MILTON, Vt. -
Drivers may not have had the easiest day on the roads, but on the sledding hills, Thursday's snowfall was a sight for sore eyes.
"This morning in the hotel she told me it was snowing and I literally jumped out of the bed and ran to the window," said Liana Alford, who is visiting Vermont. "I was like, 'oh my God, it's so beautiful!'"
It was also a beautiful sight for Rick Sharp, who owns Sharp Park in Milton.
"Biggest snow storm in two years," Sharp said. "Can't go snow tubing without snow."
Last year's weather left their brand new tubes unused.
"It was terrible," Sharp said. "We only had two weekends. We only did two birthday parties last year."
And this new snow isn't ideal; it's still a bit too soft, and visitors had to pack it down a bit themselves.
"We had to make our own trails, so the four of us, the snow was unpacked. So we had to walk up that hill, then we had to drag each other down in a path just to make one," Alford explained.
But once the paths were set, it was like being on a slide.
For many, tubing is something they've done from a young age. But for some of us, it's our first time. It was my first time snow tubing and I learned the only thing harder than staying in control of the tube while going down is getting it up the hill in the first place. But it's an experience that even this California girl could learn to love.
And many Vermonters say they are looking forward to a good old-fashioned winter.
"There's some nostalgia to get back to the old days in Vermont where we used to have these kinds of winters with a lot of snow," Sharp said.
"Just enjoying being out in the cold weather and having the snow to play in and having fun," Kristin Winer said. "Feels like we're kids again, which is a lot of fun."
Sharp says he hopes pent-up demand from a lackluster winter last year means a boom in business this holiday week.
