Day 4.012: Winterfest #5

It was actually the 26th Annual Winter Festival at Grafton Lakes State Park today - but it was our fifth. We went after only being here a couple of weeks with two small and under-insulated girls. Despite illness, two of us managed to witness the first polar plunge a year later. E5N1 had his first Winterfest and we all had our first sleigh ride the following year and last year we were not fooled by the later-than-normal date.

This year we were better prepared than ever for the cold - and we needed to be. With temperatures managing to get up close to 20°F here - it was only 13°F (-10°C) up in the hills. Fortunately there was very little wind to add to the chill. We were also quite focussed and got in, had fun and got out fairly quickly this year.

Our visit was: polar plunge (observing only!)



horse-drawn ride (back to the cart rather than sleigh this year despite the bumper amounts of snow)



and then dog sleds and watching the air boat.



They seemed to be really enjoying the deep snow on top of the ice on the lake.

In all we were there for about two hours and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I've just realised that, despite our loyalty to this event, I am the only one to have attended all five as Exile #3 had a party to go to this afternoon and only she and I made it to the second one.

More pictures here and the polar plunge set is here.