May I suggest Charlottesville, VA. It's really a great city to live in with a good climate and with UVA there, plenty of things to do. It's only 2 hours from Washington DC and 1 hour from Richmond when you do have a need for the big city (airport, etc...)
Charlottesville is great but may be a little smaller than your target city. It has a little biotech spun off from UVa. The downtown mall is a great little area with a nice pedestrian mall.
