| Walls of ice. Just thinking about checking into this hotel (below) and sleeping on a bed of ice (above) is enough to give you the chills. |
A Long Winter’s Night
This Canadian hotel leaves guests shivering…and begging for more.
By Linda Aksomitis
Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan
Waking up in the Ice Hotel wasn’t quite what I expected it would be. I didn’t turn into a giant Popsicle after spending the night in below-freezing temperatures.
Instead, I spent the entire night and most of the morning snuggled into a cozy arctic sleeping bag, dreaming about magnificently carved beds of ice.
Each winter, the Ice Hotel, or Hotel de Glace, rises anew in Station Touris-tique Duchesnay, Quebec. There is only one other hotel like it, 124 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden.
Wall-to-Wall Snow
Everything in the Ice Hotel is truly made of ice and snow, from the walls and ceilings to the beds and other furnishings. It takes 15,000 tons of snow, 500 tons of ice and 5 weeks to build the hotel every season.
Rates are set according to how ornately the room is carved. If you’re lucky, and snow conditions are right, you may be able to book a night in an igloo built in the courtyard.
More than 65,000 visitors tour the Ice Hotel every season, but only 4,000 actually spend the night.
I arrived in the late afternoon and ate dinner at Auberge Duchesnay, which is part of the Ice Hotel’s overnight package. Every bite was delicious, from the appetizer (chunky soup with wild duck) to the dessert (creme brulee).
| A chilly reception. Guests arrive at the Ice Hotel (top) eager to explore the building (left bottom). Below right, the author tucks in for the night. | |
From there, it was on to the N’Ice Club reception room and courtyard to begin the “real” fun. The N’Ice room was a great place to make friends. Some plan-ned to spend the night, while others were just socializing.
Lights flickered through the sculptured ice chandeliers, and the music soon had several adults up and on their feet, dancing away the chill of the 25° to 30° air. Meanwhile, the kids and a few young-at-heart winter lovers took turns on the ice slide.
Winter Sleeping 101
Before spending the night in the Ice Hotel, we had to learn how to sleep in freezing temperatures. Shaun, a hotel employee, was our guide.
The way to get a good night’s sleep in the Ice Hotel, Shaun told us, is to first warm up thoroughly in the hot tub, then dive into the sleeping bags to preserve your body heat.
The sleeping bags were amazing. Shaun showed us how to snuggle into the inside liner and do up the outside shell. When he was finished, all that stuck out of the sleeping bag hood were his eyes and nose.
Our group hit the hot tubs in the outdoor courtyard. Wearing toques (stocking caps) to keep our hair dry, we soaked in warm water and enjoyed the intermittent fall of snowflakes as big and as beautiful as butterflies.
I had fleece pajamas, but thermal underwear that wicks away moisture and keeps your body warm and dry would work, too. Dampness will chill you to the bone on an arctic night. A midnight trip to the bathroom, we were warned, would likely mean a shivery end to our peaceful sleep.
A bed in the Ice Hotel is a chunk of ice covered with a board, a foam mattress and caribou fur.
Our group fared well. Only one person didn’t make it through the whole night. I slept soundly, snug and warm, completely engulfed in my arctic sleeping bag. The crisp air inspired dreams of snow and ice.
Overnight, the temperature dropped to a chilly 28°. When check-out time came at 8:30 a.m., I wasn’t ready to hear, “Last call. You have to leave now. You’re the only ones left.”
Another Day in Paradise
Florida’s winter visitors come in all shapes and sizes. In the sleepy, little town of Crystal River, some visitors weigh in at about 1,000 pounds each.
You see, Crystal River is the self-proclaimed winter “Home of the Manatee.” From November to March, these gentle giants gorge on sea grass in Kings Bay and give folks a reason to celebrate during the Manatee Festival.
For more than 20 years, this festival has brought thousands to Crystal River for the usual festival activities—a juried art show, craft booths, music, local cuisine and a Jimmy Buffet sound-alike contest.
But they don’t call this part of Florida “Nature’s Amusement Park” for nothing. If you want to actually see the manatees, local dive shops will take you to their natural habitat for a peak.
And, folks interested in protecting this endangered species can learn all about it at educational booths.
“Florida isn’t just glitzy theme parks, towering condos and white, sandy beaches,” says Debbie Fritz of St. Petersburg, Florida. “There is another side to our state.”
The Possum Capital of the South
For 364 days of the year, Clay’s Corner is your typical country general store.
“We’re a little old gas and grocery in an old, ugly building,” says owner Clay Logan. “Nothin’ fancy. We’re just like any other small community. Of course, it does get a little hot around election time because everyone’s got an opinion, but we try to stay civil.”
Folks in Brasstown, North Carolina stop in to buy gas and groceries and to socialize. On Friday nights, pickers and fiddlers jam (though Clay can’t say who’s playing until they show up).
On Saturdays, the Saturday Morning Breakfast Boys let their wives sleep in and head over to the store for a heart-stopping breakfast of eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy.
Brasstown might have gone unnoticed all these years as a typical mountain town had it not been for the way these folks ring in the New Year.
“The big ball in Times Square has nothing on us,” says Patricia Larsen, who lives 10 miles away in Hayesville, North Carolina. “We have an annual Possum Drop.”
On New Year’s Eve, about 3,000 revelers gather at the store to watch Clay and company slowly lower an opossum in a Plexiglas cage.
“It’s an all-family affair,” says Clay. “You can bring your children and they can have a good time structured around pure silliness and laughter.”
At the stroke of midnight, the crowd sings Auld Lang Syne and the band plays The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Dixie. (“We try to cover all the bases and not insult anybody,” says Clay.)
Clay can’t take all the credit for dreaming this up (though he did manage to make Brasstown the Possum Capital of the South). A neighbor suggested it, and Clay ran with it.
The possum is in the cage for about 2 hours and animal rights groups show up every year to keep an eye on things.
“They watch me like a hawk,” says Clay, who has three state permits and one federal permit for the event.
To keep the crowd entertained as the clock winds down, there’s music and the Miss Possum contest…in which all the contestants are men. Most contestants do it on a dare.
“It’s total peer pressure,” Clay says without a hint of apology.
The crowd has nothing to do with picking the winner. It’s all up to Clay, who says, “If you’re a pretty woman, you’re not going to win.”
Here’s a hint, gentlemen—if you’re looking to win this crown, don’t shave your beard.
More Country Celebrations
Mushers Bowl Winter Carnival
Bridgton, Maine
January 16-25
They’re freezin’ for a reason in Bridgton. Kind souls plunge into icy water to benefit animal welfare during this winter festival. The fun continues for 10 days with a dodgeball tournament, dogsled and skijoring races (skiing with dogs), a snowmobile parade, snowshoe hikes and more.
Bemidji Polar Daze
Bemidji, Minnesota
January 16-25
Folks in Bemidji don’t let snow and ice keep them from having a good time. During Polar Daze, these rather hearty Minnesotans play broomball (right), play golf, run a 5K, take the icy Polar Plunge and ski by candlelight.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce
Ghost Watch at Historic Centre Hill Mansion
Petersburg, Virginia
January 24
In the early 1900s, the owners of Centre Hill Mansion began reporting what sounded like soldiers marching up their staircase. Most people in Petersburg believe these ghostly warriors fought in the Civil War. No one really knows whether they fought under the banner of the Union or the Confederacy, or what they were doing in the house. But their “appearance” every January gives local history buffs the chance to leave no ghost story untold during tours of the stately mansion.