Signature sculpture of the 2012 Medina Ice Festival.

The morning was relatively mild and sunny and, out of curiosity, we set off for Medina to see their annual Ice Festival. We arrived fairly early with no vendors open, no demonstrations running. The town square was, however, ringed by ice sculptures. Most of the sculptures were pretty clearly business-oriented, featuring the name and logo of the sponsoring company; well done, but, well, let’s say lacking artistic purity. A minority of sponsors let beautiful creations represent them with only a name tag advertising their names. One massive work, a bench with a huge “winter” face as its back, represented the show itself. Sun back-lit many of our favorites, the clear, frosty, cut, and etched ice showing off its carved detail in shining, wet brilliance — air temperature was just enough above freezing to let the sculptures thaw a bit!

Sunshine and a helpfully-parked black trailer highlight the beauty of this cold horse.