Denver? And I don't mean Bob
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 - 11:02pm
My wife finally finished grad school a little while back and hasn't found any work here. Right now the best looking offer she has is in Denver. Unfortunately I don't see that I can make my job, at least in its current incarnation, work as an entirely remote position. Plus I'm a native, acclimated Texan who loves Austin.
So, sell me on Denver and convince me that this is going to be awesome.
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Web: Mantis on the Mountain
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My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
um... well the mountains are great. That's all I got.
Well I've been living in Denver for about 7 years... wow that long already? I transplanted from WI/MN.
It depends on what you like doing... outdoorsy stuff is HUGE around here. I'm partial to Mt Biking and Hiking. Awesome National Parks are hours away such as Rocky Mt National -90mins or so... Great Sand Dunes 3.5 hours... You can do any outdoor activity... all we lack are large lakes ...though people still use the lakes and reseviors for water sports much to my amusement.
Downtown Denver is fun to hang out if your into the whole bar scene and that... good restaurants too.
If your into the Arts the DCPA has really good productions in their own right.. and then there's the national tours that come into town... Wicked is playing right now... had to get those tickets literally 2 years in advance.
Temperature and weather are generally great, though since you're from Texas -winters will take a little to get used to. Being from WI/MN when its winter, it stays cold form Nov to Mar... so to me it seems like winter here is a joke... here in Denver we get cold stretches but it can get into the 50's or higher in January. This last winter was a freak of nature with the blizzards we got.
Housing market here is more expensive than I hear Texas is ... my guess is mean around 250-300K for a "nice" house... but thats just my estimate based on people I know from mostly work(Engineers). My house's price was well below this median and it's in nice quiet -1970's era neighborhood.
Drop me a PM if want more info... but do it quick... I'll out of town with no GWJ for 3 weeks starting this Friday.
I'm in Denver and I have to say I cant think of any other place I would rather live right now.
Dumb highlighted many of the good points... but I gotta say that Ive lived in many other areas (originally from Chicago, Tucson, Boston and Sacramento... and quite a few others in my travels) and none of them feel like "home" as much as here.
I'm a big Mountain biker and hiker so I do that quite a bit of that during the spring, summer and fall. Winter you got skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing, snowmobiling... you name it. Yes you can do many of these in other places... but not many places in the States that you can play golf in the morning and go skiing at night
Housing market is rough at the moment... but about the same as the rest of the US... although it IS a buyers market right now and you can get some great deals pretty much anywhere around the Metro area.
Downtown is pretty slick if you like the nightclub scene (which I don't but have done it many times). People are friendly and the weather is pretty good all year around. Yes we get our share of snow storms but I think we have something like 300 days of sunshine here.
If you need any more info just PM me
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Thanks guys. This is a lot of help.
Actually it's looking like the house cost is going to be cheaper. For what we want, Austin is high. I think we're going to try to land in the Washington Park area as my wife would be working at Broadway and I-25 and I think that housing is equivalent to what we're used to.
Mountain biking is the biggest selling point for me. A friend is the sales manager at Wheat Ridge Cyclery so I might consider using that as an in for a career shift if possible. I am worried about the amount of technical riding though as Austin rocks for that. Of course I also have to deal with the altitude adjustment in Denver. What's the immediate riding like? Here in Austin I have three awesome actual mountain bike trails in town. From what I gather about Denver the real riding is about 20 minutes out of town.
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
The only negative aspect of Denver is that there are no good Mexican restaurants. Besides that everything is perfect.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
Yeah? I thought Taco de Mexico was outstanding. This is a long time ago though.
Got any toast?
What, Casa Bonita and Chubbys don't count?
Otherwise, what Dumb Kid said. Pretty good concert scene around here too.
my vote cancels out yours
Hey, is Lowry still an air force base? It looked like it was turned into housing last time I was there, but I didn't look into it.
Got any toast?
Black Bart's Cave, ooh, scary...
