Ice Castle

My sister and brother-in-law invited me to come along with them to their cottage in Northern Wisconsin for a few weeks, to have a change of scenery. In all the years my siblings and I went "Up North" in the summer, I'd never ever gone in the winter, so I thought it was a great idea. I took my camera along & finally took it out of its' bag to take some photos. The first time we were in town they were working on putting the ice castle together, and the next time we came, they were done. The firemen and assorted volunteers in Eagle River have built an ice castle most every year since 1920. They can only build a castle in the years that the ice is thick enough. This year the ice on Silver Lake was perfect, and the men and women put in over 700 hours to cut more than 2,000 blocks of ice, (each block weighing between 60 & 70 lbs.), transport it to the site and build the castle, complete with turrets, an ice throne, and colorful lights. It was beautiful.