Denver: Home Sweet Home #12

Another apartment to add to the list. Common warehouse type in Denver and other refurbished downtowns, but unlike any we've lived in, yet.

The apartment is in Denver's Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood. A section known as the Hardware Block. Right between the 16th Street Mall and Cherry Creek Trail. A couple blocks from Union Station and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Above or next to clothing shops, bars, restaurants, medical offices, a bike shop, bookstore, and a DIY bar for making projects while enjoying a beer or cocktail. Walk Score of 85 (for comparison, NY City = 89, SF = 86)

 

 View east towards downtown and the construction of what will be Denver's fourth highest building.

 Pro: Nice open space Con: Nice open space. The wall between the kitchen and bedroom stops before

San Francisco: Home sweet home #9 and first impressions of the neighborhood

We definitely like to mix things up with our housing; whether it's living on an island, above a grocery store, on the Delaware River, or in a high-rise on the 19th floor.  Even the apartment that felt like it was in the middle of a highway is remembered fondly. Now, we get to stay in a historic row-house!

This kind of apartment is common for the area and reminds me of others in Chicago and Philadelphia, but add in the neighborhood, and this place is like no other. 

Just a couple miles from the Pacific Ocean, near two enormous city parks, and in a mixed-purpose neighborhood with all types of shops and restaurants-- a cafe just a few yards from our door! There are also dozens of Asian markets a few blocks over where we can buy our canned jack fruit. 

Average rent in San Francisco is $3000 for a one-bedroom  and $4500 for a two-bedroom apartment. There are a lot of interesting and successful people in the area along with businesses and services to match. Instead of finding restaurant coupons in our

mailbox welcome package, we found deals offering gourmet meals delivered in 15 minutes, on-demand laundry, in-home doctor's visits, home cleaning, personal shoppers, and other services for people that actually make more money staying a couple extra hours at their IT jobs and letting other

people run their errands.

We've already been to San Francisco a couple times, so we've gotten most of the touristy stuff out of the way. Our plan is to enjoy the local neighborhood and stay out of our car. The city is only seven miles across, but with stop-signs and lights every block, it takes a long time to drive just a couple miles. It's often much quicker to bike or ride, so we'll be looking to buy some bikes (we left ours in Denver!) and get some transit passes. Plus, do you see the garages in the picture!? If you think

Oregon: Wrap-up and rating. On to the next city!

Roseburg, OR

Another three months has flown by and we're getting ready to leave Roseburg for the next city. My final feelings on Roseburg and Oregon are mixed. Oregon as a whole is nothing like the reputation it often gets from Portland, but overall it's a great state.

Shortly after the UCC shooting, I was reading harsh comments on-line coming from Texas and other areas in the south about "the hippies in Oregon" and their lack of guns and carry-permits. If only they new the truth! Oregon is just like any other state with the progressives in the cities and the conservatives in the country. Roseburgians loves their guns, pick-ups, and churches. The majority are downright hostile towards "liberals", Obama, and the "tree-huggers up in Portland" that criticize the logging industry and give them a "bad" reputation. I've mentioned a couple of times already being surprised by rampant obesity and confederate flags in town.

But we're glad we came for three months. The coast was amazing! I could see owning a beach house in Oregon and living here a few months a year. So, as far as our experience overall, it was definitely positive and we've had a great three months.

Liked: 

1. All the interesting names like Thor's Well, Cape Perpetua, Devil's Punchbowl, Devil's Churn, Wizard's Island.
2. The Minimum wage applies to everyone (servers included)

Anchorage: First week of living in Alaska and the new apartment

We've only been in Alaska a few days and nothing too eventful has happened, but I want to write before the initial culture shock wears off. Despite being a part of the U.S., Alaska is different enough that it's a little like visiting another country for the first time. Here are some things we've noticed:

1) If you ever fly to Alaska, reserve a window seat. The plane took off from Chicago around sunset and chased the sun through and over pink clouds the entire six-hour flight to Anchorage where it finally got dark shortly after arrival. Much of the trip I looked down on clouds and the snowy peaks poking through them. Sometimes it was hard to tell what was a cloud and what was a mountain. Huge gorges full of ice and snow between mountains looked like rivers but ran to nowhere. I found out later some of these gorges run deeper than the grand canyon and many of these mountains are taller than any we'd seen in Colorado or California.

