Saturday, November 20, 2010

...ice skating with the Hufford girls...and Gabby

Laura skates on Island Lake...while listening to her iPod.

Laura, Emily, and Gabby careen across the ice.


Mrs. Huffy laces up a skate.



Laura gives Gabby a few pets while skating.




Mrs. Huffy and Gabby skate into the sunset.





For the past week I have been looking forward to checking the thickness of the ice on Island Lake. It has been frozen since last Saturday and I was hoping it would be thick enough for skating by today. Still, I wanted to be certain, so I carted my ice auger out just beyond shore and fired it up to drill some test holes. Turns out it was over 8 inches thick everywhere I drilled. Plenty of ice.



We went back to the garage and got our skates and a sled for Emily, then headed down to do some serious skating on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. For more than an hour we careened across the ice with Gabby at our heels. None of us were ready to quit, but we had obligations in town so we reluctantly switched out of our skates and headed for Kenai.



Of course, now that the ice is thick enough we will soon be doing some ice fishing and taking walks out to the island and back. But, for a few hours this afternoon it was more than enough to be...ice skating with the Hufford girls...and Gabby.