Ice is Nice!

Sherry Ickes
6 days ago
2 min read

Ice Sculptures (Left to Right): Gnome, Excalibur, and Lighthouse

This month, I was able to visit our small town's Annual Ice Art Fest and it was a fun event; however, this year it was an extremely cold one. The event opened on Friday, February 6th, and closed Sunday, February 8th. Cold temperatures allowed the ice sculptures to survive in much better condition than in the past, where warmer temps caused issues with melting, cracking, and unfortunately aided in some vandalism. But, to add an additional note, some cracking has added to a few sculptures in the past: for example, aging a new clean cannon into an awesome antique-looking one.

As usual, we had a nice variety of designs this year, including ones where people could stand behind and put their faces in openings on different characters, in ice photo frames, or behind jail bars. A lighthouse, church, barber pole, cat, an entire bar setup at a hotel, and a playable corn hole game were a few of the other ice delights. My favorites were a gnome and a sword in a stone.

If one signed up ahead of time, there were horse-drawn carriage rides. Thankfully, numerous people were enjoying the cold, and visiting the local shops. I am not one who enjoys such frigid temperatures, so I drove around in my warm car this year. I prefer driving at night to enjoy seeing the different ice sculptures glowing from the uplights at their bases. Fun night for one and all!