Weekend Trip Idea: Fake Beaching It

So was I the only who thoroughly enjoyed the “Polar Vortex”/Winter Storm Hercules hybrid that was upon us most of last week (sidenote: when did they start naming winter storms? Has that been a thing for a while? I’m not completely down with it)? I’m actually bummed about the fact that I just ran to the grocery store in shorts (admittedly having to do more with my own laziness rather than the warmness) and want the snow and cold back.

I will however, acknowledge that I’m in the minority here and that as a teacher, my life is much easier during these times of extreme weather due to delays and closing than many of you; there were three days last week were I barely left my apartment.

For some of you, this cold and snow, even in small increments, is tough. You’re ready for a break. You need to go somewhere warm. You need to forget about the snow. Maybe you just need to get out of the house and while usually this feeling hits you around late February/early March, with this bout of harshness, you’re getting cabin fever earlier than usual. It couldn’t come at a worse time either, no?  The holidays have left most of us with depleted funds and vacation days, but there is a simple solution: fake a warm weather vacation.

I remember during one particularly harsh winter (because when I was in elementary school it felt like every winter was much harsher than they are now) my parents, along with a group of their friends who also had kids right around my age, took us the The Woodlands Inn and Resort (those of you who also grew up in NEPA and how used to haul your asses down to Club Evolutions under 21 night are probably cringing along with me at the mention of this place)in Wilkes Barre for the weekend. Now, Wilkes Barre is only forty minutes from where I grew up so there’s no real need to get a hotel there, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that the hotel had a large indoor pool and hot tub, restaurants on the premises and created for them a quick and easy summer-like getaway in middle of January or February (I really forget what month it was, I was probably in third grade-ish).

So, do the same for yourself. It might take a little bit of research and a little bit of driving, but booking a room for even a night at a nice hotel with a decent pool arrangement might be just the ticket for this early on-setting cabin fever.

The Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos and Splash Lagoon Indoor Water Park and Resort in Erie are two indoor waterparks if you want the whole water-slides-and-lazy-rivers experience  but most resorts will have decent pools, and as an added bonus will probably have other activities for you to chose from. Really, all you have to do is pick any nicer hotel. On New Years Eve a couple of years ago we just rented some rooms at the Scranton Hilton. It was a particularly snowy weekend and so we went down early and just hung out in the hot tub for a couple of hours in the afternoon, mixed drinks in the room and stuck some cocktail umbrellas in those suckers. It doesn’t have to be uber-fancy or require a lot of planning or even driving, but if the winter’s already starting to look extra wrong, it could just be what your sanity needs.