Thursday, December 23, 2010

CHRISTMAS ON THE POTOMAC

For Christmas this year, we treated ourselves to a 2 night 3 day stay at the Gaylord National Hotel on the Potomac River.  So Cool!  Included in our Package was a great ICE show featuring the Grinch.  2 million lbs of ice were sculptured to highlight the story How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  There was colored and clear ice depicting all of the scenes from the great story.  In addition, there also were ice carvings depicting the Nativity Scene.  We could take pictures and these were some of the highlights. Inside the ICE show, the temperature was 9 degrees!  It was fine for the first 2 minutes and then it was freezing inside.  They gave us a parka to wear to help cut the chill.

We even had the opportunity to go ice skating.  Here I am getting ready to do my pirouette.  LOL!
I'm a little rusty, but I am getting around great!
The ice sculptures were incredible.  I think the ice carvers start in September preparing for this wonderful event that will go until sometime in January.  The details are incredible.
 Each night the hotel had a tree lighting ceremony which was awesome.  Then at various times, they played Christmas music and had a colorful dancing fountain that was synchronized to the music.  It was such a highlight of our trip and we saw it several times.
 Another thing that was really cool, was that every night there was a live snowfall in the atrium - inside the hotel!  Really cool.  Here JP is trying to catch some flakes.
 Can you see some of the flakes on my coat.  It was really coming down, but the camera doesn't catch it as much as you can see live in person.
And, the highlight of the whole trip was seeing the Grinch!  He was a wonderful host and not mean by any means!  Santa was also there and we were sure to visit him too!

Truly, it was a spectacular stay.  I think I took almost 1000 photos in the three days we were there.  I hope to post more soon.  If you live in the area or are headed to DC at all over the holidays, try to see this hotel and all of the wonderful events. 

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