One of the places to see at Chena hot springs was the ice museum. This used to be the ice hotel, the local fire brigade came around and insisted that because it was called a hotel, it had to have a fire certificate ( a fire in ice ??) anyway something went wrong with the power supply and the hotel melted.
Now it is a display of ice sculptures. The team that do the ice sculptures are husband and wife and were married at the ice alter, inside the building. They are both champions in ice sculpture competitions.
As we enter the building, we are closed into a small area with the outer doors closed behind us to prevent the temperature dropping too much. There are anoraks to put on, and as the temperature inside is 20 degrees below, it seems like a good idea.
We are then all herded through the next set of doors quickly and told “ you can’t leave for 30mins, everyone must leave together to stop the ice from melting.
The first area is the work area,
which has a lot of Dremel equipment and an iron. The iron is to smooth the ice to finish off the piece. There are some very large blocks of ice stored here to work from for the season. This was taken from the local lake in winter.
The sculptures are lit by halogen bulbs because there is no heat from them, unfortunately because of the ice the colour seems to have disappeared in the photographs. There are a few seats available that are covered in moose hide, and the cold definitely cannot get through. The bar is functional and the guide poured drinks into glasses made from ice. Apart from a castle with steps to the top, two fighting knights,
a chess set,
an igloo, and a functioning alter, at which several couples have been married.
There are hotel rooms at the end complete with ice beds and polar bear headboards.
People can book to stay here for approx. $600 a night. Only one couple have so far managed to stay all night.
Half an hour is long enough, although I didn’t really notice the cold that much until I got out into the sun, and realised that my nose and fingers were dead.
Blue grass festival at Anderson
This is a small town outside of Fairbanks with about 600 residents, there were more people than that visiting the festival. There was a mix of blue grass, country, rock, gospel, hillbilly, and Celtic. One singer in particular, Ginger Boatwright
could really sing anything and had the sort of powerful voice that I like, so I bought two of her CD’s.
Unfortunately rain came in, and turned the field into Glastonbury. A dedicated few stayed in the beer tent and danced around. We pulled the RV up behind the stage and listened in comfort from there.
It was interesting to watch some of the dancing, real old bluegrass. One girl in particular was good and I managed to get a small clip of her. BROADBAND NEEDED !
Even John could get the hang of this.
JOHN'S BIT No he couldn't I would look like a drunken one legged hippo on ice.
1 comment:
The Ice Place looks lovely.
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