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Casa Bonita is the bomb! Well at least it was when I was 5 and they had a monkey cliff jumping and video games and glow in the dark chemical necklaces. Now days the food is a bit on the scary side. It is still buffet style? Now that I think about it that whole town of Lakewood is kind run down.
Colorado on the whole is a great place to live. I would pick Bolder area if you had a choice.
Az Syndicate
Woot!, it's a lifestyle!
Wash Park is nice... its where younger urbanites live.
Good biking is as close as the foothills. There are plenty of trails that will challenge you: guaranteed! Since they all seemingly start from the base of the the foothills you always have to start the ride with nice steady climb for the first couple of miles... you'll be feeling like your heart will explode in no time. The whole lack of air thing is nice too
I'm by all means still a novice comapred to some of my friends but maybe a slap and tickle ride is in the future....
Yeah, I'm definitely worried about that. At least for Tex-Mex, there's not exactly a shortage here.
That's what going to be the killer. Here we don't have much for elevation change. A trail might wind back and forth across a creek to get a lot of relative elevation change for our comparative flatland but there aren't many extended climbs at all. Plus I'll be an O2-deprived wheezing noodle there. Here the technicality is from limestone ridges and lots of rock.
Although I'm excited about the difference in ecosystems making an all new ride experience.
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
Denver's a great city -- INCREDIBLE Arts center in downtown Denver, Top notch sports in any of the major sports, wonderful food, every outdoor activity you could think of within a reasonable drive, mountains! mountains! mountains! Traffic SUCKS, though. Get ready for long commutes (even to the ski resorts in the winter). Depending on where the job is in the city, you might want to consider some of the other cities to live -- Golden, Boulder, Louisville, etc. We lived in Boulder for 6 years, and it still is our favorite place of all the places we've ever lived (although Jackson, WY is a close second).
I always look forward to company trips to Denver because there are some wonderful Sushi houses downtown. Odd as it sounds, they are not a long flight from San Fran and some enterprising types have taken advantage of that.
If wishes were trees the trees would be falling, Listen to reason, Reason is calling
Your feet are going to be on the ground, Your head is there to move you around -- REM
This trail is literally only 3 minutes from my work.... nice for an after work ride... 10 miles or so
Better start working out now......
Seconded. I almost wound up there a few years ago, myself.
I wouldn't be too worried about the elevation changes, Mantis. You'll suck wind for the first six weeks and then be in the best shape of your life.
Mercury's been in retrograde most of the week. It's like a full moon with a side of kicked-in-the-nuts. -- H.P. Lovesauce
Dumb what trail is that? Looks like either Mt Falcon or Chimney Gulch.
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
Supposedly Waterton Canyon/Indian Creek (the 6 mile dirt road warm-up up to the dam and subsquent 6 mile cool down back down have been lopped off from the plot I think)
Ahh yea Ive done that one a lot. Good single track at the top. Right next to Lockheed-Martin so I'm assuming you work there?
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
...perhaps...
-Look AWAY from the man behind the curtain!!!!!
GOTCHA!
PAR
LinkedIN profile
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
What's the broadband scene like there? It looks like Comcast is the main game in town which concerns me more than a little. What bandwidth do they offer and do the y block any ports?
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
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My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
Yeah I think you're right, Comcast is the only game in town. The wife pays the bills, I'm not sure what we're paying for internet service.
I counter that with sushi! Sushi Den
my vote cancels out yours
Well this is going down(town in a lilly loorah). The wife accepted the offer and has to be in the Denver office by Aug. 6. Right now we're checking out the Golden, CO. house market. Mountain bike trails out the back door!
Did I mention I'm scared of Winter? Do I need a generator? Snowshoes? A snowcat? Survivorman?
Xbox Live: LiquidmantisGWJ | PSN: LiquidmantisGWJ
Web: Mantis on the Mountain
--
My wife liked the man part monster I made. -Pharacon
A nice pile of video games should get you through most snow storms