I recently had three friends fly into town from Chicago, Boston, and Delray Beach, and had a chance to show off what I think makes the Boulder community special for a few days.  I had a real sense of pride sharing it with them, and it reminded me why I feel so lucky to be living here.

A tradition 18 years strong, the four of us take turns hosting what we now refer to as The Mannual.  As this year’s host, I was responsible for choosing a theme, planning the long weekend, and sending a packet of information to the rest of the group.  Though it was my third time hosting in Colorado, it was the first feeling like this is home.  And it felt good.

I settled on: “Eat.  Drink.  Play.  Boulder.”  I arranged to borrow a friend’s vacation rental to make downtown accessible by foot, narrowed my wish list of spots to visit, and decided to use technology as an underlying theme (a facet of Boulder that I appreciate more and more).  A week before their arrival they had access to our trip loaded into Gowalla, a Flickr account, and our newly minted website.

Eat:  We did plenty of that, as we usually do.  The highlights included my favorite lunch spot SALT (especially because they feature a few local ingredients and I love the wood fired oven and stove), Sisters’ Pantry dumplings at the Boulder Farmers’ Market, and an old fashioned barbeque, with plenty of sunshine on the patio and socializing with the neighbors.

Drink: Yes, plenty of that too.  We never did make it any of the breweries on my list (Oskar Blues, Boulder Beer, and Upslope), but we did hit Liquor Mart to stock the fridge with their great selection of local stuff.  Some of the favorites were Upslope Pale Ale (Friend: “Is this the one I read about in Maxim?”  Me: “You read Maxim?”), Left Hand Milk Stout, and Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale.

Play: Some of that, but less than in our younger years.  Disc golf was cancelled due to high winds and laziness, but we did manage to squeeze in Whiffle Ball at Chautauqua Park, where my friends were my groomsmen a couple of years ago.  We also soaked up plenty of sun playing Cornhole on the patio (insert joke here), and learned a thing or two from neighbors who went to college in the Midwest where the game was born.

Many of the things that I wanted to do and places I wanted to visit never did make the cut, but in the end, it may have been better that way.  We had a chance to enjoy the sunshine, have some great food and drink, and really relax – the things that I love to do, here in my home.

The next time your friends fly into town, what will you show them?

When I moved to Boulder back in January, I knew for a number of reasons that I’d landed in my own personal heaven for this exact time in my life.

I’m a new freelancer/independent contractor with a huge heart for social media, technology, Idea People, and Cool New Things in general.  Obviously, with Boulder being home to startups like Lijit (I work there part-time), events like Ignite (it’s what sold me on moving here in the first place), and groups like Girls in Tech, I felt immediately like I belonged here.

More than Geeks

But there’s another side of Boulder that I love just as much as the start-up and tech scene here, and that’s the strong focus and priority that this city places on health, wellness, and activity.  I have yet to meet someone who isn’t involved in SOME sort of hobby that is a physical activity – yoga, biking, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, climbing, running, you name it – people out here are doing it.

Shortly before I moved to Boulder, I completed CorePower Yoga’s teacher training program and it changed my perspective on yoga as more than a healthy choice, but as a lifestyle.  I’d known for a long time that I wanted to use my teaching certification to work with young women – adolescents really – in some sort of in-school or after-school setting.

Enter The Wellness Initiative.  I met Mara Rose through Grace Boyle before I was even settled into my apartment here in Boulder.  Mara is the Director of The Wellness Initiative -

Mission Statement:

The Wellness Initiative is a local Colorado organization whose mission is to improve the physical health, social and emotional development, and academic performance of low-income youth through yoga-based wellness programs.  The Wellness Initiative will serve 1,700 students in 19 schools this year, teaching them to manage their stress, control their anger, strengthen their bodies, and focus their minds.

Mara was looking for people with a passion for yoga, kids, and both to jump on board and help her plan and execute their first ever Yogathon.  I didn’t hesitate, and we’re thrilled to announce the upcoming first ever Yogathon, a yoga-filled, community-involved fundraiser to help continue to bring yoga to kids in our schools here.

How you can participate

This is where YOU come in.  You the yogi, you the parent, you the local business.

Yogis and parents. Chances are that if you’re in Boulder, you’re into yoga.  Ok, so that’s a sweeping generalization, but I’m finding it to be true all the time.  Come participate!  We’ll be doing 108 Sun Salutations guided by nationally recognized yoga instructors, including Richard Freeman.

