Ryan's Journal

My young adult group from church took an excursion to the Frong Pond in the Boston Commons on Saturday. I had wondered how the city would manage cleaning the ice for such an unusual shape, but as it turns out, they just built an oval rink in the middle. I'm sure that's nothing new to most people, but I'd never been to the Frog Pond until Saturday.

They bring out the zamboni every hour for about ten to fifteen minutes to keep the ice useable, so if you plan to go for two hours, you may lose up to forty-five minutes worth of ice time (waiting in line, lacing skates, ice cleaning, and departing). We happened to come on a good day when some shop or other was giving way samples of chai and soup along with a free entry pass to the Pond. Nice folks considering that comes to more than $10 for every person served.

I had an interesting time trying to convey the basics of ice skating to people who had never done it before. Maybe I should have knocked them down so they'd feel comfortable falling. Then I could get them to take a little more risk in standing on the blade instead of its edge. If you guys ever read this, then next time, my friends, next time...