Fort Collins, CO

Fort Collins is our first bonus city, and now I see why so many people told me we should consider it. We didn't know we would drive through until day-of when we made a last minute decision to head south towards Kansas, rather than heading from Wyoming through Nebraska in an attempt to keep better cell coverage on the road. 

Fort Collins is a hippy college town, very much like the Colorado version of my beloved Bellingham, WA.  We parked in a cute old neighborhood nearby downtown and I immediately started picturing my life there. The main downtown was fairly large, and partly pedestrian-only. We snacked on tasty pastries from Little Bird Bakery, watched a group of 100+ folks do an outdoor yoga session, and did a top of shopping at their varied farmers market. 

Because it did not stay on my original list, I looked back through my various criteria to try and figure out why, and honesty I cannot figure out why. Maybe I had read that Colorado State University is a big party school, or that the town is experiencing negative side affects of a rapid growth rate, but those shouldn't have been reasons to nix it from the list completely. 

The Good

• Very cute and active downtown. There was lots of multi-use spaces and plenty of public seating to enjoy the surroundings.
• Feels like a college down with a lot of variety in people and shops.
• Only a few hours drive to my sister.
• The general benefits of living in Colorado: pleasant weather, good skiing, outdoorsy lifestyle. 
• Close to Cheyenne, WY and Denver, CO if you need bigger-city amenities. 

The Bad

• Maybe would feel like too much of a college town – we visited during summer break so it may be a very different vibe with students.
• It's not as close to the mountains as would be ideal, and there is likely a lot of traffic to get to the mountains.

The Verdict

Yes, but with some caveats. I would want to go back and spend more than two hours there to make sure it's a fair comparison to other "yes" towns. I also will need to do more research about what the housing options are and how the vibe changes during different times of year. I thought I had abandoned Colorado completely, but apparently not. 

Sorry for the limited photos – Fort Collins was just a quick stop over and I didn't initially realize I would have added need to document our visit. 

Saturday morning downtown yoga.

A beautiful downtown walking area.

A large and active farmers market.