Mixed Feelings About Winter

It was three degrees below zero this morning when I drove one of my daughters to school. A little warmer than the last couple of days, but not much. Looking on the bright side, the St. Paul Winter Carnival got underway last night with the opening of this year’s Ice Palace, the most elaborate in decades:
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The palace is made out of 500-pound blocks of ice–27,000 of them. I assume that someone has a plan for what happens when they melt in the spring.
I love this kind of civic enterprise, and this afternoon I plan to try to drag my kids over to St. Paul to have a look.
UPDATE: You might think that tens of thousands of people wouldn’t come out in 15 degree weather to see a gigantic palace made entirely of ice. But you would be wrong. The photo below is as close as we got to the ice palace this afternoon; the place was mobbed and it would have taken hours to get in. I lifted up my youngest daughter as high in the air as I could, and she took this picture:
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I’m afraid the family’s hardiness has declined a bit from the days when our ancestors inhabited the Isle of Karmoy. We’ll have to try it again when the crowds die down a bit. And next time, the kids will wear warmer boots.

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