With summer just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about all the sights and activities that Denver has to offer. There’s no better time to start planning than right now! We at 8z, have decided to help you out with the decision process. Here are five fun things to do in Denver on the weekend:

1) Denver Botanic Gardens: Denver has one of the top rated Botanic Gardens in the nation. It’s located just ten miles east of downtown and one mile north of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and displays a wide variety of plants and trees from all over the world. They hold a variety of exhibits, concerts, art displays, and plant sales throughout the year. Admission is decently priced, and it provides hours of entertainment as you walk around the 23 acre landscape. Recently Denver volunteers assisted world renowned Japanese artist, Tetsunori Kawana assemble a dramatic new installation at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

2) Denver Art Museum: Located in the City Civic Center, this museum is easy to access and full of interesting exhibits. It’s currently hosting an exclusive U.S. exhibition called “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective.” This exhibit shows designer Yves Saint Laurent’s work over the past 40 years. It will be here through July 8, 2012, and is a must see for all fashionistas. Another traveling exhibit is “Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection” featuring pins worn by Madeline Albright, viewed at the museum from 15 April – 17 June. Every few weeks this museum has a new highly respected exhibit that draws in thousands of viewers, and that’s not even counting the number of people who go to see the museum itself!

3) Washington Park: If you’re more keen on being outdoors on the weekends, consider checking out this spacious park. It covers 165 acres, and is always buzzing with activity. Fitness enthusiasts can often be found here, as it has numerous running trails, tennis courts, a lawn bowling/croquet field, and a recreation center that has an indoor pool and free weights. If you’re not an exercise buff, have no fear. This park also has beautiful flower gardens, two lakes (one of which is boat friendly), and two different playgrounds for the kids. The Wash Park neighborhood surrounding the area are some of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods and are filled with cute little houses.

4) Cherry Creek Bike Path: Grab a bike and head off down this 15 mile scenic bike trail that follows Cherry Creek through Denver. This is one of the most popular bike/hike/jogging trails in Denver, and is used by many of the locals. It starts at Confluence Park, passes by the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and ends at the Cherry Creek Reservoir, making it very accessible from many Denver neighborhoods. The trail is below street level allowing some of the traffic noise to be blocked, but it still follows along Speer Boulevard. If you don’t have a bike, have no fear! You can easily rent one from one of Denver’s many B-Cycle stations.

5) Coors Field: This MLB field opened in 1995, and is home to the Denver Rockies. If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll be happy to know that there isn’t a bad seat in the house and the wide selection of food and drinks are a favorite amenity among guests. It also has one of the largest outfields in baseball today. Because of the high elevation, many balls end up traveling farther than in other parks, so it was decided to place the outfield fences unusually far from the home plate. If you happen to visit on a non-game day or in the off season, you can still get a tour of the stadium for an incredibly reasonable price. It’s easy to make a day when visiting the ball park. Take public transportation to Coors Field then enjoy the food and drink in the LoDo and Ballpark neighborhoods.

It’s less than a week from Halloween and also the first day of snow in the front range.  For those who have lived in Colorado a long time, you know the first snow and Halloween seem to follow eachother hand in hand.  Every Colorado trick-or-treater knows it’s not a costume if you can’t fit a snow jacket underneath!

The forecasts for Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins has Halloween day 2011 the 10 day high.  We’ll see if the Colorado forecast is correct!

In the meantime however, it seems that there are more activities for young and old, across Colorado, in the days leading up to Halloween itself.

Many of the neighbors in the Colorado neighborhoods 8z Real Estate blogs about have listed activities, costume and decoration ideas recently.  Here are a few things happening near you!

Activities

In Boulder:

In recent years the Boulder High Haunted House has now become legendary. Travel through the tunnels beneath the school and through the auditorium to benefit the Boulder HS theater production team. So avoid those long lines at the commercial haunted houses, and visit the local haunted house. It opens October 27th through Halloween. Click for more details about Boulder High’s Haunted House.

On Friday Oct 28, 3-5pm there’s an event at the SoBo Rec Center for the young kids, ages 3-8 years old. It’s the Spooktacular Celebration complete with pirate bounce house, crafts, face painting, Halloween tattoos, haunted house/maze, games and prizes.

Not every Halloween activity is about eating obscene amounts of candy. On Saturday, Oct 29th, 8:45am bring a pumpkin and a canned food item to donate and participate in the 3rd annual Halloween Food Drive and PUMP-kin workout at Scott Carpenter Park.

From there you have time to attend the Free Family Halloween Concert at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater. It is at 11am Oct 29th.

There are also two non-scary Halloween themed play classes during the weekend on Oct 29, 4-5:30pm and Oct 30, 10-11:30am at  Gymboree Play and Music. For $20/child (adults are free) your kid and you can enjoy craft time, a costume parade, parachute time with bubbles and a snack.

And on Halloween day itself, from 3-5pm take the kids after school to Downtown Boulder’s Munchkin Masquerade. Trick-r-treat on the Pearl St Mall!

