Where to go to beat the cold this winter.
We instill hope in our winter coats and in our scarves, and keep confidence in our ability to break winter up into small warm portions of comfort. We take vacations and we prepare chicken pot pies. We are resilient. Take the least icy roads, avoid the snow drift, and most of all: find the best parking spots to avoid the cold and blustery wintry winds. Some of these winter strategies will take you far away, while some are what you’ll come across in your day to day at home. Whichever you end up using, just know that cold is a state of mind.
Shed your best winter coat for a tropical destination.
It’s a given. Your winter coat has you covered above the tropical latitudes but once you cross over, everything changes. Rather than chopping up the ice on your windshield, you’re going to hack away at some coconuts. Ordering drinks “extra hot” is replaced with a laid back, ice-cold beverage on the beach. Snowsuits for trudging through a foot of fresh snow are now swimsuits for wading through the clearest waters. A nice tropical vacation will give you hope for future winters.
Stay in bed in your pajamas.
When you’re tucked into bed, your blankets and pajamas are home to the warmest place in the world. Better than Costa Rica even. If you want to temporarily beat winter, stay in bed. Despite our slippers and robes and huge winter coats, the sheets and blankets we sleep in will always be the easiest way to stay unbothered by winter. There’s a reason we think about calling in sick from this very place: there’s nowhere else like it.
Show up in matching pajamas at your parents’ house.
It may not be far from where you are now or it’s across the country. Wherever they are, take a left at Mom St. and home sweet home. You and the kids can all show up at the door in matching family pajamas like it’s nothing and when good ol’ Mom and Dad answer the door in their matching pjs you’ll have a good laugh. Blizzard conditions couldn’t keep you from visiting and for whatever reason that fireplace at your parents’ house is a time machine to earlier and warmer memories.
Keep your winter coats on and drive as far away from the snow as possible.
While you might own an amphibious car that could, hypothetically, handle a drive all the way out to the Dominican Republic, we do not recommend (or expect) that kind of adventure. It’s normal to escape your surroundings for better pastures and when you’re trying to break in a new winter coat and get the most out of your new tires then a drive is all you need. Heading south to warmer cities? That’s more like it.
Driving from your winter to some other state’s winter is actually pretty nice. It’s not as extreme as flying to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, hoping there are tropical islands awaiting you there, but seeing somebody else’s winter from their eyes is a fresh experience. You can head to Boston or Austin or Nashville if you’d like. They say the “grass is greener” but the same can be applied to the snow being “warmer.”
The crockpot.
What could be warmer than a hot dinner awaiting your return? You made food for future you and you knew that a tasty slow-cooked meal would warm up that tired soul. All you need to do when you get back is slide into some flannel pajamas and slippers and you’re on your way. Amazing. For those of us who really don’t want to go to ice skating with coworkers after work, feel free to use the crockpot as an excuse to get home soon. It’s kind of a two-for-one deal and that’s hard to pass up.
Just stay in your heated car; the groceries can wait.
That parking lot is a brutal no-man’s-land and it’s not going anywhere. Just let that heat blast for a few more minutes. Warm up your gloves while you wait. And your peacoat deserves to be as warm as can be. Plus, all the groceries you’re getting tonight…are in the refrigerated sections. So give your winter coat a recharge and when you’re ready to take on 20 seconds of that parking lot, you do it your way.