Nice ice

There was an ice sculpting competition at the Helsinki Zoo this past weekend, so we decided to check it out. (By the way, all of our family outings after the Kiasma catastrophe have been quite tame!)

The zoo is located on a small island just northeast of the city center. A long pedestrian bridge connects the ticket booth and the gift shop to the main part of the zoo.

Once there, the majority of animal habitats and all the paths are located outside (unlike the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago where habitats are both inside and outside allowing winter visitors to get warm for a bit before continuing to the next animal house).

Some really energetic women were giving kids dog sled rides at the entrance for free.

The singles ice sculpting competition was the previous weekend, so we got to see the completed sculptures, as well as their rank.

My favorite

was not the first place winner,but this one was:

The couples competition (not necessarily married couples) was in process. I've seen ice carving at our local zoo in Chicago, but I think they always start with a very large chunk of ice. From what I could tell, these folks start out with smaller chunks of ice

which they then break into pieces

and sometimes, stick together with (I think) water and snow.

The sculptors use all kinds of tools to achieve their desired effect.

Sometimes, the process is a bit messy

but also worth the effort in the end!

We enjoyed our first "grilli" sausages at the zoo too. Sam had a minor meltdown. He swore he would NOT eat a sausage without a bun (no buns in sight). Yeah. Two sausages later....

Hey, if you're hungry enough....By the way, those sausages were YUMMY and Sam has asked if we could have them at home!