Sledding on boogie boards, ice hockey on Canal Street: The Gulf Coast embraces a rare snow day
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When the sun rose over the Sunshine State on Wednesday, palm trees were dusted with snow, waves crashed on icy beaches, and overjoyed Floridians grabbed whatever would slide and headed for the closest hill. At a park a few blocks from the state capitol in Tallahassee, the young and the young at heart raced down the snow-covered slopes on improvised sleds.
They were set free from school and work not because of another hurricane, but a different meteorological marvel — a historic snow storm that for many along the Gulf Coast could be a once-in-a-lifetime event. And they embraced it as only Southerners could.
"Being from Florida, we have a boogie board and then we also have a skim board," Michael Holmes, 35, said of his kids' makeshift sledding gear. “So far the skim board is working out really, really well.”. “Gotta get creative in Florida!” added his wife Alicia Holmes, 35.
The Holmes set their alarms early Wednesday morning to make sure their 9-year-old daughter Layla and 12-year-old son Rawley could make the most of a rare Southern snow day. More than 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) away on North Carolina’s barrier islands, children sledded down unusually snow-covered sand dunes near where the Wright Brothers first took flight.
And in New Orleans, the city known for letting the good times roll woke up buried under 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow — and rolled with it. Revelers decorated a snowman with flowing locks of Spanish moss, which drips from the Gulf Coast's beloved live oak trees. They pulled on shrimping boots and grabbed inflatable pool toys, yoga mats and metal cookie sheets to speed down the levees that ring the Mississippi River. On Canal Street, one man donned his skates to practice his hockey moves on the ice-covered road.
