Each year, the ski town of Breckenridge hosts the International Ice Sculpture Championships, during which 16 teams carve 20-ton blocks of snow into artwork. Dan and I are in town for unrelated reasons (theater, as you might have guessed) but lucked out on the date and had a chance to see the final IISC creations.

When I texted a picture of this ballerina hippo (below) to Linda, she referred to the hippo as Fiona — clearly I am doing an exceptional job as Cincinnati’s ambassador to the world. (Fiona is not just a hippo, she is also a ballerina! You can even buy ballerina hippo cookies in Cincinnati!) I am guessing the snow sculpture took its inspiration from Fantasia, but whatever.

The chess pieces below might have been my favorite — not just for the sculpture but for the lighting, which really added something to the entire event.

P.S. After viewing the sculptures, we went in search of crêpes. The queue was long, but right away a teenage boy struck up conversation with us about how the crêpes are worth it, they’re his favorite food in Breck, etc. He introduced us to his friend and fist-bumped Dan for re-learning how to ski. (I got a fist-bump too, because “it’s cool even if you don’t ski.”) By the end of the long line my heart was so warmed by this friendly, garrulous kid (whose idol is Red Gerard, by the way) that I did what I’m sure my mom surely would have done and bought their crêpes. They tried to argue — the kid said something about how “I’ll probably just blow that cash at the arcade,” which I assured him was the exact right thing to do. These two kids — who flipped dexterously between English and Spanish when speaking with one another — gave me hope for the future that I’ve been sorely needing. May the Nutella and strawberries and dulce de leche keep them fueled up on the slopes today.