Every once in awhile the chilly January temperature climbs slightly and even hovers for a few days around 0 degrees. While this usually means snow, when it’s combined with a little sunshine, it improves my mood so much. I love breathing in the clean, fresh air and watching other people get a bit of the spring back in their step. Less scarf wrapped faces and runny noses, and more smiles.

This past weekend was beautiful. On Monday the temperature dipped down a bit and it was the perfect night to head down to Winterlude – one of the best parts of living in Ottawa in the winter.

We planned to go to the Rideau canal, one of the world’s longest skating rinks, and test out the ice, but the warmer than usual temperature during the day meant that the surface was poor, so we just walked around beautiful downtown Ottawa instead. First stop was Confederation Park, (also called Rogers Crystal Garden right now) – home of the ice sculptures!

Ice carvers from around the world chisel and shape huge blocks of ice into frosty artwork for the 24th International Ice-Carving Competition. It’s especially beautiful at night when the sculptures are lit up.

We stopped at this one for awhile, and I tried to guess what the background was (a map?) and Jeff commented that it was two kids playing monsters and swordfighting, and the lantern in front was casting their shadow to look like they actually were monsters. Wow. A lady standing nearby exclaimed that she’d never have thought of that and asked Jeff if he was an artist. He told her that he was a musician and she thought that made sense.

We arrived at another sculpture with very musical connotations and our new friend eagerly asked Jeff what the man was holding. He replied that he though it was a key. Oooh! She said, thinking this was some instrument she didn’t know. And how do you spell that?

Following the competition, the judges had chosen the top 3 sculptures and this amazing ice creation of fish that seemed to float in the air took first place.

After our browse of the ice sculptures, we couldn’t help but wander towards the vendors. There were only a few, but the Canadian classics were covered: Beer! Poutine! And Beavertails! We each opted for a beavertail – this is a fried dough pastry that is sprinkled or smothered with sweetness on top. It’s chewy and slightly crunchy, just melting in your mouth. I got a classic Killaloe sunrise beavertail (cinnamon, sugar, and a squeeze of lemon juice) and Tyler tried a maple butter one. Both were amazing.

We licked off our sticky fingers as we wandered further downtown to the National Arts Centre and the new Oscar Peterson statue. Oscar Peterson is one of the most famous Canadian jazz pianists of all time and we listened to his music often growing up, so I had to stop for a minute to catch the lovely strains of jazz piano filtering through the crisp air.

And of course, our two piano players had to stop and pose with the piano.

We walked up to the War Memorial and the Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as well, and it felt so somber, yet peaceful as the snowflakes floated through the sky around us.

A stop in a Darcy McGee’s on Sparks Street to thaw out our chilly noses and fingertips and enjoy a pint topped off our night.

Have you been down to Winterlude yet? Do you plan to go?