AUTHOR’S NOTE: I returned to the Winter Days Festival in 2019. You can read that experience here:
https://ohiofestivals.net/winter-days-festival
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Although I enjoy the snow around the holidays, I start to get sick of the cold, slush, snow and ice by the time February rolls around. But when I talk to people who live in Michigan’s upper peninsula or in Wisconsin, they make wintertime sound like summertime. I mean, they’re actually thrilled about the winter…to the point that it’s scary.
So what makes their wintertime different than ours?
Well it seems they do things in the winter. They ski, they snowmobile, and they probably make snow-made communities of people (they have enough snow for it, I’m sure).
So maybe winter could be better…
…if I filled it with wintertime festivals.
Perhaps it would be better for all of us.
Located at Lorain County Metroparks’ Mill Hollow…
…my first winter festival, the Winters Days Festival, had a few interesting activities for all.
Art lovers could enjoy some ice sculpting in action…
…animal lovers could learn about and snuggle with a dog sled team…
…and the lovers…well, the lovers probably didn’t have the carriage ride all to themselves.
So they’d have to love their luvin’ later.
In the meanwhile, they could go inside in the carriage barn…
…warm up with some Your Deli chicken paprikash or hot chocolate and cookies…
…and learn about the history of ice tongs.
Being the foodie I am…
…I paid closer attention to the women demonstrating pioneer Dutch oven cooking.
But, unfortunately for me, those yeast rolls and chicken and dumplings were far from being ready.
So I headed back off into the cold for a little more ice sculpturing.
And I used to think chainsaws were only for trees.