When the weather forecast calls for sub-freezing temperatures with occasional snow and 17 mph winds, I usually stay inside as much as possible. But I spent an hour or so outside today, so I could check out the
Valent-ICE Festival in downtown Grand Rapids.
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| Of course, Ice Yoda was my favorite. |
The festival has several different events: ice skating, happy hours, live ice carving, and so on. Other than watching the ice skaters for a few minutes, I didn't attend any of that. I did walk around downtown to look at the ice carvings, though. There are quite a few, mostly in front of the businesses that sponsored the festival.
I took pictures of most of the ones I saw.
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| This one is in front of the Van Andel arena, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. |
They certainly picked the right time to hold an ice sculpting festival! It was really cold, but there's lots of places to step inside for a moment to warm up. I especially appreciated the downtown pedestrian bridge, which I used to walk a few blocks without exposure to the elements.
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| This building sculpture was fittingly placed at an architecture firm. |
I had a good time checking out all the ice art. Once a year is plenty for walking around outside in this kind of winter weather, though!
