I have commandeered my husband's handle to respond to you. I am from Winchester, actually. Born and raised. To answer your question, if you love your family... DO NOT MOVE TO WINCHESTER. If you look at the ratings for schools, you will not want to move there, unless you are okay with mediocrity. If you want a lot of fun activities year round for your kids, you will not want to move there. If your wife wants any sort of decent shopping, you will not want to move there, unless her idea of great is Kohl's. Gag. Winchester doesn't even have a Gap so if you have teenagers... If you want open-mindedness and diversity (and I'm not referring to Republican/Democrat stuff; I'm talking about it being so backward that people of color can't walk down the street at night without getting beat up by a bunch of rednecks), you will not want to move there. Housing is cheap in Winchester for a reason. Just saying.

Best area to live for schools, and it's not cheap, Montgomery County, Maryland. Parts of Rockville, parts of Kensington, Bethesda, Potomac (there are some normal parts of Potomac and then there are the 13 million dollar houses parts so don't discount it right away), Chevy Chase.

Four of the top public high schools in the country are concentrated right here. Winchester can't compete, not even with their private school options, which are also poor (I went to a private school through middle school then attended the public high school, James Wood).

In any of these areas I mentioned, you are within minutes to the Metro which will take you downtown to dozens of free Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo, the National Mall. You MUST visit the White House at Christmas. Oh, and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see money being made.

Just in MoCo (the nickname for Montgomery County), there are butterfly gardens, children's theaters (many are interactive for toddlers/young children), kid's museums, swim clubs, 2 awesome parks with trains and carousels, the list goes on. You're also about a 40 minute drive from Baltimore's Inner Harbor where there is an amazing aquarium, boat tours of the harbor (the pirate boat tour is fun for kids), etc.

I'll repeat. It is not cheap to live here. But in return you get to expose your kids to so much and so many activities and an insanely great education while being surrounded by people who really strive to excel, rather than just get through. I feel that's the Winchester mentality, except for maybe a select few. Winchester is not producing the best of the best.

The town is really beautiful, it's close to the Blue Ridge Mountains which are gorgeous. There is a lot of Civil War history in Winchester (which changed hands 72 times during the Civil War) and some Revolutionary. They have what's called the Apple Blossom Festival the first weekend in May each year, and it's a blast. Winchester is a great place to visit. It is not, unfortunately, a great place to live.

If you want more deets, message my husband.