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This weekend Rob and I checked out Boulder and Fort Collins.
General impressions:
- Boulder: not nearly as overwhelmingly white as Boise
- Fort Collins: overwhelmingly white, boisterous college town
- spectacular thunderstorm every afternoon
- overwhelmingly Christian (you can't buy wine or buy a car on Sundays; WTF?)
- pretty if you're close to the mountains, but not much is
- very spread out: if you live in one town you don't visit the other often
- LONG drive to nearest big airport, and extra-annoying security there
- fun walkable downtown (if ya have feet)
- close to skiing and lots of hiking (good if ya have feet)
- very near Rocky Mountain National Park
- good potential for finding a house we like
- friendly aviation community with not much earning potential
- friendly people (though Boise was even more so)
- full complement of the same big box stores you can find in larger cities in America
- significant variety of restaurants
- no Challenge square dancing potential ever
We'd rather live near Boulder than near Fort Collins, just from the atmosphere of the places and Boulder's proximity to the mountains. Boulder is, of course, a bit pricier. As our real estate agent put it, the place used to be full of hippies, and now it's a few aging hippies and a bunch of trust fund babies.
We had the (mis?)fortune of visiting Fort Collins on the weekend before classes started. The place was a mob. We couldn't park anywhere, flocks of pedestrians were all over, hotels were full, and every few blocks there was a powerful PA system delivering thumpy music to drunk crowds. Ambulances were standing by and I'd be surprised if they went without customers. It is possible Fort Collins would be a bit less awful on any other weekend of the year.
We did see our dream house. About twenty minutes from downtown Boulder, up in the hills, on a couple of acres with a seasonal creek, an aspen grove, beautiful wooded hillsides and hiking trails, and even a cave. This one stole our hearts. It's a little farther from town than we'd like, and we'd still have to figure out how in the world we're going to support ourselves in our new habitat, but man, that place was lovely.
General impressions:
- Boulder: not nearly as overwhelmingly white as Boise
- Fort Collins: overwhelmingly white, boisterous college town
- spectacular thunderstorm every afternoon
- overwhelmingly Christian (you can't buy wine or buy a car on Sundays; WTF?)
- pretty if you're close to the mountains, but not much is
- very spread out: if you live in one town you don't visit the other often
- LONG drive to nearest big airport, and extra-annoying security there
- fun walkable downtown (if ya have feet)
- close to skiing and lots of hiking (good if ya have feet)
- very near Rocky Mountain National Park
- good potential for finding a house we like
- friendly aviation community with not much earning potential
- friendly people (though Boise was even more so)
- full complement of the same big box stores you can find in larger cities in America
- significant variety of restaurants
- no Challenge square dancing potential ever
We'd rather live near Boulder than near Fort Collins, just from the atmosphere of the places and Boulder's proximity to the mountains. Boulder is, of course, a bit pricier. As our real estate agent put it, the place used to be full of hippies, and now it's a few aging hippies and a bunch of trust fund babies.
We had the (mis?)fortune of visiting Fort Collins on the weekend before classes started. The place was a mob. We couldn't park anywhere, flocks of pedestrians were all over, hotels were full, and every few blocks there was a powerful PA system delivering thumpy music to drunk crowds. Ambulances were standing by and I'd be surprised if they went without customers. It is possible Fort Collins would be a bit less awful on any other weekend of the year.
We did see our dream house. About twenty minutes from downtown Boulder, up in the hills, on a couple of acres with a seasonal creek, an aspen grove, beautiful wooded hillsides and hiking trails, and even a cave. This one stole our hearts. It's a little farther from town than we'd like, and we'd still have to figure out how in the world we're going to support ourselves in our new habitat, but man, that place was lovely.
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I hadn't noticed that, but I haven't looked into either of those issues. I'm surprised, considering the liberal nature of the Boulder area. We have the same blue laws here in Indiana.
Of what I know so far, if I get a post-doc at NCAR or something like that, I could handle the Boulder area. :-) Although we'd probably live somewhere like Longmont, Louisville, or Lafayette - all somewhat near Boulder and less expensive.
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The contrast between liberal and conservative is a plus for me. I am very tired of living in a place where there is Only One Answer. I'd get tired of the other side pretty darn quick, too. Having both is nice.
I too probably wouldn't live directly in the heart of Boulder due to price. I'd love to live in the hills, and it's possible we could afford something a little closer to town than the one we saw.
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no subject
It is my understanding that alcohol blue laws are state laws, not city laws. Being a native Californian I never knew until early adulthood that in many places alcohol of any kind cannot be purchased on Sundays AND hard alcohol cannot be purchased in grocery stores. I thought anyone in the US could get tequilla on avvSunday afternoon at their local grocery store--obviously that is not the case.