Ice, ice, everywhere

I went to see the ICE! exhibit at Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor, Md., on Saturday. It's a bit pricey, but it was a pretty cool experience. The exhibit is in a large tent kept at a cool 9 degrees, so they give you a blue parka to wear over your coat. It helped keep my body warm, but my fingers were frozen after our 20 to 30 minutes in the cold exhibit.

Everything is carved from 5,000 blocks (1.5 million pounds) of ice (clear and colored) to create scenes you can walk through. I even went down the two-story ice slide! After walking through this igloo, I took this picture that allows you to see through the ice to the other blue-parka-wearing guests walking through behind me.

I liked this close-up shot of a fence in an outdoor pond scene because you can see right through the clear, carved ice.

The exhibit ended with a life-size, ice-carved nativity scene.

You can see more of the scenes, as well as the fountain show inside the Gaylord Resort, here.