Thursday, January 1, 2015

First Night State College 2015

Late in the afternoon on New Year's Eve, Chris and I ventured downtown to check out some of the First Night State College festivities - namely the ice sculptures. In addition to checking out the ice sculptures, we also browsed around in Appalachian Outdoors (I'm on the hunt for a daypack) and stopped into Freeze Thaw Cycles to say hi to the guys and thank them for a great year of cycling support. While we were out and about, we ran into our friends Amber and Jimmy.


The Deuter ACT Trail 28 SL...it's definitely a contender!

Trying it on...

...oh yeah!


Chris, me, Amber, and Jimmy

One of my absolute best friends ever!

But the main reason we went downtown was to scope out as many of the ice sculptures as possible. I know we didn't see all of them (I think we missed all of the 40s), but we saw A LOT! For the most part, I'm going to let them speak for themselves with just a bit of commentary when/where warranted. Enjoy!

These are the Central Parklet ice sculptures, #1-34 and 84-86:










This is who did my root canal two days before Christmas.
My tooth is nowhere near this damn happy!













Go Navy! Beat Army!
Oh, wait...they did and this isn't a Navy ice sculpture. Oops! :)





From further up the path, I thought this was a pineapple. DO YOU KNOW HOW EXCITED I GOT?!? Then I realized it was a bag of money for the bank. #pineapplefail #excitedfornoreason


Lots of ice sculptures sponsored by dentists or dental-types. Just don't chew on ice...that's how you crack your teeth!

Brrrr...an ice toilet!

This sculpture, sponsored by Shaver's Creek, was broken. Boo-hoo.








Here are ice sculptures along College and Beaver Avenues and Allen and Fraser Streets:
















A skier for AO...perfect!




LOVE the dragon for Cozy Thai Bistro...now if I could just get Chris to go there with me...

These are the ice sculptures that were on display at the State College Municipal Building:
















And finally...all of the "big" sculptures from Allen Street:

These guys were using a blow torch to melt the ice shavings from the sculpture.







Here's one final sculpture...the 2015 sculpture. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!