Sloan’s Lake Park was the location of this year’s Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, in the trendy Highlands neighborhood northwest of downtown Denver. My husband and brother and I arrived at 10 on Sunday, and the festival was already underway. This photograph shows the aftermath of a race between a Colorado team and the Houston Heat, who must have been grateful for the cooler weather.

Although the festival website discouraged it, we drove and parked at a “nearby” school. So we weren’t quite as eco-friendly as this man.

It was a colorful festival, from these mysterious T-shirts to this woman at the Thailand tourism booth. I don’t think she would be able to eat in this costume.

As always at Denver festivals, there was good food, from Chez Thuy, my absolute favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the Denver metro area, to this somehow appropriate pairing, to the place I settled on because I’d never had Filipino-American food (Tropical Grill).

The dish I got, rice and kahlua pork and egg rolls, wasn’t especially remarkable, but it got rid of my sugar low. And then Todd came back with what he called “Thai shave ice,” which is topped with red beans and 3 kinds of jellies. Weird? Maybe. Tasty? Yes, though the mixture gets less appetizing the more you eat.

And to help work off all that food was this drum-and-dance group, part of the Lao Community of Colorado.

To recover from all that activity, we slumped down on the grass. But later I felt cheated when I wandered through the back-of-the-booths relaxation area. Then it occurred to me that the tents probably belonged to the teams who came to Denver to participate in the boat races. I wonder if anybody spent the night in the park?

These digs were probably the most basic of any I saw. Many tents had cots and coolers and chairs enough to seat a dozen people.