We're convinced there is no greener grass, but help us try

My spouse and I are both convinced that our current place (SF Bay Area suburbs) is the greenest grass if we are willing to pay for it. However, in recent years we have both become very burnt out at our jobs and staring down the barrel of decades to retire to afford VVHCOL is not desirable. We also have young children and would like to spend more time with them.

Our opposite weather requirements makes it much harder to find more affordable places to live. I'll list out the non-negotiables first.

• Affordable, we would like sub $1M for 3/4 br SFH (no townhomes/condos) but willing to go up to $1.5M if necessary. No fixers and ideally 1800sqft+. (Believe it or not but in Bay Area, this is incredibly hard to find even for 1.5M).
• Good public schools, we would rather spend on a nicer school district than go private, which also makes affordability difficult
• Things to do for children (ex: theme parks, zoos, museums)
• Not too rainy/snow/cold in the winters (rules out a lot of pacific northwest), not too hot in the summers (rules out Sacramento/Texas/Arizona/Nevada) - this feels in conflict with point 1

Nice to haves

• Near west coast to be near both of our families
• Diverse population
• Near a major city (but doesn't have to be exactly in one)