A person can do a lot in five days: write a decent paper; go to Disney World; play a sports tournament from start to finish; potentially complete one full game of risk; or watch “House of Cards” in its entirety on Netflix. In five days, a person can start a company. Or become completely enamored by an ethos you didn’t previously know existed.

Sometimes when I watch an old movie (like James Dean-era old), my mind gets lost in a world I’d never known. That’s what it felt like as I stepped into Boulder, on my own time, for the first time.

The drive from Denver to Boulder felt long: early morning, long flight, cramped, tired, hungry, and a little cranky. But as we entered Boulder, those feelings began to ebb away and there was an energy flowing between everyone. We went in with a plan – go to set meetings with various startups/accelerators/community members, etc. and the rest of our time would be flexible time meant for further explorations. Through these explorations, we were able to dig deeper into the soul of Boulder.

First things first,we wandered the city, gathered our bearings,and talked to locals about their views on the community. What we heard was incredible. Everyone we talked to loved the city for its vibrancy and innate weirdness. There was a deep appreciation for the culture among all ages. We went into numerous coffee shops and bookshops. It became a regular occurrence for one bookshop owner to refer us to another bookshop for different deals or feels. It really outlined the trust felt throughout the community and the confidence in their own shops. I then went to the University justto walk around the campus. I found quite a few friendlypeople on campus and stopped to chat about what they were doing and how they liked the city. It was amazing to me how people were from Michigan. For example, I was standing with a group of sixpeople: three came from Michigan, one came from the Midwest, while the other two were born and raised in Colorado.

Later came one of the most beautiful adventures I’ve ever embarked on. We went to NCAR and hiked one of the paths behind the facility. Not only were there amazing sights but amazing people. Just through minor interactions, we learned that a TON of people in Boulder came from Michigan (both the east and west side). It was on this trip that we met Shawn, who started a company with his wife walking dogs along the mountain path. We then happened to walk by a man who said he was from Michigan and nearly moved on until noticed the WMU apparel. We learned that this was John, the president of Victors & Spoils, and were lucky enough to be permitted a visit the following day.

Visiting Victors & Spoils was a great representation of how people who come to Boulder stay in Boulder. John explained how Victors & Spoils came to be when one of his old bosses visited Boulder and decided to stay whether he had to quit his job or not. He was given a branch to start in Boulder and remained there for a while until Victors & Spoils was birthed. John was brought on as president and now the company is thriving and growing.

The following day, while wandering around, we came across a business called Atomic20 that looked suspiciously like a co-working space. Deciding to take our chances, we entered. Here we met president Jeff Donaldson, who founded Atomic20. His co-working space was designed for freelance artists. Not only did he provide them a place to work, but he worked with them in order to get them assignments and steadier work. Through him, we saw someone who cared not only about business from the consumer side, but really cared for the people of the community. (Seeing a trend yet?) Jeff told us about an accelerator located directly beneath Atomic20 called Boomtown, and though it was long past 5 o’clock, he said we could go in if anyone was there. Someone was.

In Boomtown we met a group of three Canadian entrepreneurs going through an accelerator program for an app they had designed. The app was called Realtalk and aimed to be almost like a video chat version of Tinder. We were allowed to demo the app and chat with them for a long time about what we used for social media, how we’d respond to that app, and what we thought they could change/improve. Additionally, they let us tour the space and talked about their experience in Boulder for the three weeks they’d been there. While it sounded like they worked nearly all the time, they did say that the culture seemed very close and intertwined and that there was always something to do. Looking back, it seems like as much information as they provided for us, we provided for them, which was nice.

Our final morning in Boulder found us at the Boulder Open Coffee Club. It was relaxed, very informal, and there was free coffee so how could it get much better? But then it did. After going through introductions and announcements, it was incredible to see how deeply entwined the community was. People came together to ask for help, seek advice, talk about job openings, and just to chat. The chat steered to the previous day’s Apple conference announcement and I found myself right at home with a group of all shapes and sizes talking about what we liked, what we didn’t, and what the future might hold.

Talking about the potential future for Apple left me thinking about the potential future for Boulder based on what we’d learned so far: the overall ethos of the city – give before you get; the overwhelming tendency of people to come into the city and stay forever; and the population of people both young and old, happy, healthy, weird, and vibrantly alive.

It was magical in a way, our five-day adventure. Not only did we get to discover a beautiful new city, but we also got to experience a mentality I never could have imagined possible. The community loved itself and all of its pieces. And call me crazy, but I could’ve sworn our little group brought a little of that Boulderite mentality with us – feeling a little more connected, a little less alone, and a lot more passionate.