Watch out for yellow snow!

Written by Wifey.

When I was younger, winter meant snowmen, snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, and general icy merriment.  It also meant ice skating, which was probably my favorite winter activity.  We lived on a lake, so every year, when it started to get cold & snow stuck around, me and my brothers started eagerly watching the lake, waiting for it to freeze over.  And then, once it froze over, we'd start asking Dad to drive the car out onto the lake.  Huh? Driving a car onto a lake?  Yeah... because whenever we asked about ice skating, my Dad would always respond that we couldn't go onto the lake until the ice was thick enough that it would hold the weight of a car (thus ensuring that it would hold the weight of 3 excited children & their ice skates!).  So, every year, one of the big milestones of winter was watching the car do a little lap in front of our house, signaling that it was time to get out the shovels & snowplow so that we could create our very own ice rink!  YAY!

Of course... it's a bit different here in Southern California.  We bundle up when the weather hits 60, and when you want to ice skate, you head to a rink.  For us, that means the Culver Ice Arena, a cute little rink that's open until 10pm for open skating.  Instead of the bumpy ice from my childhood, it's nice smooth clean ice, with regular Zamboni visits.  I mean, come on, where's the fun in that?  There's not even any yellow snow to avoid!! :-p  Regardless of the "boring" skate conditions, it's actually quite fun - everyone skates around the outer edge of the rink, while far more skilled figure skaters practice their twirls in the middle.  And it's great for people watching, as there's quite a diverse crowd.  We watched a hippie sway with what could only be described as "spastic grace", a guy trying to impress his date by quickly spinning around (you could actually HEAR the spin), and young kids happily doing circles around their parents. 

I'd like to claim that we were one of the couples that stepped onto the ice and within minutes were happily gliding around like something out of a movie, but in reality, Hubby and I were... umm... plodding.  :-p  I can count on my hand the number of times I've gone skating as an adult, and Hubby is pretty much in the same boat.  So... while skating backwards or doing spins is lovely, we had much lower goals - we just didn't want to fall down!!  It's amazing how aware you are of the very hard ice and potentially painful ice when you're an adult.  :-p  After awhile, we had enough confidence to let go of the edge, and by the end of the hour, we were happily gliding around, albeit slowly.  And we didn't fall once!!!  Yay us!