11 Dec
ICE! at the Gaylord
As soon as I saw this post on Make Mine a Mojito, I knew That Husband and I had to make a date night out of visiting the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan.
It was my first time at the Gaylord, and the place is HUGE! I think my entire hometown could fit inside (not just the people, the buildings and everything). All of the decorations were Texas sized, which meant they were ridiculously grand.
.
After following the snowflakes and the signs help up by Miss Skanky Ice Princess we made it to the exhibit where we were handed some very attractive parkas. Wearing the parka with hood up is absolutely necessary because the exhibit is freezing inside (actually it’s below freezing).
We learned from the video that they flew in 40 artists from China to sculpt the exhibit.
I’m all about the intereactive stuff, so I was happy that they created a special place for people to touch the ice.
I saw this part of the exhibit and thought that this was a wonderful representation of That Husband and I….
but then I saw these two kid and realized that the one on his bum actually looks more like me. I’m not the best ice skater.
I was attempting to take a self-portrait of the two of us in front of the bunnies when this lady walked up and forcefully quickly grabbed my camera (the camera I consider to be my little baby) from my hands and insisted she would take the picture. I was really confused until she took the photo and laughed and said that the flash had helped illuminate our faces, showing her that we weren’t cousins like she had previously thought. I understood, since I thought I lost That Husband a few times while we were inside, everyone looks like Pillsbury Doughpeople when wearing those huge parkas.
I laughed at this not-so-subtle product endorsement.
This icy cupcake looked delicious.
I do not see how living in an igloo could ever be warm. This house was freezing inside. And also see-through. Are igloos see-through?
TH came up with this pose all by himself. I was so happy to be there all I could think to do was beam excitedly whenever the camera was pointed in my direction.
We asked Santat take us to Poland in his magical sleigh. I think the trip will be shorter that way.
The reindeer ice slide looked so fun with all of the kiddies and parents zooming down.
Unfortunately I sucked at the ice slide. Here I am laughing hysterically because I finally made it to the bottom 10 minutes later.
I can’t even imagine how long it took them to craft this forest of ice branches.
And what is the fire extinguisher for?
I was fascinated by the ice candles on either side of this angel.
I always picture Joseph to be someone fit and hard working. This Joseph was a little bit on the jolly portly side. Mary must be a really good cook!
I was so sad to get to the end, it felt like it went by so fast! If it wasn’t so cold I think I would have made TH loop through one more time.
After exploring ICE! we decided to wander around the hotel a little bit, in part because I wanted to find the giant gingerbread house. Along the way we came across this tree. TH was absolutely fascinated by it and made me take a picture. We definitely like to take pictures of different things.
We found the house, but apparently someone had been eating snacks off of it!
I’m a little nervous about baking little miniatured gingerbread men for Christmas (my baking endeavors have not been very successful so far). I can’t imagine baking a lifesize house version!
We saw this family attempting to take photos of their 5 children standing in front of the front door and the littlest one kept saying “I want to go inside the house!” Does anyone understand the strange theme they chose for the decor?
As we were walking out of the lobby I saw this awesome chair and had to take a picture for my Grandma A. You need one like this with your brand on it Grandma!
Wouldn’t you love to have such a fantastic coffee table in your house?
Thanks for such a great date night my love! We make a great team.
After a failed attempt to visit TCBY we decided to come home and test out the fun new toy I bought for 40% off at Linens n’ Things. What could it be?
An ice cream maker, with soft serve ice cream dispenser! In the lovely shade of bubble gum pink.
It even has little containers to hold and self-dispense toppings.
We decided to make fat free raspberry frozen yogurt.
It was an absolutely delicious way to end a wonderful evening. I can’t wait to use my Italian cookbook recipes and make some gelato now!
Also:
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
What a fun date night! Your frozen yogurt looks really good!
1That looks like so much fun! I’ve been meaning to get out to the ICE! exhibit that’s here at the Gaylord Opryland, but I never seem to have any money every year to do so, lol. This year the theme at ours is How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
2I love those ice branches. Amazing really. And it’s a real pain to get ice that clear. You have to at least double boil it (thank you food network).
3Wow! That looks amazing!
4And to answer your question, igloos are not actually see-through. Natural ice blocks are not clear because of impurities in the ice (kind of like how the centers of ice cubes are hazy)… I know this because my father and I actually built our own honest-to-goodness igloo once, and slept outside in it. It was actually quite warm inside, compared to the minus 0 degree Fahrenheit temperatures outside!
I read the post Mojito Maven did on the ICE! exhibit, and both times I giggled at those parkas…not because I think they look ridiculous (they look warm, and warmth supercedes fashion). I can’t help but laugh at the idea that they have to hand them out to everyone. Obviously the weather in TX is different than MN, but here our ice sculpture exhibits are 1) outside, 2) often below ZERO, not just below freezing, and 3) BYOCWG (cold weather gear)…unless you’re a 16 year old boy trying to impress his friends…then you’d wear your t-shirt and jeans and pretend to “tough it out” while shivering violently.
5I ALMOST suggested this same ice cream maker before when you had talked about one. We have it and it seems to be so much better than so many others I’ve tried. LOVE it!
My favorite part is the “Automatic Sprinklizer” as I like to call it. SO much fun!!
6That does look like a lot of fun! Igloos are usually made from blocks of ice/snow and usually aren’t clear. (At least in my experience.)
7A weird question for you about metric/imperial system (from the ignorant canadian, okay?): Is below freezing below 32F or 0F? For us, below freezing is 0C = 32F, but it’s kind of weird to comprehend that below freezing might be a positive number. Hrm.
Oh my gosh I think I need that Yogurt marker!
8That looks so much fun. I would love to visit such an exhibit. Did you know that in the Nordic countries (can’t remember which one) every year there is a place where they create an Ice Hotel… Ice all the way, they better provide the warmest sleeping bags.
The Ice forrest looks beautiful.
Oh and the Ice Cream maker…. mmh if I wasn’t trying to cut down on sugar I would by one right away!
9Oh, that looks like so much fun. Too bad here in Michigan, they could easily put it outdoors and have it last until March. Your fro yo looks so very yummy!
Random facts time:
10(a) Igloos are shaped different, and compartivley speaking quite warm. Plus, they are usually made of snow and ice, not just ice. Snow has great insulating properties.
http://people.howstuffworks.com/igloo.htm
(b) The clear ice is made most likely from distilled water. “Regular” water has impurities and it’s not that clear.
(c) The fire extinguisher is most likely the result of a buidling code. No extinguisher, no display :).
Absolutely incredible display. The parkas were a nice touch. I wanna go down the ice slide!
11this is sooo very cool!
its also cool bc just today my husband and I were talking about checking out The Mattress Factory which, despite it name, is a art museum where artistd come in and build art…i believe its only 15 or so artistd though…and its not made out of ice…..hmmm.
but it should still be fun!!! i will be sure to take pictures!
12That ice place looks amazing. I did laugh at the fire extinguisher, though. And even more when you mentioned gelato again after my last comment!
13Oh, I read about that in the paper a few weeks ago & have been wanting to go! Y’all look like you had so much fun
14