Today was our second day of Winter Carnival activities. Last night we took a quick, chilly look at the ice sculptures. Today we headed to the State Fairgrounds to see the snow sculptures. It was about 20 degrees and very sunny. A perfect day!
I have never been to the State Fairgrounds for the Winter Carnival. I believe that the State Fair is actually in Falcon Heights and the Winter Carnival is definitely a St Paul event. But I got over my St Paul bias and we had a great time. Parking at the Fair is very easy, which can be very important on the colder days and isn’t necessarily true for any of the downtown St Paul events. The snow sculptures were very fun. It’s kind of amazing what the sculptors can do with snow. Although we’ve had plenty of snow for practicing this year.
Along with the sculptures, there was a “find the medallion” game for kids. (Aine found 4 medallions, scoring her a toy car.) There was a hot air balloon, grounded. I suspect it was going up at some point but it was fun to see it up close. Kate was sure it would explode; Aine wanted to take a turn going up. There was also a snow maze; unfortunately we couldn’t check it out. Apparently someone has slipped an injured himself pretty seriously and so they were keeping folks out. Even after the injured party was taken out on a stretcher, the maze was closed as they tried to sand down the pathway. We didn’t mind too much as we heard rumor of a big event at 2:47.
Flashback to earlier in the week and Lily told me that some kid in her class said there was a flash mob planned for the Winter Carnival. A flash mob happens when a group of people meet in a public place to do something unusual. We love flash mobs! Fast forward to this morning when I noticed a post on the Winter Carnival Facebook page saying there would be a flash mob at 2:47 today in Rice Park. So after the snow sculptures we booked to Rice Park.
We got to Rice Park in time to get mini donuts and hang out to wait for the flash mob. The funny thing was that while I think flash mobs are meant to be secret – although in a funny we’re-super-friendly-in-Minnesota way, this felt like the worst kept secret ever. Many of us were hanging by the stage waiting – some for a signal and many of us with cameras. But it was still super fun when it happened – and I got it on video. (Not great, video but it was tough to try to take it all in.) The music started, the dancing followed. One fun part – the music quit working – but the flash mob carried on. In fact, that was maybe the best part!
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