The girl in the pink tights clatters across the ice with the swiftness of a Canada goose, the grace of a galloping stork.
Alyssa Smith, 6, of Edgewater crashes into the endboards, slides down into a pile of snow and clambers to her feet, laughing.
"She's never had a whole lot of fear," says her father, Richard Smith, who has brought Alyssa and her sister, Ashley, 11, to an outdoor rink in Annapolis for just the second ice-skating experience of their lives. "I have a feeling she can keep going for a while."
It's just after sundown on an icy night in Quiet Waters Park, one of five ice-skating venues in or on the border of Anne Arundel County (Howard County boasts another, in Columbia), and the girls are among 50 or so skaters circling the skate-rutted surface under a wintry, moonlit sky.
From breezy outdoor sites in Quiet Waters and in the Glen Burnie Town Center, to the state-of-the-art indoor facilities in or very close to the county, skaters can do everything from taking a spin out in the elements to working on their slapshots, speed maneuvers or figure eights.
All five rinks serve up more public-skating opportunities than Annapolis has snowplows. It's just a question of what makes your blades glisten: being outside and enjoying the weather, for better and worse, or taking in the smoother ice, fluorescent lighting and more hermetically sealed environment of the indoor sites.
Generally speaking, the two kinds of rinks draw different crowds.
For the most part, though, the indoor folks are more serious about ice skating itself than enjoying an atmosphere that harks back to the days of skating on rivers and ponds.
Visitors to the Glen Burnie Town Center, a shopping plaza near Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard and North Crain Highway, have enjoyed taking spins under the sun and stars since 2000, when the county first bought a portable piping system and set of dasher boards to erect the rink just after Halloween and keep it open through March.
Easily the smallest of the five, it was financed out of Anne Arundel development funds in order to draw customers to the businesses that surround it (now a Food Lion, a Medicine Shoppe pharmacy, a hair salon and an assortment of restaurants).
The rink's somewhat bare-bones setup - it's lit only by street lamps, and if they want food or hot drinks, visitors must hit the nearby restaurants or bring their own - does little to thin the crowds, which have grown bigger each year.
Last season, the rink drew more than 10,000 people during its 120-day season, and despite a slumping economy, attendance is nearly equal to that this year.
During the dinner hour one frigid night this week, as holiday tunes blared from a heated tent, more than 40 people, including several groups of teens and four young families, were circling a smooth, surprisingly well-kept sheet of ice. The chatter and cries of the skaters echoed off the eateries.
The newer Quiet Waters rink offers a quainter, more bucolic experience.
The facility - built last year on the site of a rink that closed during the mid-1990s - is surrounded by a scenic pond, gentle hillsides, a brick-trimmed flagstone walkway, and a three-story building that houses new locker rooms, outdoor decks, a cafe and even an art gallery.
On a windy evening last week, Christmas carols boomed through a state-of-the-art sound system as about 50 people - families, young couples and several knots of teens, some of them holding hands - crunched around the ice under a moonlit sky.
Although public skating at the indoor rinks offers more in the way of physical comfort, the hours are scarcer. The Mullen Arena, part of the Naval Academy's three-year-old Brigade Sports Complex, offers eight hours a week. Skating sessions are open to the public.
The Gardens Ice House offers 17 hours of public skating, Columbia and Piney Orchard in the neighborhood of 20.
Public skating generally costs about $6 to $7 for a two-hour session, whatever the site.
Where to skate
GLEN BURNIE TOWN CENTER ICE SKATING RINK (OUTDOOR)
103C N. Crain Highway, Glen Burnie
Phone: 410-590-5990
Skating season: November through the first Sunday in March
Public sessions: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays; 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; noon to 10 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays
Admission: adults $6.50, children younger than 12 and seniors $5.50
Skate rental: $3 (hockey or figure)
Rink size: 100 feet by 60 feet
Ice rental: $300 for two hours
On the Web: glenburnieiceskating.com
QUIET WATERS ICE RINK (OUTDOOR)
600 Quiet Waters Park Road, Annapolis
Phone: 410-222-1711
Skating season: November through mid-March (depending on weather)
Public sessions: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays; closed Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays
Admission: adults $6; children younger than 12 and seniors 60 and older $5; group and season-pass discounts available. Note: There's a $6 per vehicle fee to enter the park before 5:30 p.m.
Skate rental: $3
Rink size: 185 feet by 75 feet
Rental: The rink is not available for private rental, but birthday parties, which include skates and access to the rink and a party room, cost $12 per child (minimum of 10 children)
On the Web: friendsofquietwaterspark.org/
COLUMBIA ICE RINK (INDOOR)
5876 Thunder Hill Road, Columbia
Phone: 410-730-0322
Skating season: January through April
Public sessions: 1:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays; noon to 2 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; noon to 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays; 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays
Admission: Free for Columbia Association members, $6 for nonmembers
Skate rental: $3 (figure skates only)
Rink size: 200 feet by 85 feet
Rink rental: $275
On the Web: columbiaicerink.net
DR. JOHN J. MCMULLEN HOCKEY ARENA (INDOOR)
1 Greenbury Point Road, Annapolis
Phone: 410-293-9700
Skating season: year round
Public sessions (open to all): 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 4:40 p.m. to 6:30 Saturdays and Sundays
Admisson: $6
Skate rental: $3 (figure skates only)
Rink size: 195 feet by 100 feet (Olympic size)
Rink rental: $275/hour
On the Web: navyhockey.net
PINEY ORCHARD ICE ARENA (INDOOR)
8781 Piney Orchard Parkway, Odenton
Phone: 410-672-7013
Skating season: year round
Public sessions: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays; 10:10 a.m. to noon Mondays; 10:10 a.m. to noon and 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays; 10:10 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and Thursdays; 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., 11:10 a.m. to 1 p.m., 8:10 p.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays; 8:10 p.m. to 10 p.m. most Saturdays (call ahead)
Admission: adults $7, children 12 and younger $6
Skate rental: $3.50
Rink size: 200 feet by 85 feet
Rink rental: $330/hour
On the Web: pineyicerink.com
THE GARDENS ICE HOUSE (INDOOR)
13800 Old Gunpowder Road, Laurel
Phone: 410-792-4947
Skating season: year round
Public sessions: 1:50 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. Sundays; 11:20 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. and 8:10 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Mondays; 11:20 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 11:20 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. and 7:50 p.m. to 9:50 p.m. Fridays; 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and 8:10 p.m. to 10:10 p.m. Saturdays
Admission: $6 weekdays, $7 weekends
Skate rental: $3.75
Rink sizes: Two rinks are 200 feet by 85 feet, one Olympic-size (200 feet by 100 feet)
Rink rental: $325/hour
On the Web: thegardensicehouse.com