Born and raised 22yr old FLORIDIAN moving to Denver Metro Area!!! In October!!!

[palolem]

Hi Kim! I'm from Russia myself so I know a little bit about winters

First of all I wish you all the best in your new location and I'm more then sure u'll love it after some time. The winter itself is not only a cold snow - it's also lots of fun for kids and grownups, it's a REAL Christmas (not fake one around palm trees), it's snowboarding and skying and it's more then I can tell! I saw on YouTube people in CO like to hang out in outside hot jacuzzis in winter and then jump into the snow! THAT'S SOME FUN!!!

The thing you'll definitely need is a good warm boots like Uggs or Columbia with rubber bottom (I have them in Russia and it's much colder there then in Denver) and I can spend 3-5 hours outside with my kid and still be warm and confy!

+ couple of fleece shirts, fleece or crochet hat and some skying coat - now you're ready for the real winter Myself I wear snowboarding pants sometimes if I want to play in the snow and be warm and dry! You can buy all stuff in one of snowboarding shops!

Now I live in Thailand for a while and I'm so tired of the heat and no seasons - it's so boring! I don't even need sea any more - tired of it...all I want is seasons and real snow! My husband is american (from FL by the way ) so we're planning mooving to denver area sometime too ... we both and our son miss snow very much...

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by Kim42088

... No one's said anything about great bars and pubs to hang out at. One of the first things we'll want to do when we get there is check out the nightlife so any tips on that would be much appreciated!

TONS of nightlife. TONS of men. See Westword for music and things to do.

Use the search tool with: nightlife, bars, singles

[Gr8DenverHomes]

Welcome to Colorado!

I came to Denver from the Left Coast north of Seattle 12 years ago, so I can tell you, the dry air will definitely be a change in climate. The humidifier tips and layering the clothes (summer or winter storms come up fast) is good advice.

Also, sunscreen all year round (300+ days of sunshine) is even more critical at 5280+ ft altitude, as is drinking LOTS of water.

Regarding clubs/nightlife - Denver has a great downtown scene - all along 16th Street Mall and LoDo (lower downtown Denver) will provide plenty of options. Also, check out Pearl Street up in Boulder and some of the trendy areas like Highlands west of Downtown or the DTC (Denver Tech Center) to the southeast offer great restaurants and bars. Take the RTD Lightrail and explore - save on parking and cabfare.

Hope this helps!

Bryan

[rikensquire]

Originally Posted by Kim42088

Hello to all,

My family and I are moving to the Denver Metro are at the end of this month/ beginning of Oct. I am 22 and have never lived out of the state of Florida. Needless to say, I am worried about such a harsh climate change for myself and my 4 yr old (my husband has lived in Iowa as well as Nebraska so he'll adjust fine I'm sure). Any help or advice on how to keep myself and my son warm for the winter that we'll face would be much appreciated!
Also as I have never moved out of state like this, I am worried that it will be hard to make new friends especially in such a big city. Any advice on making friends and meeting genuine, relaxed atmosphere type of people in the Denver area would also be great!
Lastly, my husband and I like to enjoy a night out every now and then, but do not enjoy lots of drunken, rowdy, college kids nor being shoulder to shoulder in club-like scenes. Given this, does anyone have advice on which bars and pubs to go to, and which ones to stay away from? (I particularly like Irish Pubs!)

Thanks in advance for your replies,
Kim

My wife is 28, when we moved to Colorado, five years ago she was 23, she'd grown up in the Countryside/Palm Harbor area of Florida. Her ancient 44 y/o husband was a transplant from New York to Florida, so I could probably live on another planet, should the need arise. It was a hard adjustment, even though she'd been limited to going to the beach infrequently, that was a big thing she missed(misses). Depending upon the city you'll be moving to, you might want to brush up on your Spanish, the Mexican influence is far more prominent than in Fl. There's nice Irish pubs in the affluent parts of town, we liked one in Colorado Springs as well, but the Irish aren't a big deal here. We live in Green Valley Ranch, which is a newer part of Denver that was the brain-child of Frederico Pena (Like many ideas, once the guy who had it moved on, it's floundered a bit), we liked that it was a newer community, till the real estate bubble popped, then we saw how fragile the market became. Denver isn't as cheap as most of Florida, to live in. You only need an air conditioner here for abour three months out of the year, we tough it out without one, except at night for the kids (2) & (4 1/2). Be sure to check into the schools and have an opinion before you settle in, there are charter schools, but where you live will matter. We've had some issues with making friends too. The churches around us are just about non-existent, we'd wanted to have some religion in our lives since we got together, but we've come to the conclusion that doing so will require going well out of our community. My sister has told me that our children will be the source for most of our friendships, so I guess we'll be a little isolated for another year or so. That's all the advise for a stranger I can offer.

[jdanko]

Learn these words, " GORTEX, POLAR TECH" materials. No cotton, layer layer layer. Good luck!

[kaddessi]

You are probably already here and have already found out but I just moved here from Tampa in March and my biggest shock regarding the nightlife was 1) they close at 1am (1:30?) instead of 3am! and 2) there is absolutely no smoking inside anywhere.