Ever since I had learned about the Dragon Boat Festival and Dragon Boats in general, I have been fascinated with the idea and wanted to see them firsthand. When Dragon Boat Festival arrived and I was in Southern China – I was a little sad that I wasn’t going to see Dragon Boat racing but I had such a fantastic time in Kunming that it seemed pointless to be disappointed. So when I was at a family barbeque and my cousin’s hubby mentioned that the dragon boat races were in Denver tomorrow I got excited. I also laughed (out loud I think) that I had to come all the way back to Denver, Colorado in order to participate in a Dragon Boat celebration. Well life is nothing if not funny!
Since I had plans to spend with my good friends Sean and Sara the next day, I asked if they would be interested and so our plans were set. As we arrived I was impressed with just how many people there were there. It is a huge festival on Sloan’s Lake with over 100,000 visitors annually. We managed to find parking without too much difficulty and as we were walking in ran into my cousin Jeremy (pretty impressive since I didn’t know he was going to be there and there were a ton of people).
As we got closer to the Sloan’s Lake, I saw some of the dragon boats. While they were not as impressive as some of the boats I had seen on TV in China they were beautiful and I thought how fun it would be to row in one of them. I have always found the idea of rowing and boats very appealing. But I am like a cat, I like to look at the water but I do not want to get in!
Since I had plans to spend with my good friends Sean and Sara the next day, I asked if they would be interested and so our plans were set. As we arrived I was impressed with just how many people there were there. It is a huge festival on Sloan’s Lake with over 100,000 visitors annually. We managed to find parking without too much difficulty and as we were walking in ran into my cousin Jeremy (pretty impressive since I didn’t know he was going to be there and there were a ton of people).
As we got closer to the Sloan’s Lake, I saw some of the dragon boats. While they were not as impressive as some of the boats I had seen on TV in China they were beautiful and I thought how fun it would be to row in one of them. I have always found the idea of rowing and boats very appealing. But I am like a cat, I like to look at the water but I do not want to get in!
Since the festival is so big and the races were happening periodically, we wandered around and looked at the food vendors, and checked out the scene. Wow and was it hot that day! I bought a parasol because the sun was soo intense. I don’t think I’ve gotten any significant sun exposure in Shanghai because it is so overcast but it only takes about an hour in the sun in Colorado for me to really get burned. Luckily for me I found a beautiful parasol which helped cool me off and then I bought some sugar cane juice which was really good and not nearly as sweet as I would have expected. Here is a photo of the sugarcane juicer – pretty wild looking!
After watching some races and walking around, we watched some dragon dancing and some kung fu on the performance stage. That is always impressive to me. Someday I will practice martial arts.
All in all it was a very fun day and I am glad I got to experience live dragon boat races in person this year – even if it was in the good old USA.
All in all it was a very fun day and I am glad I got to experience live dragon boat races in person this year – even if it was in the good old USA.