Best place to live, work, and play is Southern California.
live – diverse selection of cities in LA, Orange County, and San Diego. All with their own style, people, and attitude
work – biggest and best LA firms in the country reside here. Its not what projects do they offer, its what projects do you want
play – everything. 24/7/365 lifestyle. Every type of natural feature around. Did I mention most firms (at least in OC) have casual half-day fridays? We eat breakfast and go surfing.
It may cost a pretty penny to live here, but wages are better than any where else too. I know people that are unemployed and are able to still manage. There are many other great places in the US, but I have been to many of them and SoCal is by far my fave.