Tag: Winter Blues

How to Have Some Winter Fun in New England

Snow Much Fun (Snow Tubing)

New England has been known for its harsh winters ever since the first English settlers stepped foot upon its soil. However, just because the area is regularly buried in snow with a temperature ranging anywhere from 0 to 50 and a wind chill of who knows what doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t enjoy the weather outside. In fact, if your children are going a little stir crazy (and, in turn, driving you crazy), there are a couple of wintry activities this weekend that are sure to put a smile on everyone’s face.

First, if you and/or your kids have always loved snow tubing, you should definitely check out Amesbury Sports Park. This is because Amesbury Sports Park boasts the steepest snow tubing hill in all of New England, and with 8 lanes that are kept almost constantly snow-covered during the winter (temperature allowing), your entire family should have no problem enjoying the hill over and over again. Best of all, it’s only $27 a person for up to three hours of snow tubing, and you don’t have to buy your own tube. It is important to remember though that you cannot bring your own sled, and you will have to sign a waiver for each person going down the hill before anyone in your group can go sledding. For more information on Amesbury Sports Park and its facilities, please visit the Amesbury Sports Park website or call 978-388-5788 ext. 106.

Secondly, if really steep hills seem a little unnecessary to you and/or the price of tubing doesn’t really sound like such a great deal when you have eight kids, you may want to take a trip down to Holyoke, Massachusetts. This is because the Third Annual Holyoke Winter Carnival runs from today, February 7th to Sunday, February 16th, 2014. This event will give you and your family the opportunity to enjoy arts and crafts, chili cook-offs, dancing, hockey, hot chocolate, ice-skating, music, quilts, races, scavenger hunts, and a whole lot more. For more information on the Third Annual Holyoke Winter Carnival, please visit the Holyoke Winter Carnival website.

Photo credit: gfpeck / Foter / CC BY-ND

Friday Fun: Avoiding the Winter Blues

Is the cold weather really getting to you? Are you already having one of those years where you’re thinking “One month down, eleven more to go”? Well, if you are having one of those years where nothing seems to be going right or you’re just sick and tired of the cold weather, you may be looking for a way to cheer yourself up. Luckily, coming up with a good way to lift yourself out of the winter blues can be easier than you might think during the month of February. This is because the stuff that melts in your mouth, your hands, and quite frankly everywhere else during the summer is pretty easy to find during this time of year.

Of course, I’m talking about chocolate, and more specifically about the chocolate festivals that typically occur throughout the continental United States (and a number of other countries as well) around the day that everyone’s loves to love, or in some cases dread, Valentine’s Day. In fact, chocolate festivals are held in many areas throughout the world during this time of year, and there’s a pretty good chance that you will be able to find a festival in your local area at some point this month. With the goal of helping you find some chocolate in mind, here are a few of the major festivals in the continental United States over the next couple of weeks:

1. The Enumclaw Wine and Chocolate Festival takes place from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. today (Friday, February 1st) and from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday, February 2nd) at the Expo Center in Enumclaw, WA. This festival features a wide selection of wine, chocolate, cars that the average person would never be able to afford, and entertainment ranging from aerialists to musical performers. For more information, visit the festival’s website.

2. The Firehouse Art Center Chocolate Festival takes place at the Norman Firehouse Art Center in Norman, OK on February 2nd from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This festival has won a number of awards and features an enormous assortment of chocolates from a variety of vendors and free art-related activities for children. For more information, visit the City of Norman website or the Norman Firehouse Art Center website.

3. The Salem So Sweet Chocolate Festival takes place in Salem, MA from Friday, February 8th to Friday, February 15th.  This festival not only features the chocolate that you would typically expect from a chocolate festival, but also includes wine tastings and another thing that will certainly melt in higher temperatures – ice sculptures. For more information, visit the Salem Chamber of Commerce’s website or the Salem Haunted Happenings Website.

Please Note:  The chocolate sampling and the wine tastings for the Salem So Sweet Chocolate Festival, which were originally scheduled for today, have been moved to Friday, February 15th (the day after Valentine’s Day) due to the blizzard.