Winterlude

So I made it downtown to Winterlude.

I'm surprised, too.

Monday was a beautiful, sunny day - and cold.  Very cold.

(Well, OK, it wasn't anywhere near as cold as it was a few weeks ago, but it was cold enough to make me whiny.)

It was a quick trip - I walked through Confederation Park. (Yes, that's the name of the park between the Rideau Centre & City Hall.  It took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure that out. Yes, I should have known the name, especially considering I was there 2 days ago.)

The ice sculptures were in really good shape - we got the typically end-of-January thaw early enough that they survived. The more intricate ones were actually under some awnings, which probably helped.

It has been a long time since I was at Winterlude, and even longer since I went anywhere other than Dow's Lake.

Many years ago, my department at work entered the snow sculpture competition. This was back in the days when:

• there was a snow sculpture competition, and 
• all you needed to enter it was $40.

We participated for ... probably 4 years? The first year, we did "Snow Men in Black", then there was one I don't remember very well, then we did "Will Work for Peanuts" (when Charles Schultz retired), and the last year, it was something about the Olympics (and some giant snow monster, as I recall). My role was mostly part of the snow moving team, but it was fun to participate.

And then they stopped that competition and I stopped going to Winterlude.

Anyway, after I walked around Confederation Park, I went over to City Hall to see the Rink of Dreams.  It was ... far less impressive than I'd expected.  (Don't we have similar outdoor rinks all around the city?)

Next was the highlight of the day - a Beavertail (Killaloe Sunrise, of course).  After that, I walked back to the car and drove home.

I was home for at least 10 minutes before my legs warmed up.