I'm in Savannah, Ga. and my whole family was born and raised here (one of my sisters has since moved up to Roswell). We are a medium sized city I guess, not as big as Atlanta, but not as small as some of the other towns close by. I can't answer to the public schools as my daughter is in Catholic school, but we have a great historic district, and we have the ocean nearby as well. My house is about 10 minutes from both! There are also a lot of smaller towns about 30 to 45 minutes away that are really growing right now, including Richmond Hill, Rincon, Pooler and Springfield. There are a lot of folks moving down to this area from up north, housing is less expensive here than in Atlanta, though I'm not sure about the surrounding areas. Good luck!