my neighborhood in Denver

So in July, my lease at my apartment complex is up and I'm moving to my brother's house to live with him and his roommates. It's a great deal - I will be saving tons of money on rent.

I'm going to be a little sad to be leaving my neighborhood, though. I have spent so much of my time in the neighborhood with my dog. I am outside on walks or at the close neighborhood park, Congress park, with her every single day. On these walks and at the park, I have gotten to know a lot of my neighbors in Congress Park neighborhood that have dogs. Sometimes there will be 5 to 10 people there with their dogs, which results in doggy playtime. So it has been nice seeing familiar faces every time I'm at the park and knowing other people's dogs' names, as well as them knowing my dog. There is Aspen and Boogie that Mia particularly plays well with.

Tonight I was at a near-by coffee shop - locally owned. There is a very close starbucks which I have gone to because of it's very close proximity to my apartment, but this coffee shop serves up some great sandwiches, coffee and baked goods. So I sat outside today and had a turkey, avocado sandwich while studying. As I sat there so many people from the neighborhood walked up to either the coffee shop or at the ice cream shop next door to sit outside with family friends and dogs. There was a friendly run-in between one couple and their dog and another guy with two dogs. They clearly knew each other from seeing each other with their dogs and they sat down and chatted for awhile.

It was an awesome evening outside and loved that there was this neighborhood meeting place where neighbors run into each other. The ice cream shop - I think it is actually custard - is a simple store, where they home-make the custard daily. They have chocolate and vanilla every day and then a flavor of the day, today was coconut, and many toppings to pick from. After having my sandwich and studying, I decided I should probably check it out and ended up with chocolate custard and m&m's.. my favorite. While checking out, one of the guys asked if I would like to play a little trivia and try for 10% off. why not.. right? So I picked 'pop culture' and then picked 'sports and games'. I don't remember the question exactly, but it had something to do with "which city has held the olympics twice in (the name of the stadium)." And I totally got it right! Athens! Which if you've been to Greece or know much about it you probably would have gotten it right, because the name of the stadium was pretty obvious - in that it ended -aikos...

So to sum it up, I love the neighborhood and the neighborliness that exists.. a local park and the local shops add to it so much! And I'm going to miss it when I leave. It won't be too far and I could easily make some trips over to visit.

I will be close to an awesome and beautiful Denver park, Wash Park. Not as close as Congress Park, but it will suffice..