[cuaphi]

Okay, this is going to be fairly rambling. For one thing the A Phi alumnae group in Denver is one of the best in the country and the one's in Boulder and Ft. Collins seem to have recolonized several times and could really use help.

Boulder and Ft. Collins are both nice sized college towns around 100,000 people or so.
Boulder has a zero growth ordinance which is limiting construction and making rents sky high. This is largely opinion but I think the old spirit of hippie Boulder is being driven out by people who can afford million dollar houses and name their kids Jon-Benet. Sure, it's still the liberal holdout in state elections and has some cool things like Naropa Institute founded by Alan Ginsberg but I think it's turning into more of a lip service thing.
Anyway, being a college town there is still a lot of fun stuff going on. Soma is a nightclub that attracts world class dj's. Catacombs in the basement of Boulderado usually has a good band playing.
Also, Boulder is sort of considered part of the Denver metro area and is only half an hour from downtown but still feels fairly removed from the bussle of the city. There are also some cuter small towns surrounding Boulder worth checking out like Louisville and Lafayette.

Ft. Collins is about an hour north and is generally considered more 'real' than Boulder although I've heard people complain lately that it's getting too big, impersonal and snobby compared to how it was. This is probably just because the growth rate has been tremendous up there with about 40,000 people moving in over the last 5 years. I would call it your nice, typical, medium sized college town. Big enough to attract some major artists and have a decent bar scene but small enough that people still tend to know each other. Ft. Collins is nestled right next to the foothills so there are great little hikes right outside of the city and a big resevoir called Horsetooth (named for a rock said to resemble horse's teeth overlooking the city) where everybody likes to hang out.

Estes Park: Nice little mountain town but a little touristy. Major attraction for their cute little shops, proximity to Rocky Mountain National Park, and of course the Stanley Hotel where Stephen King supposedly thought up The Shining. If you want nice and mountainy but close to civilization I'd recommend Evergreen or Golden which are down I-70 on the way to the ski resorts.

Things to know: Colorado gets as much sunshine per year as San Diego. There are definite seasons and a fair amount of snowfall but nothing like the midwest. For one thing we have almost no humidity so the cold isn't so bone chilling and the hot isn't so stiffling and there tend to be random 65 degree days in the middle of the winter. We also have several of the top ten fittest cities in America out here due to the abundance of outdoor sports. Many, many people spend their free time skiing, hiking, mountain biking and camping. Other fun things to do include Rockies games in the summer, Broncos in the winter, Avs games during the long hockey season and (as I discovered last Saturday) Mammoth Lacrosse is fun and pretty cheap for a sporting event. We also have at least 4-5 great microbreweries who make some great beer like New Belgium, O'Dells, Left Hand, Breckenridge, etc.

People: The people are generally nice. Lots of lots of midwestern and east coast imports and (as long as you're not in central Denver) people still tend to smile at strangers.

Possible down side, the job market stinks. There was an article in the Post Sunday discussing how the continued migration to the State exceeds job growth projections for the next couple of years. We're also in the middle of a pretty major budget deficit right now. However, if you want to be a teacher as I think you've mentioned, there seems to be demand for that everywhere.

Ummm, what else. I don't know much about neighborhoods. The only named neighborhoods I'm familiar with are in Denver. Anything else you want to know just ask.