Note: Children are welcome and are encouraged to participate and attend with their parents and family members. Kids between 5-12 years old are invited to enjoy the Yogathon in the kids’ room and do crafts, listen to music, and play games with The Wellness Initiative’s talented yoga instructors.

The details:

When: Saturday, May 1; 1-4PM
Where: Boulder High School
How: Registration is $20 and participants are asked to raise $108 in donations prior to the event.  You can register here and set up your own donation page (like mine!).

Local Businesses.  Want to be involved either through donation, team-building, or sponsorship?  Shoot me a note and we can talk about different levels of sponsorship.

Everyone else. Not in Boulder to participate?  You can still donate here, and if you want to specifically sponsor me and my team from Core Power, you can do so here.

The Nitty Gritty

Registration is required before the event and will be open through April 16.  To register, you can visit (http://www.firstgiving.com/wellnessinitiative), and for more information, please view The Wellness Initiative: (http://www.wellnessinitiative.org/yogathon.html).

Thanks for your support, Boulder!  Namaste

Boulder receives serious recognition as a great place to live and work. You can check out the full list of Boulder lists here.  Sometimes it’s like Boulder won Best in Show for being a city.

But lists don’t capture the spirit of Boulder and the tech community. Even if Boulder was named one of 8 Fabulous Winter Wonderlands by Where to Retire magazine. Lists don’t capture how much work goes into making this community thrive.How you can show up to numerous events and meet incredible, intelligent people who are open to helping you and the community out. If you’re looking to connect with entrepreneurs, VCs, bloggers or just those passionate about social media, you have your choices:

• Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup
• Silicon Flatirons
• WordCamp Denver
• Denver and Boulder Ignites
• Boulder Open Coffee Club
• Bloggers and Beer
• Social Media Club
• Podcamp
• TechStars
• Front Range Blogger Meetup
• Chicks Who Click
• Venture Capital in the Rockies
• Front Range Girls Geek Dinner
• Glue Conference and the list goes on.

Lists don’t capture what it’s like to wake up to 300 days of sunshine a year, go on a hike after work, to walk into a coffee shop and instantly know people. The New York Times might ask is “Florida, the Next Hotbed of Venture Capital?” but the Front Range is building a community to be reckoned with.

So to capture the essence that is this community, Boulder.me would love to get the bloggers to contribute a blog post on what it’s like to work and play in Boulder (and Denver too). Something that captures the spirit of Boulder and the greater tech community more than just a list can. Write a blog post and e-mail it to us at eellis at metzger.com, and we’ll compile a list of the blog posts. We’d love to get entries by March 15, so send us the link once you post.

Our first entry is Making Your City an Innovation Hub by Andrea Meyer!

Our second post is from Denise Smith on “These are a few of my favorite things.”

Our third post is from Jason Mendelson on “What Boulder Means to Me.”

Our fourth post is from Dave Taylor on “Why I like living here in Boulder, Colorado.”

Our fifth post is from Grace Boyle on “Dear Boulder.”

Our sixth post is from Dirk Shaw on “Living, Working and Playing in Boulder.”

Our seventh post is from Jacqueline Malan on “Boulder, Boulder.”

Our eigth post is from Tara Anderson on “How I love thee Boulder.”

Our ninth post is from Ryan Wagner on “Why Boulder is a Fantastic Place (especially for Foodies).”

Our tenth post is from Nicole Glaros on “Boulder is the Best.”

Our eleventh post is from Sopan Greene on “Boulder Influence.”

Niel Robertson passed on this article to me this morning, stating:

Only 13 out of 381 metropolitan areas are actually growing, he says. According to Economy.com they are Boulder, Colo.; Lafayette and Louisiana, La.; Bethesda, Md.; Jacksonville, N.C.; Binghamton, N.Y.; Oklahoma City; Okla.; State College, Pa.; and Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo, McAllen, and San Antonio, Texas.

Even with the economic doom and gloom, Boulder still seems to be growing.

We are seeing the slowdown, there is no question of that, but as a whole, are weathering the storm better than most spots of the country.

I love biking to work in Boulder.  Recently, Boulder became the third community in the US to achieve ‘platinum bike status’ from the League of American Cyclists.

This video is produced by StreetFilms and is very well done.  It perfectly captures the feeling of biking around town.

One of the things I love about Boulder is the low commute times, for me, done by bike 90% of the time.

via Treehugger