Christmas on the Potomac....

Bonnie got us tickets to see Gaylord National's Christmas on the Potomac ICE! attraction - a huge tented collection of Christmas-themed ice sculptures. We took advantage and headed up to Maryland yesterday to get our ICE on. Bonnie invited Melissa and her son, Dillan AKA cutest kid ever, to go with us, but all he knew was that we were taking him to a surprise location. We messed with him a little on the way, pointing out random things on the side of the road, saying that was his surprise. He caught on pretty quick and just started ignoring us. Too smart for 7, I tell ya.

I love my TomTom, but yesterday, she really let me down. I realize DC traffic is confusing...that's why I have a TomTom. But it should not be confusing for TomTom. She should know that there are parallel roads converging and diverging, and should probably indicate which of these parallel roads I should choose when the highway forks. Unfortch, she didn't, and we ended up in the ghetto. There was a McDonald's, whose service was so bad that Dillan screamed "I hope this place gets robbed!", a man peeing on the side of the road 20 feet away from said McDonald's, which has a public restroom, and no boy happy meal toys. Eff this place.

Once our bellies were full and we'd had enough, we reprogrammed TomTom and headed to the Gaylord. After a short tour of the hotel, I was convinced that I will never be able to afford to stay there - this place is huge and immaculate and fancy. Three things that equal expensive!

We bundled up in our coats, hats, and gloves, and headed over to the ICE! tent.

Here's Dillan, waiting to go in:


It was 9 degrees inside the tent, and they provided huge, puffy parkas for us to wear to keep us warm! I acted like a brat and asked if I had to wear it, and the guy just looked at me and said "It's really cold in there....." with a silent "DUMBASS!" at the end of the sentence. Heard, loud and clear. I put my parka on.

Some ice sculptures:



We go through this Christmas light tunnel/hallway and turn a corner, and what do we see? A pair of slides made out of ice! How awesome is that? Dillan went twice, that's how awesome.


An angel sculpture:


Once we were finished, we drove down to the marina, which was partially frozen...here are Bonnie and Dillan, checking out something super-interesting. (?)


Good times! We made our way back home to drop Melissa and Dillan off, and then I played Blackjack for the rest of the night with the boys...Fun! I can't wait to gamble on the cruise, but it will be hard without Eddie telling me what to do.... :(