This trip was SNOW incredible!

Favorite Vacation Moment

Philadelphia, PA

by mike_deanne March 10, 2008

The snow may have been cold, but Mom's heart was sure warm!

In late-March 2005, my husband was sent to Philadelphia to attend a firefighting convention and he invited our boys (10 mos & 4) and I to accompany him. Weâ¬"re true Floridians and weâ¬"d never seen snow, so we thought perhaps the city of brotherly love would show us a little winter love.

As we drove into the city, our oldest was so excited to see the mountains of white piled along the city streets and frankly, so were we. At first chance our son ran to a big pile, dug his hand in deep, wound his arm like a major-league pitcher and nailed me in the side of my head, OUCH did that leave a mark! Come to find out those white piles along the streets werenâ¬"t snow, but leftover ROAD SALT.

Our son grew a bit more disappointed with each passing day that snow didnâ¬"t fall. On the final day in Philly, my husband turned on the weather and the reporter mentioned that 2-3 inches of snow was expected in the Pocono Mtns. How far could that really be, my dear hubby wondered? Typically not a spontaneous guy, I was quite surprised when he said pack-up and off he ran in search of a rental car and a road map. We packed our bags, loaded the car, buckled-in and headed North in search of SNOW!

We didnâ¬"t listen to another weather report while en route. We stopped for lunch in a tiny town south of the mountains where the new people -- us -- were certainly the highlight of the day. The waitressâ¬" were enthralled with my southern drawl and so everyone began to ask our story. We obliged and were surprised with the strange reactions we were getting from the locals. Turns out, while en route, the weather report changed, schools were closing and 5-8â¬ý of snow was coming. They thought these Southern folks were nuts, we thought we won the winter lottery! The man began giving my hubby driving advice and soon the very-friendly locals all but kicked us out of their eatery, as they worried about our inability to drive in the snow. They said we HAD to get moving, so we drove on.

As we approached the Poconos we were enjoying the cool, crisp looking scenery â¬ something we donâ¬"t see at home - when we entered a highway tunnel â¬ also something we donâ¬"t see in Florida. Just as if we were in the movies or the midst of a Disney fairytale, we exited the tunnel only to be pelted by snow. We all began to smile and giggle out loud â¬ even the baby. It was just beautiful and we were so excited!

We started calling everyone we knew to share the great news, but before long, we realized that perhaps we better exit the highway and search for a hotel. We grabbed the first one we came to and they were totally vacant. The associate mentioned that 8â¬ý was coming and roads may soon be closed and now we were growing nervous. The baby needed diapers and he suddenly had what we decided was the start of an ear infection. In search of a drugstore, we journeyed onto the local roadway only to find that it was closed and so there we sat along with dozens of other cars, all awaiting P-DOT. What in the world was P-DOT? We'd never heard of anything-dot, but we quickly grew to love the hard-working folks of Pennsylvania Dept of Transportation. After 2+ hours stuck on the snow-covered mountain roads, we managed to get our necessities and return to the now at-capacity hotel, which had only a skeleton staff of 2 and dinner was looking scarce. Ever tried feeding a baby potato skins and buffalo wings? I donâ¬"t recommend it, but we made the best of it.

When we awakened the next morning, the weather reporter said that 2.5 feet of snow had fallen. We didnâ¬"t really understand how much snow that was, until we noticed that our rental car didnâ¬"t appear to be in the parking lot.

The 2 hrs of slight terror from the evening before were all bout erased from our memory when we saw the amazing view from our window â¬ just like a holiday card. It was more beautiful than we could've imagined and we felt almost as if it was all for us. The entire hotel was full of folks that were stranded while trying to get home from work the day before and here we stood totally caught up in the moment. Building snowmen, making snow angels and playing in the quiet snow-covered forest, just the 4 of us, was snow incredible and surely a memory that will last a lifetime.