TimesLeader.com

March 6

Welcome to spring break.

By Mike McGinley mmcginley@timesleader.com
Features Writer

Welcome to spring break.

Try to ignore what you may or may not see outside your

window today, and know this: Yes, it is spring-break time.

Even if you are “stuck” in Wilkes-Barre.

Even if you’re seemingly always stuck in Wilkes-Barre or its surrounds.

It’s all a matter of perspective. “Stuck” doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Whether you’re a college kid in the midst of a stress-free vacation week (most local colleges are enjoying spring break right now) or about to begin your annual period of respite (Penn Staters get sprung next week), or you’re way beyond your college years but wanting to recapture the hazy memories, you can feel as if you’re out of town while still very much here.

Especially with the extra hour of sunlight Sunday will bestow upon us as a gift of daylight-saving time, lots of us will have a greater inclination to get out of the house and do something fun.

Whether you live and work and in the Wyoming Valley or you’re home with the parents for a week of catching up on laundry and reminiscing with high-school pals, now is a perfect time to pretend, at least, that you’ve escaped somewhere.

We’ll get you started with some suggestions.

• Just as in a faraway destination where cell phones are, at best, a luxury (if they work at all), you won’t get a signal on the Pinchot Trail along Suscon Road near Thornhurst. At least that’s what 24-year-old Sara Sohns of Moosic reports. Taking a hike can be a bonding experience for you and your closest pals from high school whom you haven’t seen since (gasp) Christmas.

“Your cell phone doesn’t work so you’re stuck talking to who you’re with,” Sohns, who regularly visits the trail with her cousins, said. “You’re really far away from everything,” she explained. “You’re on top of that big mountain.”

For more information, visit www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/hiking/pinchot.aspx.

• Still sighing about those friends or neighbors who managed a tropical getaway this winter while all you did was stay home and shovel? You can visit the islands without venturing farther than Edwardsville.

While not even the Susquehanna (along whose scenic levees you can always stroll) technically surrounds the place, Gilligan’s, An Island Bar, part of the Shanix complex, has enough bamboo huts, palm trees and hardwoods to console you. Owner Nick Chirico promises you’ll definitely get the “feeling that you’re in some place warm.”

“You feel like you’re in Mexico,” he said.

The room, open at 6 nightly, offers pool tables, foosball and a dartboard, and smoking is allowed, if that’s important to you. Don’t forget to pop an umbrella into your chosen cocktail.

• Want to frolic in the water in the middle of a snowstorm, rainstorm or the like? Beth Ann Powell, 25, of Wilkes-Barre, who likely will hang out in some area bars over her weeklong spring break, said her cousin recently had a birthday party at the Great Wolf Lodge in Scotrun, and she highly recommends it for any staycationers. Visitors can simply float in the pool, zip down a waterslide, play games in the technology center or lounge in the spa.

You need to spend the night to enjoy Great Wolf, but if you have only a day (or a few hours), another option is the H20ooohh! indoor waterpark at Split Rock Lodge, Lake Harmony. The palm trees and heat are sure to make any city-bound spring-breakers feel as if they’re on some tropical island.

• Just for kicks, find a purple fish at Ricketts Glen State Park in Benton. It’s possible, says 20-year-old Jackey Hettes of Noxen. She knows. She caught one three years ago.

“It’s a good day trip,” she notes. The waterfalls, trails and natural setting provide the perfect atmosphere in which to de-stress. Hettes usually visits with family, but couples and groups of friends can, of course, enjoy the alternative water-themed excursion.

• Of course, it would come as a surprise if at least one local resident didn’t recommend checking out one of the many area bands. Tell your friends or neighbors who come back from their cruise vacations bragging about how good the nightly entertainment was how much you enjoyed a band per night in NEPA. Melissa Simoson, 23, of Harveys Lake, recommends any of her favorites: M80, Bad Hair Day, Go Go Gadget or Black Dog. Enjoying the music is a good way to unwind, she thinks.

“Some places might have a spring-break celebration,” Simoson said.

Check out the club listings inside this publication for more details.

• Go jump in a lake! Or at least visit one. That’s what 19-year-old Mike Roadside would do if he could hang around the Wilkes-Barre area. The college student is spending the week in South Jersey but visited Lake Wallenpaupack in Hawley a few weeks ago. He was impressed with the man-made lake’s 52 miles of shoreline, its trails and its potential.

“They said it’s going to start getting busy,” he said. That means, presumably now, with the clock springing ahead on Sunday.

• OK, so you didn’t score yourself some airline tickets to transport you somewhere good for spring break. Stop by the Wyoming Valley Airport in Forty Fort and get a different sort of sky ride. Pretend you’re on a plane to Bermuda even. Lineman Mark Cross, also a private pilot, said fliers can take guests over any place they choose. The nuclear power plant in Berwick and the fairgrounds in Bloomsburg are the most popular destinations, he said.

“Usually when I take people for a ride, I tell them what I’m doing to relax them,” Cross said.

The busiest times, he said, are spring and summer, so flight lessons and scenic rides will pick up soon. An appointment is easier to come by now.

Call 288-3257 to book a lesson or ride and inquire about rates.

Skyhaven Airport in Tunkhannock also offers a good time high in the sky. Visitors can take a scenic ride or a lesson, sky dive (if brave) or check out the bluegrass band that performs on one of the hangars from 1 to 5 p.m. each Sunday.

“Anybody is welcome,” owner Charlie Gay said. “It’s pretty busy,” he said.

Call 836-4800 for more information.

• Maybe you’re afraid to let your feet leave the ground for either a scenic flight or one to a can’t-drive destination. You can still have some fun at the airport. Have you checked out the new and improved AVP yet? The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, just off Interstate 81 in Avoca, offers a restaurant and bar, an arcade and massage chairs, and you don’t need a boarding pass to enjoy. Listen to planes flying overhead or people-watch near the terminals. You can even ask a few where they’re headed for spring break. Call it wishful thinking for next year.

Plus, you can conduct business or relax in the meditation room, the Pocono Club and Business Center or browse through the gift shop for a Wilkes-Barre souvenir.

• And last but definitely not least, if you’re committed to Wilkes-Barre for this week, next week or any coming week, you can always do what lots of today’s collegians are doing on spring break: volunteer. While plenty of college kids are out of town on service-learning trips – from New Orleans to the Dominican Republic – you can share your talents locally.

Spend an afternoon giving your time in Wilkes-Barre. Serve food at the St. Vincent DePaul Kitchen on Jackson Street. Work with children at the Kids Caf� in the Heights section. Or read to children at Head Start.

By the end of next week, you might be too tired to return to school or work, but, after all, isn’t that what spring break is all about?

Even one spent in good old Wilkes-Barre.