2) Anchorage is in the middle of nowhere. That nowhere is beautiful mountains and wilderness but it's so sparsely populated here that it's unnerving. Alaska makes up almost 18% of the U.S. land mass and hardly anyone lives on most of it. Anchorage contains 41% of the state's population (second in single city concentration to only NY) and even in Anchorage, it feels sparse!

     Alaska's 2nd and 3rd biggest cities, Fairbanks and Juneau, are over 6 and 21 hours away, respectively. The fourth biggest city in Alaska has only around 9,000 people. To put this in continental U.S. terms, imagine that you live in New York City and have to drive to Pittsburg PA or Savannah, GA through mountain and wilderness to get to the nearest decent sized cities and these cities are

You know you're living too close to the highway...

Our apartment in Platte Park (south Denver)

...when you wake up and know the weather from the sound of traffic.

When we decided to extend beyond our initial three months in Denver, the owner of our first apartment decided she didn't want to renew. This apartment near the highway was the best that was available on short notice.

Living here was like being at the helm of a boat in a sea of traffic. When we opened the well-insulated doors and windows we would be blown back by an ocean of noise. Not only was one side of this corner apartment next to a highway, the other side also faced a busy intersection. Waking up on a raining day to the hiss and fizzle of wet tires on pavement was almost like waking up to the sound of ocean waves or a rushing river.

Elissa and Michal-ann battle it out at Washington Park

Despite its proximity to the highway it was in a great neighborhood. It was a few blocks from the excitement of Washington Park with its jogging trails, lakes, and paddle-board rentals. There was a train station right next to the apartment. It was a few blocks from South Pearl Street with its shady restaurants, coffee houses, weekend markets, and festivals. A few blocks further was Broadway and Antique Row.

After two interesting months we packed up and moved back downtown. Perfect neighborhood, wrong street.

Goodbye Dever, Hello Charleston, SC!

Bailey enjoying the beach

Of all the places we lived recently (Philadelphia, Dallas, Chicago, Fresno, and Denver), it's Denver we liked best, Denver we lived in the longest, and Denver I wrote the least about! I still plan to write some catch-up posts but for right now, on to something new...

We're on the north side of the island under all those trees!

For a change of pace, scenery, and temperature we chose Charleston as our next city. Now that we've settled on Denver as our eventual home, we decided we can enjoy the beaches and warmth of a city we'll probably never live in permanently. No offense Charleston, you've got a unique character, but you're known as the "most mannerly city" and the "holy city" for good reasons (more on this later). Your main attractions are old buildings and forts. Accordingly, we chose a place away from the city on Isle of Palms a couple blocks from the beach where we can

Denver: Home sweet home #5, bison on the loose, a redneck bus tour, and frisbee with the dead!

Third week in Denver and we're starting to get an idea of the city. Denver is similar to a scaled down Chicago in that all types of small, but vibrant, communities exist outside of the main downtown. We've done a lot of driving to decide where we want to spend time, but we keep learning about more areas. Then there are all the nearby cities-- Boulder, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins. All of Colorado's top 10 biggest cities are two hours away or less. Many are so close that it's hard to notice when Denver ends and another city begins.

Couple more notes to add to first impressions of Denver:

-- Austin, TX should keep the title "live music capital of the world" due to its public funding of artists and SXSW, but Denver actually has more music venues. Denver lacks the concentration of open-front bars and venues that makes places like Austin's 6th St so dramatic, but fans of live music won't be disappointed.

-- In California we experienced the spring transition months ago, but here we're back to winter. It isn't cold during the day, but a lot of the landscape is still brown and grey and many of the mountain attractions are still closed because of all the snow. Looking forward to full on spring!

