Art tour of Denver

Here is the backstory of this next story.  A few years ago Bruce and Leesa came to the adult children and said they wanted to take each of their grandkids on a special trip.  The grandchild would be given a budget and plan the entire trip.  The budget is generous enough that the kids can go almost anywhere they want to go.  The idea behind it is that they gain some skills planning and executing a trip, as well as spending some special moments with their grandparents.  Twelve years old was proposed as the magic age, and Cambrie was going to be the chosen one to prepare the way for her younger cousins.  Unfortunately there have been some hurdles along the way.  At twelve years old we went to Dominican Republic and Bruce and Leesa had other big travel plans.  At thirteen, covid hit and everything shut down.  We have been watching and waiting for things to reopen, but at fourteen there were still no guarantees of success.  Cambrie had tentatively planned a trip to Spain over spring break, but it was just too stressful with too many variables and unknowns.  So she decided to rethink the experience and turn it into something she is really passionate about, art.  She planned an art tour of Denver for her and her grandparents.  Even though it wasn't exactly what Bruce and Leesa had in mind, it ultimately ended up being the right choice. 

Event number one was supposed to be a glass blowing class.  Cambrie has been excited about it for weeks...and then she broke her wrist snowboarding.  It is too difficult to manage the glass blowing tools with a wrist brace, so they had to reschedule that for next fall.  Their new first event was a dinner at the Melting Pot.  The food was delicious and from reports they all seriously over-ate, which is easy to do there.  

Saturday morning Cambrie arranged for tickets to an immersive Frida Kahlo exhibit.  They weren't able to take pictures inside of the event, but they said it was so cool to be in the room surrounded by her art and definitely worth going to.

For lunch afterwards Bruce and Leesa tried taking Cambrie to a bar!  Okay, that's not exactly how the story goes.  They were looking for Avanti but ended up across the street.  Once Cambrie had her ID checked and her hand marked to avoid and alcohol being passed to her, they realized their mistake and made their way across the street to where they had originally planned on eating.  

That night they went to Planks and Paint where they worked on a cornhole set together.  I think this is where expectations and perceptions really started to change.  Bruce and Leesa had one idea of what this entire trip was supposed to be, but Cambrie introduced them to her world.  Once they were there, they could finally feel free to open up and talk without feeling bound by how things were "supposed to be."  Their cornhole set turned out incredible, but the real win here was a great conversation with their granddaughter.  

The last day of their visit was Sunday.  Cambrie had everything ready to go for a Bob Ross painting day.  Unfortunately the white paint mysteriously disappeared and we had to change plans.  Cambrie introduced them to pour paint.  Each of them pour painted a masterpiece.  When they come back out for the glass blowing class in September, they'll be able to finish with their Bob Ross paintings and the three of them are really looking forward to it.  I would call that a successful grandparent/grandchild bonding weekend.