Winter Carnival Begins

Winter Carnival is finally upon us.  Tonight is the overnight statue construction frenzy.  Unfortunately, I have a bit of a cold, so I decided it would be a good idea to stay indoors and not get run over by a front-end-loader.  Hopefully I will be over the cold enough to go outside and enjoy the carnival tomorrow once the festivities get going in earnest.  I'll make sure to get planty of pictures and I'll post the best.  Below are some pictures I took of some of the long term statues as of a few days ago.  They have already come a long way since then.

Last night I went to watch Ashby and her hall compete in Ice Bowling.  She was one of the bowling balls.  They did well, taking 3rd overall.  There are pictures of that below as well.  She's playing broomball tomorrow morning as well.  This weekend we'll be going to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of Who's Line is it Anyway fame.  We should have lots of fun over the next few days.

One of the statues that was furthest along.

A wall of snow waiting to be sculpted

One of the statues involves a car frozen in a block of ice.

Ashby's team getting ready to launch her at the pins.

Success!

Weekend Activities

This has been a fun weekend.  I took the snowmobile for a ride on both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday, I took Ashby and we went about 20 miles, and on Sunday my friend Aaron and I rode for about 25.  The trail from where the snowmobile is parked to the bridge to Hancock is quite rough.  Once over the bridge, though, it was much smoother thanks to the grooming crews.  There have been no mechanical problems so far, so that is a good sign.  Today was so warn (around freezing) that I wished I hadn't worn my snowpants.  I brought my camera and got some pictures of the trip.  Also, Ashby and I took a walk around campus to enjoy the balmy 32 degree weather, so I took pictures of some of the snow statues that are taking shape.

The Jack Stevens Calumet-Hancock Rail Trail.

A trailhead with signs for various restaurants, gas stations, hotels, etc.

The lift bridge.

The view from the driver's seat.

A snow statue taking shape.

Jack Frost.

A train engine in the making.