-- I was disappointed with the limitation of the rail system until I found this map showing rail current projects. In a few years, the system will be much larger. It won't help while we're here this time, but it's good to have something to look forward to. The free 16th Street Mall Bus has been so successful they're adding more free downtown buses in a couple weeks. Need to go to the airport? Use one of the special bus stops downtown to take you there.

Some of what we've been up to:

Banjo Billy Tour! What better introduction to a new city than a Colorado style bus tour? From the bus's decorations and sound effects to the attractions and trivia, this tour was fun and helped us decide what we wanted to see more of. The bus showed us sites like Cheesman Park, Colorado Capital, Molly Brown House, Brown Palace, and the Botanic Gardens. Plus, it was on Groupon, so we got a good deal.



 
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: We only had an hour, so we went into the museum/welcome center and drove the safari-like roads and dirt paths through the refuge. We definitely plan on heading back to do some hiking. Four or five bison were feeling itchy during our visit and decided to leave the fields to scratch themselves on road signs so we got quite the close-up.


Ghosts at Cheesman Park: Every city we've lived in has spun their data to create a park brag of some type. Denver brags about having the most parks within city limits. With over 200 parks, most Denver residents are close to a good park. Many of these parks have one or two lakes and

Fresno: Travel home number four

I don't want to disappoint family or anyone else by not sharing pictures of our apartment in Fresno since I did everywhere else so, here we go!

This apartment is hardly as interesting as the apartments in Philadelphia, Chicago, or Dallas, but it has its own personality.

My favorite thing about this complex is the landscaping. Despite the ugliness that is the average apartment complex; here, each set of four apartments has its own walkway that winds to the entry with trees, bushes, and flowers galore. The plants create shade, seclusion, and homes for animals. The forest-feel isn't something we had in any of the other downtown apartments.

Despite its low walk-score, there is a small park and walking trail a few steps from our doorway. There is also a coffee shop, brewery, grocery store, and some restaurants a little further. There is a large park and other restaurants within a couple miles, so no complaints here! 

Another season, another city. Summer home = Chicago!

Finally fully settled in Chicago!

This move was rough. We were days away from moving and still hadn't found an apartment due to new housing procedures and a Bermuda vacation (like I said, rough). The day before we were to drive to Chicago, Lindsay found this apartment and we reserved it without knowing little more then it met our basic requirements (short term, pets allowed, etc...). Fortunately, it has turned out to be great a choice!

Our building is located in the River North area of downtown, a block from the Red Line. Dozens of restaurants and shops are with-in a block and hundreds more within walking distance. We're adjacent to the National Poetry Foundation building and walking distance from the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art and

Dallas: Home Sweet Home (for a while anyway)

 

A few pictures from our new place in Dallas. The building itself isn't as nice as the last. It was built in 1965, and despite renovations and updates, still has negative characteristics of that time (small bathrooms, kitchens, closets, and lower ceilings). The downtown location, however, is exactly what we were looking for.

Dozens of restaurants are within walking distance as well as dog parks, museums, and small stores. The Arts District and Dallas Farmer's Market are a short drive (or long walk). One of the city's main DART (train) stops is a

Philadelphia: Home Sweet Home (for now)

A few pictures of our new place with comments for everyone that has been asking! I tend to remain somewhat impersonal on this blog, prefering to share links and writing I think will appeal to an anonymous audience and not just friends, but as part of the series of posts I'm wiring on our travels (The Big Move) I'll post a few pictures of the buildings we settle in at each stop.

 V. from living room

I like to describe the view as "expansively Philadelphia". You can see a lot from our window but the view is mainly warehouses, boats, harbor cranes, abandoned piers, highways, and a heliport. Philadelphia has a beautiful skyline and some nice bridges, but I've come to appreciate the view since the majority of what Philadelphia actually looks like is what you see through our window.

 

Cruise ship or our apartment building?

As you can see from the picture, our building is surrounded on three sides by water. This increases security as well as isolation. We don't have