I know, I know... these shots are becoming a bit redundant.  But we actually got to walk on the canal near our house this weekend!  Us and all our neighbors... It was a huge, spontaneous carnival on ice.  Everybody was out, playing games, slipping and sliding, taking pictures.  Everybody was taking pictures.  We all have a sense that this is an experience we don't want to forget...

There's a sense of national euphoria.  Like a quadrapalegic whose been told and told for many years that he'd never walk again -- but who suddenly and inexplicably starts to regain sensation in his lower extremities and who doctors start saying that maybe, just maybe, he might start walking again.  Dutch people had become so despondent about climate trends (global warming) that discussions of skating on the city's canals or witnessing some of the great epic races on natural ice felt almost mythological.  Like a yellowed photograph in an old dusty photo album in the attic.  And yet, now it's happening!

The canals further in toward the center of the city still haven't frozen.  And there's still been no indication that the legendary Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Race) will take place in Friesland.  But I did get to walk on the canal with my kids this past weekend!

They say that a thaw may be coming to Holland over the next week or two.  But at least we lived it up while we could.