Ice Castles

Looks like a frozen wonderland, doesn't it? But the weekend didn't go quite as expected...... I woke up early Saturday morning with a mad dash to the bathroom thinking oh no, my stomach CAN'T be upset today - but it was........

Determined to go ahead anyway with our weekend plans, I didn't eat any breakfast and packed the sprite and saltine crackers, just in case!! We picked up Martin and Joleen and were on our way for our 2 hour trip to Silverthorne to see the Ice Castles!!

The weather was HORRIBLE once we got out onto the flats - the wind was gusting like crazy and the snow was blowing around - we ran into several ground blizzards and had to be careful of the black ice!! We stopped in Breckenridge, having made it over Hoosier Pass , for coffee - the wind wasn't much better there and I envied the other 3, drinking their coffee while I just watched. My stomach wasn't doing any better!!

Even though the wind had died down a little bit, it was still bitter cold out when we reached the Ice Castles!! But they were amazing!! The structures are made entirely of ice with no additives to the water and no supporting sub-structure within or underneath! The castle creations were created by artistic minds and lots of hands-on work!!

I'm actually sitting on an ice chair here or should I say perching? It was DARN cold on the seat!

We loved just wandering around inside and out of these castles.

There were little tunnels to go through and I know the kids that were there were enjoying it as much as the adults!!

Out back of the ice castles is an icicle farm where they grow 3000 to 5000 icicles each day which are planted or fused to the existing ice! The icicles are then watered at night! As of Dec. 16th, they had used 70,000 icicles with an additional 20,000 per week!! Very interesting!!

Our tickets were good for all day but of course we didn't stay till evening - but it would have been neat as there are lights throughout the ice and I can just imagine what they would have looked like at night, all lit up!!

What a neat experience, only I wish I would have been feeling better!!! We headed back towards home and stopped in Frisco where we ate at a cute little German restaurant - I should say THEY ate, I just sipped a little bit of coke!!

And then it was back on the road again, heading back to Fairplay for our nights' stay!! I was feeling really tough by this time going back up the pass and soon had to tell Glenn to stop to rid my stomach of the 2 soda crackers and the little bit of soft drink I had drank - NOT FUN leaning over outside in the cold...........

Everyone offered to just go on home and cancel our nights' stay but I was determined to hang in there!! A little while later, Martin told Glenn to stop as he had to pee - again the wind was howling like crazy!!! So Martin just stood by the car and of course Glenn proceeded to pull forward (aren't the guys ALWAYS doing that to us????) and Martin yelled - I rolled down my window and yes, Glenn had RUN over his foot!!! Martin had braced his foot in front of the tire and Glenn had pulled forward - yikes!!! Luckily he was Ok!!

So we stop at the Valiton Hotel, a restored turn of the century hotel!! The wind was so bad that I didn't think we were even going to make it inside!!! I was feeling so tough I didn't even appreciate the old-fashioned lobby or the cute bar that had a roaring fire going in the huge fireplace!! I just wanted to lie down!!

The hallways were SO COLD as I'm sure they're not heated!! We climbed up the neat staircase and found our room and it was COLD, VERY COLD!!! The wind was so bad that the hotel could not keep up with the heat - they had placed a small electric heater in our room so Glenn moved it right by me and I crawled into bed, clothes and all!!! I think I shivered and had goose bumps for the next 3 hours!!!

And of course the management had told Glenn that the electric heaters would blow the circuits so several times he had to go trip the fuse at the box - what a riot!!!

Glenn, Martin and Joleen spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening having cocktails and enjoying their meal in front of the fireplace while I spent the rest of the day in bed.......what a bummer!!

We DID stay warm though during the night!! But the wind was VERY loud and we were glad to get up the next morning and head on home!! One of the main roads out of Fairplay was closed and several people had to stay at the hotel as they couldn't get home!! Luckily the rest of the way home wasn't too bad and I was glad to be home, crawling into my OWN bed for the rest of the day!!