Skating!
Yeah, there's free outdoor skating whenever the pond's frozen enough, but in preparation for the activities that happen here (skating shows, speed skating, etc) they take zambonis and make the ice all nice! So unlike the bumpy pond I used to skate on in my chilldhood, this is almost an indoor rink quality, but WAY bigger, and in the beautiful outdoors. Thank God the weather was beautiful the entire time but not so warm that the ice melted. I also like how the skate rental was $7/hr and they had nice skates andddd the one hour is just enough to let you go around the pond many many times and not get too sick of it. :)
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| the skating "rink" is MUCH bigger than you can see here! (one of the skating clubs performing) |
Not just poutine, tiny tim donuts and hot chocolate (which was given away for free!) ... but awesome treats like Maple Syrup that is poured over ice and you wrap it around a popsicle stick! And the chance to fire up your own bannock bread over an open fire.... ahh...whoever first thought of these ideas sure thought of everything. As you are waiting in line, you are covered in the smoke of the bannocks being made before you by others, and you can see some old school blacksmithin' action going on on the side. This does remind me, I'd love to check out Fort Edmonton sometime. :D
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| there was a hint of cinnamon to this! |
OH MAN. Going the night before the official day of the festival starting means it was quiet and there wasn't a giant line up of kids at the ice slide. Okay, there was huge slide made of ice, and I SIMPLY COULD NOT RESIST going on several times!! Sliding down on it on your coat makes you go 10x faster because the friction from your normal clothes slow you wayyyy down. I wish I had a picture! :P Oh well, a slide, made of ice. How hard is that to picture?
OTHER THINGS?!?!?!
Music, snow sculptures, seeing some blacksmithin' action, and a lot of other random things like a huge gigantic monument dedicated to Nightmare before xmas... here we go: I don't know what it was exactly since a lot of stuff wasn't ready on the first day when I went lol. The fairytale theme was also "Red Riding Hood", but the only fairytaley thing I saw was a snow sculpture gingerbread house with a legit scary looking witch infront. UGH, I'm so sure I took a pic of this actually, but it's not showing up in my photo stream. :[
Overall, this was a kick ass festival. And I can't believe I haven't even heard of William Hawrelak park before, because it's so big and so darn beautiful... I hope to go back again in the future for a stroll especially when the weather changes. I love seeing all these nooks and crannies of Edmonton because some bits can be quite a gem.
