I came to Houghton in the middle of January to interview for an ultrasound position at the local hospital. They put me up in a hotel, I interviewed, and then I went out with a Realtor to explore the possibility of buying a home. When I asked her about where to find a good pizza, she pointed me in the direction of the Ambassador. She wasn’t kidding about the best pizza in town.

I had my pizza at the Ambassador that night. As I traveled from one place to another, I took note of the snow accumulation on my Pathfinder. Every time I went outside, I had to brush 1 ½ – 2 inches of snow off my windshield. I found it quite amusing.

Shortly thereafter, I moved to Houghton to begin working in my new position in my new hometown. It didn’t take long for another hospital employee to introduce me to cross country skiing. Before I knew it, I was attempting to skate ski. Not much time passed before I actually was skate skiing, although it wasn’t pretty.

I fell in love with Houghton-Hancock that January in 2006. I fell in love with that winter wonderland – how the snow softly fell, the exhilaration brought on by the crisp air, the matted crunch of the snow as I walked or snowshoed. It was another world – one of sweet serenity.

It was my fairly young love of winter that brought back me back to the Upper Peninsula, among other things. I mourned the loss of the snow that spring as I thought about what I could do in the summer while awaiting the return of winter. Mountain biking basically hit me in the face that May.

This summer has been cool. It wasn’t the summer of the last couple years – hot and dry. I kept longing for the return of those endless days of ideal mountain biking. They never really came. We had hot days here and there, but it wasn’t enough to fulfill my need of summers past. That’s why this fall hasn’t been as joyful as previous. I usually find fall to be my favorite time of year, and I really did enjoy this fall, but my longing for that ideal summer made me dread the coming of winter…until today.

I awoke to the sprinkling of a light snow – the first of the year. Although I didn’t think I was ready for it, I found myself rather calm and complete with its arrival. I breakfasted, packed my things, and headed off to class. As I drove to Tech, the feelings of the 2006 winter returned to me. I quickly realized that I had fallen in love with Houghton during a snowfall, and that feeling of love had returned to me today.