Luminary Loppet

This weekend was the City of the Lakes Loppet, a huge cross country ski meet in Minneapolis. As the weather was a balmy 32 degrees, we decided to get in on the action. Unfortunately, as all the skis in the city had already been rented out, we found ourselves on snow shoes instead, so we could take part in the famous "Luminary Loppet" where a course around the lake is lit with ice sculpture luminaries. Straggling at the back on our rather unwieldy snow shoes as the skiiers glided by, we nonetheless enjoyed the festive atmosphere, hot cocoa and fire jugglers as we made our way around the course.

Ice Luminary (and my wonderful snowshoes)

During the day we checked out some of the other Loppet events, including cycle racing on ice (on the frozen lagoon) and skijoring, where skiers strap harnesses to their intrepid pets for more or less hilarious results (see video ).

Skijoring

Ice racing

Seeing as we had already rented the snow shoes, we decided to take to the wilderness, which is apparently the whole point of snowshoes (other than making my legs hurt). Snow shoes have come a long way from the tennis rackets you used to strap to your feet, and you can walk on really deep snow with these new contraptions - so it was time to go off road! At the Fort Snelling State park, we wandered around in the woods, spotting deer and even a bald eagle until we realised we were tramping around in the woods with only hours to the Superbowl and had to high tail it back to the car.

Bald Eagle (on the pylon)

Deer