Silver dollar city is mostly tourist trap type shops decorated like the frontier, and offering various knick knacks. Here and there is a shop where an artist sells his or her work, maybe wildlife paintings or some other popular office decorating thing. Every block or so you find another place that will be glad to sell you some hot chocolate, or maybe a cookie. One place I found a fronteir church, where people were singing the praises of the lord Jesus.

My favorite part of the place was the play pallace, which emited the sounds of kids having fun.

Here and there was a stage, and every hour or two somebody would come out and do a show. The shows were well done, and very family friendly. No swearing, and plenty of entheuseasm. These guys were inviting people to let the "bons temps roulez" in a New Orleans kind of way, with some Christmas carols thrown in.

The harpist was Dearbhail Finnegan, and her music was very sweet. She would introduce each tune by saying a few words about it. One time she explained that the harp is a national symbol of Ireland, even appearing on their coins and everything else. Many of the tunes were written by a twelfth century harpist that wandered the country trading tunes for food and housing. She said he usually put the name of his patron in the title because he had found that good business.

There were also occasional sights that reminded me not all is sweetness and light.