Icepark

The annual World Annual Ice Art Championships has come and gone. It's really quite amazing what these groups can do with basically a chain saw and some chisels. You can see all the sculptures at the website including the winners. The photos really don't give you a true sense of the sculptures (as I think is typically the case with sculptures). The carving gurus also do contract work for a lot of the local businesses around town so the whole city kind of turns into an ice park of sorts. They actually have an ice hotel up at Chena Hot Springs on occasion. Ah Alaska!

The best part of the ice park is actually the kids stuff. Our kids look forward to it every year and spend hours there when we go. It basically consists of giant ice slides made into animals and houses. There's a giant maze the kids can walk through and giant bowls you can dump the kids in and watch them try to scramble out. The kids stuff has a best part too and it's way in the back where the ice blocks are harvested. There they have about 4 alpine slide type tracks that you can ride down on sleds you can bring. You can get going pretty fast and I must admit when I first saw them I thought there's no way I'm letting my little kiddies get on them with the sleds. I let them go down sans sled which is much slower until finally I think Carol went down with one of them in her lap. It was pretty quick, but the carving folks have likely learned from experience that if the finish is long and flat enough, you can make a high speed run with a consistently bland finish. I thought it looked pretty safe and so the kids got free reign and so far we've made it through with all joints intact.

The park is now mostly melted (it actually closes down at the end of March). We're now looking forward to Spring (it seems a little delayed this year) and all that comes with it (smoke, bugs, etc.) but I'm sure the kids will be ready to get back to the park when next March rolls around. It is a pretty good time for visitors wanting a good Alaskan winter experience as the aurora (northern lights) are usually out around that time and it's not so cold (10-20F). Come on up!

More photos here.