or the surrounding areas? the girlfriend and i are trying to decide on a place to move in a little over a year when i graduate college and charleston happens to be one of the places we are considering since it is home to one of the campuses of the cooking school she wants to attend (johnson and wales). we've been leaning towards moving back to where i grew up in southeast florida since j&w has a campus there also but home values are ridiculous down here and i'd like to buy a house rather than live in an apartment again. anyway, if anyone here is from that area or at least familiar with it, could you let me know a few things?

what is there to do there?
how is the area?
what's a good website to search for homes in that area? (i tried using google found sites for that but none of them were too great)
is there emissions testing?
what is the name of the county charleston is a part of? (i'd like to pursue a career in law enforcement, preferably at the sheriff level so that info is important)
what are motorsports like up there; ie, drag strips, auto-x courses, road courses?

i may think of other questions later, but that's all i have now. thanks for any and all help.