Lake Geneva 2014 Winterfest

I don’t want to be the sort of person that talks about the weather all the time, but I am that person. Even people who aren’t that person talk about the weather now, because it’s everywhere and forceful and unavoidable. Besides, even if I didn’t want to talk about the weather this post dictates that I do just that. Winterfest is a fest that’s all about the weather. It has some distractions, sure, but it’s a fest that’s named after a season, and seasons are defined by weather. So how am I to talk about Winterfest without talking about the weather? I can’t, so I must.

The 2014 version of Lake Geneva’s Winterfest begins this Wednesday. For the first time in many years, there is no longer a question as to whether or not it’ll be wintery enough to hold this fest. Most years, the fest is more of a Spring-Fest, with some unfortunate melting occurring while teams from around the country attempt to carve snow into mermaids, or dragons, or other things. In years’ past, this competition has always been quite wonderful, but it has always come with an element of difficulty posed by warm temperatures, rain, snow, or the likely combination of them all. This year, we won’t have to worry about melting, so the team that always complains about their dragon being less than perfect on account of the warm weather will have to come up with another, more original excuse.

The U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championship is the highlight of this Winterfest, but there are other goings on to consider as well. First, the schedule. This year, Winterfest starts on a Wednesday (January 29th), as is its norm, and runs through this weekend, with the judging of sculptures taking place on Saturday, February 1st. The epicenter of Winterfest is Saturday, so if you have no other time to visit, plan on being in town on Saturday, which is a good pattern that you should repeat during the other 51 Saturdays of each year. Inexplicably, Winterfest hangs on this year, and runs through the following weekend, ending on February 8th. This is strange for many reasons. I understand why the city has done this, and it has to do with tourism and revenue, both of which are good things. But during a winter such as this most of us will find it difficult to celebrate winter for even one weekend, let alone 10 cold days.

Last night, I had dinner guests. We cooked a leg of lamb inside my wood fired oven, which was nice, though it tasted mostly like lamb and only a tiny bit like lamb that was cooked in a wood-fired oven. After dinner, I exchanged travel stories with a friend, and we talked about the pitfalls of traveling on Spirit Airlines. On the plus side, the flights are cheap, the staff friendly, the pilots capable. On the flip side, everything else. With that conversation in my mind, I dreamt about a plane that was hurdling through the air in a somersaulting fashion , missing one wing. The plane crashed close to where I was standing, and my wife insisted that our children see the wreckage, because “it would be good for them”. I disagreed, and woke up this morning with a headache from the dreamy stress. There are helicopter rides at Winterfest, leaving from the ice next to the Riviera, but with this recent dream I will not be going on a helicopter ride, but you should. It’ll be way fun.

The forecast for Saturday is 25 and sunny, which is about as perfect of Winterfest weather as we could ask for. It’ll be ideal for a visit to town, especially if you haven’t been here for a while. Lake Geneva is getting better all the time, and if you haven’t noticed that, then you haven’t been paying attention. Retailers will have deals, restaurants will have specials, and the lake will look beautiful even under its heavy winter jacket of ice and snow. The ice fishermen will be out, so feel free to wander out to see them and their quarry. The ice is thick in Geneva Bay, and you should be fine (if you fall in, this is not my fault). The city should have their ice rink plowed and ready for skaters, so bring your ice skates along for the ride.

Saturday is February 1st, which means only one short month before the calendar sounds like spring. Let’s pretend to enjoy winter for a few more weeks. At Lake Geneva’s Winterfest, it won’t be difficult to find beauty and entertainment in even this most petulant of winters.