Ice skating at Penn's Landing has been a tradition for twenty-two years. The Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest is a much newer custom that shows that sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks. Now in its third season, the Winterfest takes the old RiverRink concept, injects it with radioactive steriods, and turns it into an Incredible Hulk of cold weather fun. But with less smashing and more fire pits.
We visited last night and came away impressed as ever with the efforts of the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation. Check out these pics!
Outside, along with ice skating, you can enjoy sitting around fire pits roasting marshmallows. Those 'mallows come from Franklin Fountain, which is also selling ice cream that you can enjoy beside the fire or inside a heated cottage. These little cottages are adorably decorated and felt like our own little micro ski chalet. Did we mention that we were drinking Mad Elf at the time?
Food inside the Lodge comes from the Garces Group, with burgers and tacos as the main offerings. There's also a beverage window, offering half a dozen beers on tap, a cocktail or two, and spiked cider, spiked hot chocolate, and spiked coffee. You can see, inside of the Lodge there are picnic tables as well as a bunch of couches which can accommodate larger groups. Next door (and not pictured), there's a kids Lodge with video games, skee ball, and air hockey. No Mad Elf to be found in there, as you might expect.
The RiverRink Winterfest officially opens on the day after Thanksgiving and is open to the public even if you don't wanna ice skate. But let's agree, the ice skating adds to the fun times and is one of those things that to take advantage of, living in a cold city as we do. For more info on Winterfest, click here. See you there?