And before heading out in the neighborhood for trick-r-treating, visit Ideal Market’s Annual Pumpkin Patch Photo Booth.  It is also a free event with photos taken by a professional photographer.

In Denver:

On Saturday October 29th, head to Northwest Denver as the shops all along Tennyson Street between 38th and 45th Avenues in the Berkeley neighborhood will be giving out goodies to children. It’s the Trick Or Treat on Tennyson Street!

In Northern Colorado:

Near Greeley, there is The Fritzler Maize which is Colorado’s original and premier corn maze. There are pillow jumps, camp fires, duck races, loads of other fun entertainment – and food – kettle corn, pizza, funnel cakes, cotton candy, BBQ and more. Read about the maize.

In Loveland, participate in The Embassy Suites Loveland’s 2nd Annual Phantom 4-Mile Race, Bone Chilling Breakfast and Costume Contest will be held Saturday, October 29, 2011. There will be prizes for the best adult costume, best team costume, best child’s costume and best dog costume! Read about the course and the animal sanctuary it benefits.

And for plenty more, happening in your neighborhood, check out your neighborhood blogs on 8z.com.

You may have heard the news, but if you haven’t Forbes magazine recently ranked Denver amongst the best places for young adults to live.

They looked at the 100 largest metro areas and ranked their list based on

• projected job growth rates for 2010 to 2012 (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• cost of living data (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• median salaries for 24-34y.o. employed college grads (data from Payscale.com)
• unemployment rates
• Census Bureau data on the number of small businesses and large businesses per capita
• percentage of college graduates in the local population

Denver was ranked #7 because ‘The Mile High City boasts a significant college-educated population, a note-worthy number of small businesses and a healthy job growth rate that’s bolstered by the presence of companies like Lockheed Martin and IBM’ (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

We think that Denver will always remain popular amongst the younger residents as well as those young at heart because

• Denver is an active city with plenty of outdoor activities
• Denver has a vibrant culture with events and venues from sports to the arts
• So basically its not just a place to live but the lifestyle of living in Denver…

Trailing Denver, Colorado Springs was ranked #8 because ‘The Rocky Mountain metro area is home to an impressive number of defense contractors and universities, ensuring big business job opportunities and a notable number of college-educated residents” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But in case you were wondering, Des Moines Iowa took the title as the Best Place for Young Adults to live in the United States because: “The corn-belt city has the most big businesses per capita, a brag-worthy unemployment rate, low cost of living and a flourishing number of young professionals residing in the area” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But really?  Would you really want to leave the Denver walking neighborhoods of Wash Park and Highlands for the midwest?  Or would you really want to leave those foothills views from most Colorado Springs homes for the midwest?  I can speak for those of us at 8z Real Estate that I think we’re pretty happy in Colorado!

Recently several 8z Real Estate brokers were interviewed  to be a part of an article in 5280 magazine.  The theme of the magazine is ‘The Best Places to Live” in Denver.

Two of 8z Real Estate’s Denver REALTORs shared quotes in articles, Patrick Finney and Ryan Carter, along with the company president Lane Hornung.

Patrick Finney answered the Q&A section, titled ‘Not So Fast’ with insights about the fix and flip market.

The feature article was ‘Shiny, Happy Places.” It goes into detail about great neighborhoods and parts of neighborhoods and what makes them stand apart.  Get the chance to take a peak at the homes in the neighborhoods, while you read the 5280 article, without having to leave your computer…

East Washington Park

South City Park

Hilltop

Five Points / Curtis Park

Alamo Placita

LoHi

East Cheesman Park

Arapahoe Acres

See the rest of the Denver neighborhoods on our site COhomefinder.com or create a Denver real estate search to notify you of homes as they come available.

Have you found a neighborhood that you love and would like to see inside homes?  Talk with the 8z client care team about your real estate search and get the help from a team for all your real estate needs.

Northwest Denver and the Highlands neighborhood have been the place to be for several years now.  The real estate reflects the neighborhood hot spots- eclectic. So if you’re planning what to do this weekend, here’s a list of Highlands Happy Hours from the local Denver real estate agent Ryan Carter on the places to be.

If you live in the Denver Highlands neighborhood, you don’t have to go far to find an extraordinary happy hour. Here is the list of the Happiest Happy Hours in the Highlands.

LoHi SteakBar

Happy hour—3:30-6:30 p.m. daily

And if you miss it stop in for the late night happy hour from 10 p.m.-midnight

It has been named as the 2010 Best Happy Hour by Westword and the Top New Bar 2010 by the editors at 5280 Magazine.

LoHi SteakBar, known for its creative cocktails and specials, takes top honors for a few reasons, such as the cool ambiance, stellar specials, and delicious happy hour food, but most notably because the expert mixologists simply pour great drinks.

Coral Room

Daily happy hour from 4 p.m.-6:30 p.m., happy hour at the Coral Room offers 2 for 1 appetizers, $3 drafts, $6 glasses of wine, and $4 Svedka cocktails.

