Aurora Ice Museum, Chena, Alaska: The Best Ice Museum Ever!

    

Photo: http://jonlin-alaska2013.blogspot.com/2013/08/

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     Excitement is a very tame word to describe what was going on inside me when I visited the Aurora Ice Museum in Chena Hot Springs Resort, Fairbanks, Alaska. We were in Fairbanks for Trina’s graduation rites at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Since we were in the area, we decided to visit Chena, famous for its ice museum, healing outdoor mineral hot spring, indoor swimming pool and many more adventures. About 95 km from downtown Fairbanks, the trip took us about 1-½ hours by car. The drive to Chena was one of the most scenic drives in Alaska. An added bonus was a moose or deer that darted across our path below.

Photo: http://s177.photobucket.com/user/cjg004/media/MooseinRoad.jpg.html

     The Aurora Ice Museum is the world’s largest year-round ice museum that maintains a temperature of about -7 °C. 

Photo: Outside the Aurora Ice Museum.

     Inside the ice museum, I was captivated by the ever-changing colored ice crystal chandeliers. The colors tried to replicate the Aurora Borealis, also called ‘Northern Lights’, most often seen in polar Alaska. These ‘dancing lights’ emit colors in the sky like green, pink, red, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

 Photo: Inside the Aurora Ice Museum.

     The impressive ice sculptures, made of Alaska Diamond or Alaska Marble ice were created by the husband and wife team, Steve and Heather Brice. Steve is a 16-time world champion ice carver and Heather is a 7-time world champion. 

Photo: Life size jousters on horseback.

     The Aurora Ice Museum was created from over 1,000 tons of ice and snow all harvested at the resort. An ice sculpture of a nude woman is found at the left of the entrance. 

Photo: Ice sculpture of a nude woman (R).

     Photo below shows the two-story observation tower with circular stairs. Also, inside is a figure of a lighted pumpkin. 

Photo: Lighted pumpkin inside the tower.

     To keep the museum icy cold in the heat of summer is the patented absorption chiller, the first of its kind in the world used for this purpose. The creativity of the artists is shown through the ice sculptures below:

Photo: Christmas tree.

 Photo: Pulpit featuring the different figures and lights formed inside the balls.

 Photo: Polar bear. 

Photo: Bedroom made of ice.

     An igloo  and a xylophone are also found inside the ice museum (below). 

Photo: Igloo.

Photo: Xylophone.

     There were other ice sculptures found inside the museum, like the bar wherein guests may order their favorite drink or the sea horse that is also fascinating. 

Photo: Bar.

Photo: Sea horse.

     Outside are other points of interest like the souvenir shop and the massage room,  both made of logs.

Photo: Souvenir Shop (Background).

Photo: Massage room (background).

     The Aurora Ice Museum is a long way from home (Philippines). Having gone this far is, indeed, a welcome adventure and one that I will treasure the rest of my days because I may never be able to go this way again