that I've described, please let me know!