The Coral Room is a local Highlands favorite and located in the heart of Highlands Square. The horseshoe-shaped bar has a fun atmosphere to mingle with friends. On a nice day the patio is a hit for happy hour.

Lola

Happy Hour at Lola runs all night on Mondays, Tuesday through Friday from 4-6 p.m. and on the weekends from 2-5 p.m.

Lola is a hip spot for Highlands residents to see and be seen enjoying tasty après work cocktails. The interesting Mexican-fusion menu offers something for everyone and the creative drink list will have you coming back for more.

If this neighborhood insight on things to do is helpful to you, you should be sure to check out HighlandsPulse.com.  Find out the best things to do, shared by a Highlands neighbor and our Highlands area REALTOR.

In another attempt to address the foreclosure issue in Colorado, the Denver Office of Economic Development is launching programs to lessen the impact of foreclosure on Denver neighborhoods.

Some of the Denver area neighborhoods that stand to benefit from the programs are Montbello, Green Valley Ranch, Northeast Park Hill, Elyria Swansea, West Colfax, Villa Park, Barnum, Athmar Park, Westwood and Mar Lee. For more on the activity, see the Denver Business Journal article dated May 13, 2009.

We thought it was the hip place to have coffee, drinks, or good vegetarian and organic fare back in the ’90s, probably because it was. And it still is. The Mercury Cafe has been doing good things for Denver and the Five Points area for years. Between being the go-to venue for poetry jams, swing dances, Denver’s hottest bands, community theater, and other celebrations of the arts, the Mercury is one of those places in Denver it’s hard not to root for.

Thanks to its matriarch, Marilyn, “the Merc” is going strong after it settled in the middle of Denver in 1990. She’s a patron and champion of the arts and letters, and it’s good to see there’s room for a place in Colorado like it. After all, who else is going to provide space for an event called Literary Death Match?

The Mercury Cafe
2199 California Street (see a map of California Street)
Denver, CO 80205

The Congress Park neighborhood in Denver is a classic in the middle of some of Denver’s best attractions. Considered the place where Denver proper gets some of its best flavor, it’s also a place where families, couples, professionals, seniors, natives, and a wide variety of other kinds of residents gather together under the banner of community. It’s where you’ll find “old Denver” favorites such as City Park, home of the Denver Zoo, Gates Planetarium, and the Natural History Museum. At the southwest corner of the area, you’ll find Cheesman Park and the renowned National Jewish Medical and Research Center. Minutes from Capitol Hill and Downtown Denver, Congress Park strikes a happy medium for those who want to live where a lot of the action is, without sacrificing the architectural character and diversity of areas that have been razed and rebuilt with new construction and/or high-rise buildings.

One of the marks of a desirable neighborhood is a strong neighborhood association or organized efforts that better the neighborhood atmosphere and support open communication between residents, local and state agencies, and cooperating organizations. Such efforts can yield such results as lower crime rates, higher property values, and an overall better quality of life for residents and visitors.

In furtherance of that kind of community commitment, Congress Park residents will hold its annual Congress Park Alley Cleanup on Saturday, May 16, 2009. For more information, see the Congress Park Neighbors Web site at http://congressparkneighbors.org/

If you mentioned the name “Clement’s Addition“ to anyone under the age of sixty, you would likely be met with a confused look. No, Clement’s Addition is not the name of the contracting company your friend hired to pop the top on his two-bedroom bungalow. Although it’s one of Denver’s more interesting, celebrated, and historic communities, Clement’s is not always recognized by name. Much like a lesser-known working actor, you’ll recognize Clement’s Addition when you see it; you just didn’t know its name.

Where It Is: Southeast of Lower Downtown (LoDo) between 20th and 22nd Streets (see map of 20th Street), from Tremont Place (map of Tremont) to Glenarm Place (map of Glenarm).

What It Is: Clement’s Addition is a little sliver of old Denver; it’s the oldest intact block of housing in the city, along with Curtis Park, which remains remarkably intact north of 23rd Street (map of 23rd Steet). South of the line, however, there isn’t much residential remaining with any regularity. The exception is the Arapahoe Square area, with what is becoming a less sparsely-housed neighborhood just west of Clement’s. Clement’s Addition proper is the one surviving block that staved off the bulldozers and wrecking balls of the mid-70′s that made way for the 1976 Winter Olympics Housing.

What’s Nearby: The arts and lit scene, eg the Thomas Hornsby Ferril House on 2123 Downing Street, now home to the Lighthouse Writers Workshop and formerly other fine nonprofit organizations in service to Denver and its people (Ferril was Colorado’s Poet Laureate from the late ’70s until his death in 1988). Also Benedict Fountain Park, Curtis Park, Arapahoe Square, Ballpark, Central Business District, LoDo, Park Avenue Addition, and numerous lightrail stations.

What’s to See: A new 32-story luxury high-rise at 1950 Welton Street, historic single-family homes, historic office conversions, brand-new, one-of-a-kind brownstones at 2137 Glenarm Place, and more.

Also Known As: A part of the greater neighborhood area known as Uptown.