Hunter Ice Festival, Niles MI

Cold winters are a fact of life here; rather than being grumpy about it, many towns around here hold festivals to celebrate the cold!

This weekend in Niles, Michigan --- about 10 miles north of campus --- there will be the Hunter Ice Festival. Throughout Friday night and Saturday, the town will be dotted with intricate ice carvings, large and small. (The dragon below is from 2014, taken from the festival's facebook page). Although the weather is promised (quite) warm, the festival will certainly still go ahead.

There are always some ice carvers working on their creations throughout the weekend, so most likely you'll see the creative process in real time.

Niles is a lovely small town on the bank of the St. Joseph river (the same river that runs though South Bend and alongside St. Mary's College). It has a nice riverfront park (more on that in a later post), and one of the best pizzerias in the region, Pizza Transit (more on that, too, in a later post!).