A Weekend Winter Wonderland

Photo courtesy of http://m.crowncenter.com 

There is a time between winter break and spring break where nothing is really going on. A three month span where Mother Nature can’t decide if it will snow five inches or if it will be 60 degrees out. These are the months where you would much rather be tanning on a beach in Mexico or at a ski resort in Vail, instead of waking up at 6 a.m. every morning to the distant memory of winter break. This is third quarter.

Luckily, third quarter is filled with three-day weekends thanks to holidays, conferences and school improvement days. While an extra day sounds great, it still isn’t enough time to get a full vacation in. This is when a staycation is useful.

For most teenagers, an extra day off of school is ample time for watching a season of their favorite show on Netflix. Of the 221 students who were surveyed, 62 percent said that a Netflix day was their favorite indoor activity. If you wanted to make a day of it, you and friends could pop some popcorn, order Minsky’s and watch movies. Being wrapped up in blankets, sipping hot cocoa from your favorite mug and binge watching New Girl on Netflix seems like a perfect day, but if you’re willing to go out in the cold, there is plenty to do around KC.

38 percent of voters said their favorite outdoor activity was to go ice skating. Two of the more popular ice skating venues, “The Ice” at Park Place and the Crown Center Ice Terrace, are open until at least the middle of February, leaving plenty of time to pick up some new ice skating tricks before the season ends.

Kansas City isn’t exactly known for its mountain ranges and ski slopes, but Snow Creek has twelve ski runs with varying levels of difficulty, perfect for the occasional skier or snowboarder. If you’re not as coordinated, you might want to stick to tubing. Snow Creek is home to “Tornado Alley,” a tubing hill with five, 700-foot slopes that have varying bumps and steepness. Tubing is perfect for groups because you all share the challenge of holding onto each other’s tubes for dear life.

When the red cheeks from the cold air and the grumbling tummies begin, voters’ favorite type of food to eat in the winter is comfort food. Anna’s Oven is a restaurant that serves the perfect winter meals: homemade lasagna, meatloaf, and chicken pot pie. Anna’s Oven will fill your heart as well as your stomach. Of all profits made at Anna’s Oven, 50 percent go towards supporting education in places where it might not otherwise thrive, such as an underdeveloped, all girls school in Kapkemich, Kenya.

So, when the winter mornings of the third quarter start to kick in, take a staycation on one of the many three day weekends and go skiing, get some comfort food, or have a chill day at home with some friends catching up on your favorite show.