By accident I found out where Rexburbians go when the sun comes out: the Snoasis on Main Street. I had no idea what I was in for. My expectations were low and largely based on my childhood recollections of 1980s snow cones: a piece of thin paper folded into a wimpy cone into which was placed an ice ball with a tablespoon of Kool-Aid poured on top. It didn’t matter that the paper cup was flimsy because the Kool-Aid all got sucked out of the straw within a few seconds, after which I would try to break up the slightly-tinted ice ball looking for any juice I missed, and then throw out the remaining ice and paper.

There has been considerable progress in my lifetime with cell phones, multi-media, computer technology, etc. But I don’t believe any of these advancements have done as much to make the world a better place than the evolution of the snow cone.

My family and I had run a few errands and we were all cranky and thirsty so we thought we’d grab snow cones. We were surprised to see a big crowd at one window and then, we saw a drive-up window- (a drive-up window?) with four or five cars waiting there. We decided to go that route so my small children weren’t milling so close to busy Main Street while we waited.

Like I said my expectations were low, so when I was asked if I wanted ice cream I knew things had changed. It was a good 15-20 minutes of waiting, but one of the cute, friendly workers had already come out and asked what sizes we needed so by the time we got to the window all they had to do was pour on our flavors.

I highly recommend huckleberry cheesecake with cream on top. I asked the worker to give me her favorite flavor and this was the savory concoction I got: in a Styrofoam cup (not paper), with real shaved ice, plenty of flavoring to last clear through the the last suck, and the cream! O the cream. Always get cream.

For a little under ten bucks (without the ice cream option which would probably make it more) my whole family of six got a tummyfull of coolness and a much happier disposition. I’ve been dying to go back and try another flavor. So I thought I’d ask: what is YOUR favorite snow cone flavor?