Winter Wonderland

One of the things I have realized I love most about Minnesota this time of year is attending fun, creative, public arts events outside. We sadly missed out on the ice carousel on Nokomis yesterday (how did I not notice in time?!), and I put off getting Loppet tickets until too late, though we did drive around the lake to see some of it from afar. Really, folks, if I put it off next year remind me how disappointed I was not to go!

But today Patrick and I did make it to the Ice Conservatory as part of the Great Northern festival.



                       

As an added bonus, we ran into our friends Betsy and Theresa, who managed to catch this 80s-inspired alley picture of us.

And yesterday, we headed out to Excelsior to see the Klondike Dog Derby. Amazingly, with all my love of dogsledding, I have never seen a dog race live, so it was a particular thrill for me. Next year I'm getting there early to catch the start!



Yes, that's Beatrix and me with Blair Braverman and Pepe. I was totally fangirling! (read her book Dogs on the Trail if you want to know why).

We've also hit the ice bar at the winter carnival with friends last week:


And of course the mysterious ice portal:

But one thing that keeps us from doing as much as I would like to do is that Beatrix has developed  fairly serious circulation problem. This is her feet after yesterday in Excelsior, even with wearing lots of layers including wool socks and shearling boots, going into a lot of stores to warm up, and the whole drive home and warming them up under blankets for half an hour:


I have great dreams of cross country skiing, and more dogsledding, and hiking and such, but I think fig we don't get that under control it won't be much fun as a family, which really bums me out.

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