Hunter Ice Festival

Today I went to the Hunter Ice Festival with my friend David. I was so glad that he called me up otherwise I probably wouldn't even have known that the festival was going on! I have missed it for the past few years but just happened to be home this weekend.

Anyways, on Friday we went to the "Fire and Ice" part of the festival. In the words of David, "What do we do for fun? We light ice on fire. That's how we roll in the North." I thought it was so funny! And that is exactly what we went to see. Some crazy ice carvers made a giant "ice fireplace" shaped like a guitar. It was probably 15 feet tall. They drilled holes in the side and then lit it with torches. The ice was so thick that the flames came out of a vent on the top. It was pretty cool.
Afterwards we went out to dinner. I almost cheaped out on him.. but didn't. We went to the Golden Nugget in downtown Niles. I have not been there in forever and it was pretty fun!

Here are some of the other ice sculptures that my dad and I saw on Sunday.

The Hunter Ice Festival commemorated Hunter Ice cream which used to be made from blocks of ice pulled out of Barren Lake. So even though it was about 20 degrees, they sell ice cream! I totally had some because it was only $1!!!

I love taking pictures in those cut-outs at tourist attractions where you get to put your head on a different body. This is the ice carver/eskimo version of that!