Winter Carnival

We headed over to the big city this past weekend to attend the Dartmouth Winter Carnival, and was it ever crowded. There were tons of people, though I was surprised that more people we knew did not attend. In fact, I wonder if it’s something that people stop going to after a couple of times, probably because their kids have lost interest. After all, if your kids don’t want to go, then there’s no reason for adults to attend. It’s really just a big ice party for kids.

We wanted to ice skate, but it’s so crowded that skating can be a challenge. Plus, the ice was in pretty bad shape, lot of rough patches and huge cracks, so it wasn’t what you would call smooth sailing. That is not to say that we didn’t have fun, but I’m wondering if we’ll attend next year. It’s like everything up here, there are so many events to attend, that at some point you burn out and can’t go them all, though our kids never seem to lose interest.

At least there’s lot of food, and at a fair price. We chowed on hot dogs and burgers, and then went skating. I’d hurt my neck by sleeping in the wrong position, so I had to deal with what amounted to a pinched nerve in my neck. Man was it painful, and every time I skated over a crack, the bump sent a jolt through my entire upper body. It put a damper on my state of mind.

There were all sorts of events for the kids, including skating races and ice slides. They were giving away sugar snow, and there were marshmallows, but at some point you’ve skated a thousand circles around the pond and you just want to sit down and watch. I have to confess, I was tired and wanting to move on to greener pastures, but at least the kids were having fun.

By the end of the event, we were ready to head out, but the question became, did we want to go home? It wasn’t that late, and we had originally planned on having supper at our beloved Boloco. However, we were full from all the burgers and hot dogs. Our options were to hang out and kill time until dinner, or go home and make the pizza we didn’t make on Friday.

Well, as luck would it have it, there was a men’s hockey game that night, and if you live in a small town like we do, a college hockey game in the big city is the thing to do on a Saturday night, but more on this later.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to peter hellebrand for the pic.