A Burrrrrry Cool Day!

We went to the ICE! exhibit at the Gaylord Texan today, and it was so cool... literally. It was around 9 degrees inside of the several rooms that the exhibit was held, and we were inside of those rooms for about an hour and a half. Thankfully, they provided some lovely parkas for everyone, and we brought hats and gloves. But, by the time we finished the exhibit, our faces were red, our noses were running, and some of our parts were numb. :) My favorite part of the exhibit was the huge nativity. It was beyond life-sized and took up an entire room. (The clear glass didn't photograph too well.) Also, we all went on the ice slides at the end of the exhibit, and it was a blast! The whole experience was really fun and so amazing!

Here is something that I found on their website that is interesting....
ICE! BY THE NUMBERS:
2,000,000 pounds: amount of ice it takes to create ICE!
400,000: number of visitors who enjoyed ICE! in 2005 and 2006
5,000: number of ICE! blocks hand-carved and transformed into our winter wonderland
40: number of artisans from the City of Harbin (China) Tourism and Development Commission, who sculpt the attraction by hand
34: number of days needed to hand-carve the ICE! display
14,000: total square footage of the unique structure that houses ICE!
9 degrees: the temperature setting for the ICE! structure. The average temperature fluctuates from 14 to 20 degrees, but is always under freezing.
1,400+: number of LED lights frozen within ICE!
3: number of types of ice used in the construction of ICE! - Clear “glass-like” crystal ice – so flawless that it is compared to Waterford Crystal – makes up 80 percent of the sculptures. “White ice” blocks, which are more like compacted snow, make up 15 percent of the sculptures. Colored ice, which contains dyed brilliant colors, is used for highlighting and accenting the remaining 5 percent of the sculptures.

~ Waiting to go through the exhibit

~ Sporting our warm duds


~ Almost everything in these pictures is made of ice. It was really amazing.









Merry Christmas Eve!