Our trip to CO, day 6

We drove into downtown Denver around 8 am and all five of us went into the convention. The kids and I hadn’t seen all the booths yet, so while Sid and J.P. sat at the Sid Clothing booth, the kids and I perused.

Boy did we see interesting stuff, toothbrushes with scripture printed on them, soccer balls with scripture printed on them, tons of books, including one titled So Much More Than Sexy and tons of salespeople apparently “in the zone” because they couldn’t look at my face without first reading my badge to see whether I was a buyer for a huge christian retailer, and once they could plainly see I was there with my husband’s clothing company, I almost thought I had vanished into thin air (literally, since Denver is known as “The Mile High City”). Strange dynamic when one is supposedly surrounded by brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Unfortunately, it became obvious in the first couple of hours that christian industry at large, is not interested in Sid Clothing . . . yet. Too bad they’ll probably catch on just as the mainstream decides these designs are outdated and the talented Sid has moved onto new horizons. Oh well.

***Warning, rant ahead, read at your own risk***
What was especially disappointing to me was the massive amount of attention that the larger christian collectibles companies got, compared to the complete void of attention these beautiful orthodox nuns from Belarus received at their booth near Sid’s. These ladies had the most beautiful handmade items for sale, really truly artisanal items, including hand-painted icons. The bigger companies only offer silly looking, plastic figures, from a mold, made in China, that end up making christianity out to be nothing more than some horrible home accessory aesthetic. Sad, sad state of things. I loved the nuns and their beautiful things.

We left the convention, leaving Sid behind, to have lunch in the motorhome. After we ate we went out sightseeing. The first destination on our list was The United States Treasury Mint. I had my downtown Denver map, a bottle of water, a good attitude and my camera and we were out on the town. The mint was very close, but all of the tours were full. This wasn’t exactly a bad thing since I couldn’t imagine 2 year old Junie feeling like acting civilized through a guided tour. We were all very content to at least be granted entry to the gift shop.

We bought mini coins and oversized coins and a deck of cards for Didi. I remembered having the oversized coins when I was a kid, but my kids found a use for them I never imagined; they rolled them! They rolled those things down the sidewalk, down steps, through water fountains, all over downtown Denver. My every suggestion that they stop so that we could focus on actually getting somewhere, was met with great dismay, “But this is so fun, Mom, I really love it!” Alright then.

The Denver Art Museum is closed on Mondays, just in case you visit there someday, and it happens to be a Monday and you find yourself wondering why all the doors are locked. At least there were some cool big art features outside the museum for the kids to climb all over, slide down and stand under for shade.

We passed through the Denver Library and out to Civic Center Park. We strolled through the lovely gardens, took pictures of the sexy Native American on his horse and then meandered over to a huge, shallow, lovely fountain. The kids dipped their feet in, but refreshment for us weary pedestrians didn’t stop there, just as we were enjoying the fountain a storm rolled in and it began to rain on us. It was nice! And a perfect opportunity to get the kids walking with a purpose. We high-tailed it to Colfax and right to the day-use parking lot where the sweet warm shelter of our motorhome was waiting to embrace us and give us rest.

We chilled, I made and enjoyed coffee and we watched our scary movie again. Then we changed the middle bed back into a dinette and I started the daunting task of building Spongebob’s Lego house!