The holidays are long over and we’ve rounded the Valentine’s Day corner, but Mother Nature refuses to recognize that spring is near, March may seem like a dreary month.
But there are many unexpected ways to have fun this month, if you know where to look.
Check out some offbeat and special events that only take place in March and start celebrating.
MAPLE SUGARING IN THE NORTHEAST
For New Englanders, March means two things: (usually) less snow on the driveways and maple syrup. Maple sugaring is a long-standing tradition in the Northeast, and throughout March, many of Vermont, New Hampshire and New York’s sugar farms open their doors to tourists in celebration of the onset of the syrup season.
Dakin Farm in Ferrisburg, Vermont throws “sugar-on-snow parties” every weekend of the month. The menu includes pancake breakfasts replete with sticky, freshly brewed maple syrup, sausage hoagies cooked in sap, maple chili, syrup-soaked ice cream and traditional sugar on snow, maple syrup-covered ice chunks.
You’ll also get a tour of the farm’s grounds and see firsthand how syrup is produced in one of the sugar factory’s boiler rooms. If you haven’t overdosed on sweet things by the time you leave, the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory is conveniently located 9 nine miles north of Dakin Farm.
If you’ve never associated New York with maple, you’ll be surprised to know that the state has as many as 1,500 maple syrup producers who made more than 362,000 gallons of syrup last year. Learn those factoids and more at The American Maple Museum in the village of Croghan, New York, which chronicles the history of maple syrup and sugar-making techniques. The museum is usually open May through September, but opens its doors March 27-28 for tours and a pancake breakfast.
Check out more food-related tours in our Culinary Travel section.
THE CHOCOLATE-COVERED DAYS OF MARCH
Several chocolate festivals take place in early March, including the Chocolate Lover’s Festival in Fairfax, Virginia and Ashland, Oregon. But to celebrate all month (and all year) long, head to the place best-associated with chocolate: Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Become a cocoa connoisseur with a Countries of Origin Chocolate Tasting flight at Café Zooka in The Hershey Story museum. Sample warm chocolate drinks from around the world, and by the end of it, you’ll be able to tell the difference between fruity African cocoa and rich, caramel Indonesian chocolate. After you’ve perfected your palate, pay homage to your favorite candy by making your own in a Heart of Chocolate class at the Hershey Story Museum’s Chocolate Lab.
Not everything in Hershey is chocolate-related. See what locals recommend in our Ask the Locals Travel Guide: Hershey, PA & Beyond.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY
If you’re tired of the same old St. Patrick’s Day celebration, consider a change of scenery. Like Chicago, San Antonio, Texas transforms its 2.5-mile river into an Emerald Isle with green dye. The river hosts one of the country’s only aquatic St. Patrick’s Day parades, a parade of barges complete with leprechauns and Guinness and Irish Wolfhounds.
Hot Springs, Arkansas boasts the “shortest St. Patrick’s parade in the world” with up to 20,000 people crowded onto a 98-foot-long street. This year’s celebrity Grand Marshall is 1970s beauty Bo Derek who will host an event filled with Irish Elvis impersonators, Irish belly dancers, the self-proclaimed world’s oldest leprechaun and regular revelers amid green fireworks down their short runway.
Those who want to go international, but not trans-Atlantic to celebrate can attend the longest-running St. Patrick’s Day parade in North America in Montreal, Canada. While it may come as a surprise that Canada was the first to celebrate St. Paddy, it’s estimated that up to 40 percent of Quebecers are of Irish heritage.
Whether you wind up following the evergreen flow or parading down a single road, remember to wear green on the 17th!
For more, check out this roundup of the most popular St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in cities around the country.
EVERYTHING’S BIGGER IN TEXAS, ESPECIALLY IN MARCH
Texas boasts several reasons you should head down to the Lone Star State during March: the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Sweetwater Rattlesnake Round-Up, and Austin’s South by Southwest Music and Film Festival.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is a three-week celebration of all things Texas: rodeos, barbeque and live country music. Daytime spectacles include barrel racing, steer wrestling and sampling the finest barbeque fare at the World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest. Country legends croon to thousands of fans every night to close the day’s festivities. What could be better than brisket and Brad Paisley?
Headed to Houston? Don’t miss Unexpected Foodie City: Houston, Texas.
If you’ve never tried rattlesnake sausage you should make a detour to Sweetwater, Texas for the world’s largest rattlesnake round-up. Participate in a guided rattlesnake hunt or ooh la la over the Southern Belles strutting in the Miss Snake Charmer Pageant. Before you leave, be sure to pick up a souvenir made out of real rattlesnakes at the round-up’s flea market. Rattlesnake walking cane, anyone?
If country music isn’t your thing, head to downtown Austin for South by Southwest, an indie music and film festival that showcases the works of up-and-coming filmmakers and the sounds of on-the-verge musical acts. The Sixth Street bar crawl, traditionally inhabited by carousing college kids, is transformed into dozens of musical venues which host the more than 300 acts that perform during the festival.
Headed to Austin? Don’t miss the Off the Brochure Travel Guide: Austin, TX.
PAINT THE TOWN PINK IN MACON, GEORGIA
Travelers usually associate cherry blossoms with parts of Japan and Washington, DC, but there are other options out there. Few things beckon the coming of spring like racing a loved one on a homemade mattress-based craft amid 300,000 blooming Yoshino Cherry Blossom trees.
The Cherry Blossom Bed Race is just one of a number of ways Macon, Georgia’s two-week International Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the city’s natural, springtime wonder.
Enjoy the tunes of local talent at the kick-off block concert, relish an aerial view of the flowering trees from hot air balloons and kick up your (pink) heels at the Diamond Ball charity event. Regardless of which events you choose to attend, Macon’s Cherry Blossom Festival will definitely leave you tickled pink.
By Katie Stevens for PeterGreenberg.com.
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