City Of Lakes Loppet

The quintessential Minneapolis event...the City Of Lakes Loppet.
1) outdoors
2) athletics and arts
3) winter -- snow and ice
4) Uptown location

Christine and I made it to one of the biking events this year. I thought the bike races were speed ovals but turns out they are agility races on a complicated course with turns.  The bike races are on the lagoon between Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun.  Was kind of interesting to watch but not so much.

The loppet gets people out and on the frozen lakes.  It is such a neat thing to have thousands of people out and about on the snow covered lakes.

The highlight for me is the luminary loppet on Saturday night.  There are thousands of candle luminaries made from frozen water.  The luminaries light the course for the cross-country skiers and those of us who just walk it.

There were fire artists.

There was a mystical forest lit with ice sculptures illuminated with candles.  There were candles in the trees. It was so beautiful and not really photographical unfortunately.

There was free hot chocolate...real hot chocolate not the instant stuff.  There were warming fires along the way.  There were snow sculptures.