Durham gets a bit of a bad rep from the rest of the state, but it's an awesome little city on the quiet - in addition to the tech startup scene, it has a blossoming food truck community, a big arts scene, tons of bars, and they didn't bat an eyelid when my wife and I applied to get married by CCB Plaza in Pac-Man outfits last year :).

(and on that note, when I finally get this damn visa, anybody in the area interested in hiring somebody with sysadmin / JavaScript/Ruby development experience? ;))