Do you ever really enjoy something and you have no idea why? Well, I am coming out with a passion that has been hidden up until now. Some of you have heard bits and pieces, but never before have I released all of the information. I don't understand it myself and really it is something that has been coming to me in weird fragments of information for years. So....here goes (in chronological order!) When I was in college I started collecting Santas. My grandfather was the Santa in Seneca for years, so I thought it would be neat to collect them to keep the memory alive. So one day, sometime between 2002 and 2003, I heard about a place where they set up a real live Santa workshop in Sweden. I thought it sounded interesting, but didn't really look into it until 2004, when I celebrated my 30th birthday. See my birthday is in December and so i started thinking that it would be a lot of fun to celebrate my 40th birthday at Santa's workshop (I am a bit of a planner). So I looked this place up and it was way more than I had imagined. It is in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. There is a hotel there called the ICEHOTEL.
Oh my word, I get excited just typing it. This is a hotel that is completely built of ice. The beds are ice, the walls are ice, the restaurant and chapel are ice. Anywhere you might want to sit or lay down is covered with reindeer skins. You can also take camping trips out to places where you can see the Northern Lights. There are sleigh rides in the snow pulled by reindeer and snow mobile trips. And here is the part that I have always been the most excited about.... a dog sled team will come and pick you up from the airport. How cool is that????? So for the last 5 years, I have tried to find companions willing to trek to Sweden with me (so far I am 0 for about 5,429) and I have spent countless hours figuring out when I could go, how much it would cost, and how I can fit all of the activities into the few days I could afford to be there. Ok, so I know you are wondering where the sport title of this blog comes in...well, here it is. Since I have gotten so excited about the possibility of a dog sled team picking me up from the airport in Sweden, I have come to love mushers and sled dogs. Well, in case you didn't know, the 2009 Iditarod is currently underway. It has already been won by three time champ Lance Mackey, but there are still teams out in the tough terrain making their way to Nome, Alaska. If you haven't watched any of the coverage on VS, you should check it out. It is amazing to think about these athletes and what they go through on the race from Anchorage to Nome. It is really cool to see all of the different mushers. There are men and women, young and old. The youngest musher this year is 18 and the oldest is 63. How many sports have such a diverse population of participants? I love it! So...now you all know...I have a weird love for sled dog racing. Go figure!
