The Spring Break I Stayed Home And Tanned In The Snow

When you're young and going to school, you don't have a ton of money to spend on trips...especially, when you're living off of minimum wage. You've got to be creative every now-and-then to keep things interesting.

A few years ago, a lot of my friends went to Mexico for spring break, but I couldn't afford to go. So, my cousin and I decided to make the most out of our time-off while staying in St. Cloud.

The weather forecast that day called for sunny skies and 40 degrees. In Minnesota, that's darn near as tropical as it gets in March. My mom is the one who gave us the bright idea--she had mentioned that one year, she and her sister went tanning in the snow.

You could see the wheels turning in my head. My cousin must have had the same thought I did because we both blurted out, "we should do that today!" My mom laughed pretty hard and told us we were crazy.

We ran into my parent's garage and dusted off some lawn chairs, found the suntan lotion and dug out the bikinis.

We set up shop in my mom's front yard because it was the only area in her yard that wasn't shaded by trees. The sun actually felt hot on our skin, which is something neither of us had expected.

My parent's neighbors must have had a good laugh and thought we were young and crazy--they would have been right about the last part for sure. But, my cousin and I started to notice something interesting. It seemed like even though we were doing something kind of stupid and crazy, we were also giving a slight nod to Minnesotans.

At first we thought we'd be out there for 20 minutes max--but, we ended up tanning for nearly two hours because of all of the comments by passersby. Everyone that drove by or walked by felt the need to tell us that they loved what we were doing and it gave them hope that spring was on the way.

By the time we went inside for the day, we couldn't tell if our skin was red from sunburn or windburn. It was a great spring break and we didn't have to go to Mexico to have fun. It's probably my most memorable spring break ever. Would I do it again? Heck NO.

But, it does go to show that Minnesotans are as tough as they come!