The chilly weather always makes me start to think about one of my favorite movies… When Harry Met Sally…. It’s in my repertoire of movies I watch at least once during the winter holiday season. It’s not a holiday themed movie like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Miracle on 34th Street, but many of the scenes take place during the winter holiday season. There are a couple of scenes involving buying a Christmas tree, a couple of New Year’s Eve parties, and a scene in New York City’s Central Park in autumn.
However, the scene in this movie that screams “fun in the winter” to me is the montage of New York City around the holidays that includes a horse drawn carriage; people bundled up in coats, scarves, and hats walking through the decorated streets; sled riding; and, most of all, ice skating.
Granted, jetting off to New York City to ice skate at Rockefeller Center or at Wollman Rink in Central Park is a little extravagant, but you can ice skate right here in Erie – indoors and out.
Both the Erie Zoo’s JMC Ice Arena (I grew up calling it the Glenwood Ice Rink, and still do), located on the corner of West 38th & Cherry Streets, and ICE (Ice Center of Erie), located at 3515 McClelland Avenue, have hours for open skating, pick-up hockey, and stick time for those interesting in practicing their hockey skills.
Don’t know how to skate? Don’t worry, you can take lessons at JMC. Perhaps you’re impatient, don’t know how to skate but want to play hockey…now? You don’t need lessons if you want to try playing broomball at ICE. Broomball is like hockey, except that rubber soled shoes replace skates, a broom replaces the hockey stick, and the puck becomes a ball. But it’s still played on the ice.
Costs for open skating is $5.00 for any age at ICE and $5.00 for 11 and under and $5.50 for 12 and over at JMC. And if you don’t own your own skates, ICE offers skate rental for $2.00/pair and JMC’s price is $2.50/pair.
Both the website for JMC and ICE suggest that you double-check times for the session you’re interested in attending (open skate, stick time, pick-up hockey, etc.) as the times posted on their website are subject to change.
If you have your own skates and prefer the free, fresh air arena, you can do what I’ve done a couple of times and skate on the bay. It helps to take a shovel and/or broom with you to clear the snow off the ice and it’s a little more challenging than skating at one of the indoor rinks because the surface of the bay ice isn’t going to be perfectly smooth and flat and there are no walls to grab on to, but it’s fun. Obviously, you need to dress appropriately (preferably in layers, including long underwear, mittens, hat, scarf, etc.) and, most importantly, make sure that the ice on the bay is thick enough for safe skating!
It may not be Rockefeller Center or Wollman Rink, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. So, lace up your skates and take to the ice!
