We pull up to the parking lot and have to pay to park. Fine. I gave $20, expecting $5 back. The lady hands me five (what look like) quarters. I give a very quizzical look and she responds in the accent of a southern gypsy on a back road asking for money, "Dolla coins."
Okkaayyy… we continued on through with my five Dolla Coins and entered the beautiful fake village in freezing weather.
All of the trees were alit, there were fireplaces inside and fire pits outside. Strangers upon strangers funneled on and off the iceskating rink and no one was in a bad mood. There was magic in the air.
Once we figured out which line lead to full beer glasses and which line lead to the beer tasting, we hopedp in the former. Then we grabbed some Winter Ale and give the beer tasting a whirl. Nothing else matters about these beers, except that I tried a peanut butter and chocolate beer and it was delightful. Just a subtle peanut butter taste! I wanted to trade my Winter Ale for a glass of that instead, however I figured that wasn't allowed. What a missed opportunity.
Up on the screen was a documentary about Prohibition and groups of friends sat about playing miniture games of air hockey and Jenga, while not a chair was left empty. I instantly envied them all.
However, all was well because we decided to move outside to drink our beers and creep on people iceskating. Since I figured it would be me soon, we decided to cheers to every person that fell. There were a few and there were also a few professionals down there that blew my mind. They make it look so damn easy!
One more beer and a mexican hotdog later, I was dancing to some jazz music by a stellar band called "Chelsea Reed and the Fairweather Five". Yet again, it felt like there was not a bad mood in the house.
Sadly, we had to leave the soft, sultry sounds of the 1920s to face the real music of iceskating. Don't get me wrong, I love iceskating. But it takes me awhile to get used to being on the ice and the rink was so crowded that I was sure I would start a chain effect of falling should I skate. Regardless, I still skated. We took breaks. Made friends with a couple that intelligently chose not to skate and just watched instead. Lap by lap, I remained on two
Afterwards, we surrendered to coffee and hot chocolate instead of more alcohol and found our way back into The Lodge where those Fairweather Five friends were jamming out again. I considered myself a friend of the singer's since I had yelled at her "YOU'RE THE SINGER OF THE BAND. GREAT JOB," while I was in line for my skates. I doubt she felt the same. But when I want to compliment someone, you can bet your bottom dollar I will do it, no matter how obnoxious I have to be to get their attention.
We had tried to sit by the fire pits outside but sadly were constantly enveloped by smoke. So it was then we bowed out of a fabulous evening in Winter Wonderland. It felt like we had gone back in time, in more ways than one.
