I went to Boulder about 5 years ago I guess and I definitely thought it was going to be a little bit like Bend, Oregon is. Great coffee shops, small town fancy, good places to eat, go out etc - and it was nothing like that at all.
It's really just a series of strip malls along 28th street - granted there is Pearl Street which has a few okay places but nothing amazing, but in general it was really not what I expected.
I get it from a running POV - good elevation, good weather. Some really nice longer running/hill training spots not far from town, but I can't imagine it's that great to actually live there if you aren't a student at CU or in a pro group making money (which means you are young and don't really care where you live anyway).
Boulder was definitely a let-down, thought it would be way nicer.