Ice, Ice Baby!

Hi Blog! I feel remiss that we haven't posted as many blog entries as we have in the past. It just seems that we have been really busy with doctor appointments, truck servicing and general running around. We've left the Philadelphia area and are now located to the east of Washington, D.C.

Even Eddie and George have been too lazy to wake up yet.  Both have had colds and George just doesn't feel like getting out of bed.

Being near D.C. puts us in position to still get back up to Philadelphia for holiday events, but also allows us the opportunity to enjoy what D.C. has to offer. Kathy's brother, Steve, strongly recommended a trip to the National Harbor to see the annual ICE show.  So, on Thursday, December 4, 2014, with our friends, Ginny and Eric, we headed out to explore the National Harbor.  This 300 acres site has a convention center, six hotels, 30 restaurants, 150 shops, and condominiums. If it wasn't so cold, you think you were in Disney World. Check out the really large sculpture that appears to be coming right out of the sand.

Talk about the perfect place to put your giant Christmas Tree - right above the Peeps store!

As we continued to explore, we noticed all the shops and restaurants were decorated for the holiday season.  Here Ginny and Kathy are posing with the al fresco Santa in front of the pizza shop.

The National Harbor is located on the Maryland shore of the Potomac River just east of I-495/I-95. From the waterfront you can watch the giant ferris wheel turn round and round while the planes come in for a landing at Reagan International Airport - all while keeping up with your favorite daytime TV shows.

All this exploring builds up an appetite! With 30 restaurants to choose from, we should be able to find something to eat. As RVers, we are always looking for something different. We try to stay away from the chain restaurants, but we couldn't help but be intrigued by a restaurant chain started in South Africa serving Portuguese PERi-PERi. We just had to try Nando's and their PERi-PERi marinated flame grilled chicken.

What is PERi-PERi you ask?  Well, back in the 15th century, Portuguese explorers were introduced to the African Bird’s Eye Chili. This was a spice so nice, they named it twice! Called PERi-PERi, this hot little number put fire in the explorers’ bellies and ignited passion in their souls.  To create the addictive PERi-PERi sauce you add this pepper to a handful of herbs, spices, a squeeze of sun-ripened lemons and a dash of garlic. We all agreed that this was the best tasting chicken we ever had. Don't worry about the spice, you can order it mild, medium, hot or extra hot. We would definitely recommend giving Nando's a try.

Our next stop was the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. Check out the Christmas tree suspended in front of the 19-story glass atrium which looks out over the Potomac River.

It didn't take us long to find the Will Call Window to pick up our tickets for ICE. This indoor, walk-through attraction is housed in an enormous 15,000 square feet structure that is specially constructed and thickly insulated to help maintain its internal temperature of nine degrees - YES! that's 9 degrees Fahrenheit! We were warned it would be cold when we bought our tickets, so we had long johns, hats and gloves. Even with all these preparations, Kathy still decided to borrow an oversized blue parka. Here is our "official" photo.

This year's theme was Frosty the Snowman. Everyone's favorite snowman was brought to life carved from over two million pounds of colorful ice. Here is Eric, Kathy and Ginny in front of Frosty. It was hard to keep track of each other as we walked around the exhibit because everyone had on the same blue parkas!

While the little kids were excited to see all their favorite holiday characters, we were really excited with all the science, artistry and engineering it took to create all of these ice sculptures. For example, the ice to make these sculptures come from three different factories because one factory cannot produce enough ice at one time to meet the needs of the sculptures. It takes 6,500 blocks of ice in 12 different colors. Despite all this cool science, we still found time to act like kids.  Here, Kathy demonstrates the ice slides:

The master artisans who created ICE! are from Harbin, China - a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province that is world-famous for its annual Harbin International Snow and Ice Festival. Each year, 40 of Harbin's most talented master artisans come to Maryland to showcase their amazing talents in creating this one-of-a-kind attraction. They arrived in mid-October, staying onsite for more than 30 days, to build and hand-carve the attraction. We got a chance to see one of the artists in action.

By the time we reached the end, our noses were frosty and our toes slightly numb, but it was well worth it. The final room contained a nativity scene and large angel, all done in clear ice.



Once outside, we had a chance to "warm" up. It is amazing how warm 36 degrees feels after spending time in a room full of ice.  We decided to walk back to our car along the waterfront. Here Dave almost got taken from us, but we managed to pull him free.

We ended our adventures with Christmas Tree Selfies.  Here are Ginny and Eric making merry.

As Tiny Tim always says, "God Bless Us, Everyone."