Dreaming of a White Winter

WHERE: Lewisberry, Pa.

WHY: Fish on the rocks, polar (bear) express and fake-snow skiing.

HOW FAR: 140 miles, about 3 hours from Washington.

Let it snow already. While Mother Nature figures out how to lower the thermostat, don't go selling your skis and skates just yet. You can get your winter fix elsewhere (no ticket to Denver required). To be sure, in these balmy times, man-made snow is just as chill as the real thing.

Here's a heartwarming fact, care of the Ice Age exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History: We are living in an ice age, and Earth goes through warming cycles, the last one falling between 1890 and 1945. However, looking wistfully at the Pleistocene skeletons on display, one has to wonder if the polar bear is going the way of the woolly mammoth.

Despite the weather, throw a Happy Snow Day party. Rockville's Talk of the Town Variety Entertainment rents winter-themed equipment, so you can treat Frosty, his gal and their pet penguin to an afternoon of homemade snow cones served on your pretend-snow-covered lawn.

The ice at Baltimore's Lexington Market isn't prefab, nor is it for skating -- go to the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden for that. Faidley Seafood throws down piles of cubes to keep its sea life fresh. Dig deep into the icy depths for shrimp and squid, or ask one of the vendors if you can stand beside the giant freezer door to catch the arctic draft.

The Maryland Zoo brings Canada to Druid Hill Park, and no tundra is complete without snowy owls, an arctic fox and a pair of polar bears as white and thick as a blizzard. Alaska, the female of the duo, once traveled the Caribbean with the circus, and Magnet arrived from Toledo. Though the bears are far from their home turf in Manitoba, the boulder formations and plunge pool help feed the illusion.

Sometimes you just have to fake it. At AvalancheXpress, part of Heritage Hills Resort in York, Pa., thrill-seekers slide down hilly trails atop giant tubes. The place makes its own faux snow and is closely watching the thermometer: Temps need to be 28 degrees or colder to produce the white stuff.

You might have better luck up the road, at Ski Roundtop. The resort has 100 percent snow-making capabilities, and minus a few closed days, it has outwitted the warm weather so far. While not all of its 16 trails are open, schussing down even one slope might be enough to tide you over till next winter -- or the first snowfall.

Ski Roundtop, 925 Roundtop Rd., Lewisberry, Pa. 717-432-9631.

http://www.skiroundtop.com.

-- Andrea Sachs