The Story of Boulder

This is the text of a letter we wrote to our friends about moving to Boulder and our path which led us in this direction. Republishing it here as I originally intended it to be a blog post and never got around to it, plus, wasn't ready to share the blog as publicly yet. Funny how things change that way...It's now been annotated with some Flickr links at the bottom.

**August 2010 Update with More Flickr Images of our New Home**

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Dear family & friends,

As some of you may know, for several years our family has been in a discussion about the kind of lifestyle we want. As much as we love northern California, we've felt for some time that there were some things missing for us. In no particular order, they include a desire to live somewhere Fiona can go outside without us worrying or having to accompany her, slower pace, more rural, more peaceful, seasonal, less expensive, and a real estate market where we can eventually own a home again. Now this needed to be a pretty special place, since in addition to the above laundry list, we also had a few requirements like a good Waldorf school, spiritual community for both Mary and Ben, work for Ben, political leaning not too disparate from our own, and ideally music, theatre, art and cycling scenes we are interested in being part of.

Over time we had been looking at a variety of destinations around California, and though we had some really exciting ideas, in CA they mostly fell short on the cost. Then, we opened our minds to go beyond our beloved CA and started looking at other places in the country. During that search we happened upon Boulder, CO. On paper, or rather the internets as it were, Boulder looked incredible. It literally had everything on our list. Both lists really. So after some looking around online, and giving it some serious thought, we decided it was worth a visit to see for ourselves.

Our time in CO was miraculous, and I use the word very specifically. From almost the moment we arrived, it felt as though this was the right next step for our family. Then the miracles started.

We had been told by some friends of a couple we should look up who are parents at the Waldorf School we were interested in. We thought we'd call them if we had time. Our first night there we had a nice supper at a lovely restaurant in downtown Boulder. The waiter, who was so friendly, was giving us all sorts of tips, and so we asked him where to go for tea and pastry before our appointment at Shining Mountain. Oh, you're going to Shining Mountain? I'll see you there, my wife teaches in the kindergarten and I am helping out with the summer camp. Lo and behold, he's the dad of the couple our friends had recommended we call.

The next morning we go to the school, it's lovely, fall in love with the campus, and then meet the teacher who Fiona immediately fell in love with (and who loved Fiona). At the end of our visit the teacher invited us to join her class if we were going to move.

That night we decide to look around online for a place since everything had been going so well, and so we could get a sense of the rents. We found a few houses for rent in the neighborhood near what would become Fiona's school, and sent a few emails. One got back to us the next morning and invited us to come by in the afternoon. When we arrived, once again, it felt like we were getting home. It was a family, who was looking to replace themselves with another family. We were the first ones to respond to their post and they'd received a bunch of email since. The little 3 bedroom, 2 and a half bath house we were looking at was perfect. Yard, garage, basement for a home office, bedrooms for us and Fiona, and a small guest room (a necessity given how many people we want to have come visit us), and all of this on a lovely little cul-de-sac in a neighborhood full of families, with a small park at one end and walking distance from school to boot. Did we mention the neighbors, a family with a 7 year old girl on one side (we haven't met yet) and her grandparents on the other side (we did meet, very sweet)? The couple said if we wanted to fill out an application they'd recommend us to the landlord and not respond to any of the other emails.

That night we send the landlord a letter explaining who we are, why we like the house, and explaining our situation. We fill out the application and go to take it back to the couple the next day. The landlord calls us when we pull into the driveway and says "Wow, you guys sound great, if your check doesn't bounce, you've got the house if you want it." She hasn't even seen our application.

By this time we decided that in the final hour and a half of our trip, Ben should probably look for a job, given how everything else was going. Kidding here, though it did cross our minds. So, the end of this long story is, on August 21st the movers will come, put all of our belongings into a truck and drive away. The following day Fiona, Mary and Ben will start a three day drive to Boulder, CO where we will make our new home. The miracles that fell into place to make this all possible have also allowed us to focus on the part we will miss the most. Our dear friends. It is you who it's hard to leave, you who tug at our heartstrings, you who we will miss so dearly. And yet, we are following our hearts to Boulder. We hope you will come to visit, and share in the joy of our adventure.

We're including our new details below, and of course our email, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr handles all remain the same. All of a sudden, our social networks are going to come in much handier. Thanks internets!

Ben, Mary & Fiona
4176 Amber Place
Boulder CO 80304
303 449 0749

With so much love and gratitude for each and every one of you. And a prayer we'll be together soon.

Ben, Mary & Fiona

P.S. Now there's some evidence on my Flickr, here's a link to some of the images I've been taking since we arrived:

Recent shots from our life in Boulder
Fiona's new school
What would become our house
And the house we ended up buying!