What's happening in Alaska…

Well, the International ice carving event is winding down and if you’ve been following it you’ve seen some pretty spectacular carvings at Ice Alaska Link. Some were 25 feet tall and 25 feet wide. I have worked at the ice park every day for the last two months and I’m tired. That’s why I haven’t been posting allot because I’d come home exhausted and not interested in working on the computer. Today, I took some time off and left early. Oh, b-t-w, it’s a labor of love, I’m not getting paid, I just like the art and the work (computer stuff) I get to do. The whole thing lasts until March 23rd and then I can take a whole month or two off. I might run another consulting ad and make a few bucks but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, here are a few pictures from late February before the competition was opened to the public. The Chinese sculptors had been here for weeks doing exhibitions around town and creating giant slides for kids. They even drove down to Anchorage (6 hour drive) and took a few days to set up a demo down there that over 10,000 people attended.

I’ll start with a few pictures from inside the building where I work, showing the Webcam room and all, this is where we check on the webcams and configured the computers to upload the webcam pictures to the web site, which is hosted by iPower:

And the new flat panel display that shows ads and sculptures in a loop all day and nite:

Here’s where the general public comes in for snacks and to warm up. Everything is nearly empty right now since the event hadn’t started:

And a shot of the road down the side of the building looking west:

One of the first presentation pieces the Chinese sculptors finished, it’s a throne to be used in a later event in front of the building:

The local news showed up and did 2-3 days of interviews, they didn’t get to me:

This is the work the Chinese did at the front entrance where you buy tickets. It’s massive:

Before I wandered into that castle, I took a shot looking north to show you how blue the sky was that day:

There here’s one of the amazing sculptures inside the castle, and note that it’s just the entrance to the park, the ice weighs tons:

Then here is another entrance arch, this time to the Kid’s Park:

A octopus carving that is for kids to crawl around in:

I can’t remember what this was, except it has stairs so another slide probably:

Oh, yeah, a giant bird slide:

One of the neatest sculptures inside the Kid’s Park area. It was such a realistic looking cabin:

And another shot of the ice cabin:

Then a shot from inside the ice cabin looking at the steps to the slide:

Here’s a look at the ice maze front gate:

Hmmmm…:

Outside the maze:

Inside the maze:

Then we move out of the maze and to another huge ice slide that you can see from the road:

And a view from the back:

Oh, a giant bear. You can see this one over the fence from the hiway that runs alongside the fence:

Quite the slide, looks like fun:

A giant bowl that kids jump in, slide around until they puke…not designed by kids:

And a tiny slide for little munchkins:

That’s all for tonight, I’ll try to get some more pictures up tomorrow or so, enjoy. Oh, if you’re down there in the South West or in Mexico, Florida or the South, enjoy your winter. Up here in Alaska it’s very comfortable…meaning, you get use to the cold!