Rockford Ice Festival

My amazing husband (Ice Sculptures LTD) does several ice festivals every year. One that he has done for the last three years is the Rockford Ice Festival in Rockford, MI. Randy's team sets up ice sculptures all over the town. This festival is pretty amazing. This blog will be mostly pictures and less talking, but I would like to describe Rockford for those who have not visited. Rockford is a lovely west Michigan City. It has this "Sleepy town" kind of feel. Comforting downtown streets, with The Corner Bar (with amazing hot dogs and veggie dogs as well), they just opened a brewery (with delicious beer), and Reds on the River, just to name a few businesses around town. Randy did a live demonstration at Herman's Boy this year where he and Jake (one of Randy's team) made a grill out of ice. Complete with ice carved into meat.

This year Randy and his team added two winners of the National Collegiate Ice Carving Competition to sculpt at the festival. They made their own designs and sculpted blocks of ice at Red's on the River.  

The sun was out as well and it shined through the ice beautifully. Every idea for the sculptures came to fruition and was amazing. 

This is Randy with local business owner Jeannie, this was an excellent ice sculpture in front of Sage and Roses. The store smelled wonderful and the people were so nice. Typical Rockford. This store ran a contest for guessing how many hearts are in the ice...... it looked like a lot. 

Some of the sculptures were just really cool. Lots of color, some were really detailed and some were just simply beautiful. Some of them were excellent for posing for photos. 

SKYZONE: Super Trampolines

Tonight my sister met me somewhere that was a lot of fun. A place with trampolines everywhere! It was a little over whelming because there were a great deal of parents and children there (after all it was a Friday night and in Michigan we are covered in snow.) There were different sections, like one section was for slam dunking basketballs, another was for jumping into giant foam blocks, then there were dodgeball courts, and last but not least, there is a track. Yes, I called it a track, but it didn't look like a track. My niece actually called it a track, I think she is probably more savvy on the terminology of the place.  It was a very large room with little squares for each trampoline. It also had them on the walls so that you could jump off of them.


We all tried jumping into the foam first. This part was easy, climbing out, not as much.  I noticed my sister, who is very tall, had no problem climbing out. I however found it a little more difficult. The children climbed in and out easily. They made perfect flips and it was so cute how they waited patiently until the number of their tramp was called. Then they ran, jumped on the tramp and flung their little bodies into the sea of blue foam. I am told this is how many stunt people practice. Maybe someday Grand Rapids will have a lot them.

The track we tried next. One person per trampoline, that is the rule. This prevents double jumping (when you cause someone to jump high off of your jump.) We bounced from section to section, then off the walls. That was hard and I ended up on the ground a couple of times.

The final place we went was the basketball courts. There were three nets all different heights. Once again you had to wait for the attendant, so that no one bumps into each other, and you bounce up to try and make a slam dunk. It was really hard. In fact our friend Chris actually got hit with the Basketball trying.

There was also dodgeball courts, I didn't use them, but my nephew and his friend did. They told me it was very intense and when gets down to the last two or three people it gets really hard.

All in all it was really a lot of fun. Good exercise as well. It had been a long time since I was on a trampoline and I really enjoyed it. The experience was $13 an hour per person and I highly recommend it for people wanting good exercise and as a good extra circular activity for the children.

Where we went:

http://www.skyzonesports.com/grandrapids

Florida Everglades: Gators, Skunk Ape, Air Boats

Dwight our tour guide 

My mother in law and I went out to the Florida Everglades to experience the land. First of all I learned the Everglades are not swamps or marshes, they are rivers and slowly moving water. A swamp is stagnant water and the Everglades are anything but stagnant. Everything, is always moving. The water, the animals, and even to some extent the plants. There are air plants that grow on the trees, they are not parasites, there are Fig Elk, which are giant tree parasites that kill their host trees. Gators, snakes, and green everywhere. I don't even know where to start.

I'll start with Dwight. He was our tour guide on the Everglades Adventure Tour, he was awesome.  He had a wealth of knowledge of the Everglades and the tours he set us up on were beyond amazing. Swamp tours, Air boat rides, interactive animal parks (petting zoos with unusual animals), and some stops to see wild birds.

First, we took a tour of the Everglades Via Air Boat. It was exhilarating.  We flew through the Everglades, went pass Mangroves, Snowy Egrets flew past us, and of course the gators bobbed their heads up and down in the murky water. The water in the Everglades is brackish, which means it is part saltwater, part fresh water, so different creatures live throughout.

We went on the Gator tour and saw a lot of Gators inside of Wooten's Airboat tours. The air boat ride was cool, but afterwards we went on a swamp tour across the street. There was a giant swamp buggy.  The woman driving it took us through the grasslands and then through what looked like a jungle. She explained the sable palms, wax myrtle, air plants, and Strangler Fig (which is a tree parasite but it is protected by law and it looks really cool).  We saw Raccoons and deer. She said sometimes there are bears.

After the swamp tour we met a guy who let us hold baby alligators.  I got to hold the big baby alligator. His name was Fred. He was a bit bigger than the other alligator because he was five. That's still a baby for Alligators, they really don't know how long they live, probably around 100 years.  There were also venomous snakes, tigers, and other gators all over the place.


The last place we went was the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters. It was the coolest place I've ever been. They have no Venomous snakes. There were birds, giant snakes, a baby alligator, peacocks, snapping turtles, and a tortoise. I'm told there were tarantulas and Scorpions, but I did not see them.

To wrap up our tour Dwight took us to see some of the native birds by the riverside. We did not get out of the van because there are gators that hang out near the edge of the river. They run really fast and we saw them swimming around in the river. It is illegal in the state of Florida to feed alligators. You will get arrested. This is because once you feed them they become dependent and see humans as people that will feed them. They are not good pets, so please do not buy baby alligators.













Where we went:

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/13341
http://wootenseverglades.com/
www.evergladesadventure.com 
http://youtu.be/lCTMUCRoBU8 <------You tube videos
http://youtu.be/edUX118xYYc <-----Youtube videos