Friday – June 28, 2013 – Denver
Today we explored a little bit of Denver and nearby Golden, Colorado. The main thing that brought us to Denver was to visit the Denver Museum or Miniatures, Dolls and Toys (www.dmmdt.org). As most of you know, Elisa and I are working hard to open a Toy and Doll Museum in San Diego.
We were fortunate to get Wendy Littlepage, the Director of the Denver Museum, to spend a couple of hours with us going over her museum and sharing some of her experience. The information we gained will be invaluable to us as we move forward on the San Diego Museum. The museum is situated in a historic home owned by the Denver Historical Society. It is a very large home, but the fact that it was built in 1899 poses several challenges to a museum. As the name suggests the museum is dedicated to the preservation and display of antique and artistic miniature doll houses and furnishings as well as dolls and toys of all types. The museum is also very active in providing creative workshops to children and family members. An example of the types of miniatures that the museum had is the castle pictured above. This castle stood 3’ tall and was made entirely by hand with nothing but matchsticks and glue and soem sand on the roof tops. The Denver artist who build this castle has provided the museum with several stunning examples of his work.
After visiting the museum, we spent some time in the S. Broadway area of Denver where there are many antique shops of all types. Elisa was on the hunt for “bargains” that could be used for the SD museum. Unfortunately, there weren’t many great bargains to be had. However, she did catch sight of an old Motorola black and white television that looked like the one her parents and grandparents had way back in the ‘50s or ’60s. She also saw an old card table that was identical to one that her grandparents had that commemorated the 1939 Worlds Fair in San Francisco.
After that we went into old town Golden. While neither of us were overly impresed with downtown Denver, (too much like any large city with big city problems) we both really loved Golden. While getting a pedicure, Elisa was talking to a native of the town of Golden, who professed that it was the type of town where everyone knows everyone and everyone knows everyones business. The old town area has Clear Creek White Water park running through part of the town and then down past the Adolf Coors brewery, which is now owned by Miller Brewing. They say its the great Colorado Rocky Mountain water that gives Coors its great taste. Unfortunately, by the time we got into town, most of the shops were closing, so instead we had dinner at the New Golden Peach Chinese Restaurant.
It is looking like rain will be rolling into Denver tonight, and we hope that it passes by to the north of us as we will be heading a bit south-east as we make our way toward Kansas City. We will be breaking up the long drive through the Kansas Prairie with a stop in Oakly, Kansas.
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