Ice Around Town 2012 part 2

I hope you liked the photos in the previous post on this year's Ice Around Town. We took so many photos I needed to split them up into two posts, so this post is about the interactive sculptures.

I already showed you the Tustumena 200's musher, but what we didn't realize when we first saw this one was that the sled is big enough for a person to sit in. I didn't realize it until I saw someone else's photo with an adult man sitting in the sled. I wish we'd done it, too. Next year, we'll be more observant!

The Soldotna Visitor's Center never disappoints us with their interactive sculptures. This one echos the saddled salmon at the chainsaw carver's in Sterling. Jim took a ride first:

The salmon didn't waste any time grabbing Jim by the hand, though!

Let a Texas girl show you how to ride!

The Sports Center in Soldotna hosts game tournaments for children, free hot dogs and other activities. The giant slides are always fascinating and covered in details. The kids love them, and the adults wish we could play on them, too.

Before we get to the main attraction, let me show you the Peak Oilfield kiddie slide, and the cuteness of this big sister helping little sister go down the slide:

Across the parking lot, two giant Oriental dragons face off. Oh my!

Eager children go through the arches to climb ice stairs to the dragons' mouths. (Note that there's a small slide on either side of the stairs as well.)

Easily 20 feet of very fast slide await the children once they are "swallowed" by the dragons. See the legs and scales on the dragon? Remember, you can click the photos to enlarge them. [update: there are some problems with Blogger enlarging the pics right now, which hopefully I'll be able to clear up soon.]

Notice the size of the dragons' heads. Both heads were different.

Breaking news: The ice sculpture winners have been announced! First place goes to the T200 dog sled. Second place goes to the Soldotna Professional Pharmacy's whale, and third place is a tie between Dr. Hu's Bugs Bunny and Soldotna Mini Storage's Bear. Congratulations!!!

Update: Ben Firth and Family carved seven of the ice sculptures around town, including three of the winners!

Ice Around Town 2012 part 1

Every January, local chainsaw carvers and businesses team up to decorate the area with fabulous ice sculptures. The sculptures are finished in time to coincide with the T200 and the Peninsula Winter Games. Jim and I spend the first part of the day watching the official start of the race, then have some lunch and drive around taking photos of the ice. It was a brilliant, sunny day and the ice was gorgeous against the blue sky.

Click on any of the photos to enlarge them. Seriously, do. The detail in the ice is amazing and I wish you could have seen them in person. And I wish I could convey the scale of the sculptures, too. Some of them were made from several large blocks of ice and were easily 10 or 12 feet tall.

My personal favorite (well, one of them) is this breaching whale in front of Soldotna Professional Pharmacy.

McDonald's in Kenai offers a large fries:

McDonald's in Soldotna offers a coffee to wash them down with:

Soldotna Mini Storage commissioned a bear catching a salmon.

It was one of our favorites, but it was in shadow enough that we weren't able to get photos that even pretended to do it justice. Here's the best we could get of the bear's face and the salmon:

Davis Block and Concrete's snow machiner was really impressive:

The Duck Inn has a frosty mug in case you're thirsty on this fine chilly day:

ConocoPhillips and the Peninsula Winter Games offers children on a sled:

Alaska Communications gives us a school of swimming salmon. Oooooh, pretty. I could see this as a crystal sculpture in any art gallery anywhere.

Foster Construction proves that bulldozers can be adorable:
Dr. Jerry Hu and Bugs Bunny team up to remind us all to brush our teeth!
Binkley Street Dental likes Swiper the Fox from Dora the Explorer:

Soldotna Dental Arts completes the toothy-animal theme with an extremely lifelike woodchuck:

Blazy Construction's howling wolf:
Sweeney's and Mykel's wouldn't be right without a leprechaun and penguin:
Bucket's Sports Grill has a Super Bowl trophy. Y'know, in case you needed a suggestion for a place to eat while watching The Big Game.

Stanley Chrysler's Dodge Ram is incredible:
Stanley Ford in Kenai puts a moose in the driver's seat (which sounds a bit scary to me!):

Kenai Watershed Forum's logo:

Arby's in Soldotna hints that even bears need Good Mood Food:

The Tustumena 200 and the Soldotna Aspen Hotel had a wonderfully detailed musher, sled and dog:
The Kenai airport continues their animal-in-the-cockpit theme this year with a wolf aviator:

We missed the next two sculptures on the day we spent looking at the ice, so I went back a few days afterwards, after a heavy snowfall, and took pictures of the ice in front of Airport Equipment Rental:

And Lynden Transport.

That's probably enough photos for one post, but I hope you liked these and will check back in a few minutes to see photos of interactive sculptures!