February is a month when the cold weather drags on and the walls begin to close in. Consequently, it’s also one of the best months to head out and enjoy activities that can lift the spirits and provide an adventure or two.

Embrace the Season
With 55 years of ski experience, Wisp Resort — located in the Deep Creek lake area of western Maryland — is one of the longest-running resort operations in the region. Since snowfall totals average 120 inches per year, skiers and snowboarders enjoy 32 slopes and trails on Wisp Mountain. The resort also offers snow tubing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling — not to mention the only Mountain Coaster in the mid-Atlantic, a hybrid of an alpine slide and a roller coaster. Guests can also soar high above the tubing park on the new Flying Squirrel Canopy Tour.

The ski-in-ski-out Wisp Resort Hotel offers ease and convenience for family getaways, with restaurants, lounges and an indoor pool and hot tub, plus equipment lockers, an arcade and more. Wisp’s winter event line-up includes concerts, competitions and ladies’ snowboard camps.

Check out the fun and affordable lodging packages at wispresort.com or call 301/387-4000.

Sweet Temptations
Festive, red, heart-shaped boxes in an array of sizes, from a delicate 4 ounces all the way up to a whopping 2 pounds, line the shelves of Harry London Chocolates in North Canton. Inside the boxes hide confections any sweet tooth could possibly desire, from turtles to truffles, just waiting to be unwrapped. All of these delicious treats are concocted on site at Harry London, where chocolate-making is truly a labor of love, not only on Valentine’s Day, but also year-round.

There’s hardly a better way to spend a wintry afternoon than visiting a chocolate factory. Learn about the delicacies Harry London has to offer at the chocolatier’s North Canton candy-making facility, which opens its doors for one-hour guided tours Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

Tours begin with a history of the company, which started in the small kitchen of steelworker Harry London in 1922. You’ll watch the company grow through a timeline of photographs leading up to the present day. Your guide will then take you through the factory on an enclosed catwalk. The glass walkway, perched above the production line, snakes through the entire facility, allowing visitors to see each step in the candy-making process, from the caramel room to the chocolate-molding line. The tour, most importantly, ends with luscious samples.

You’re sure to leave a candy connoisseur. You’ll be provided with a coupon and set free in the store to purchase whatever your heart desires, from chocolate peanut butter buckeyes to fresh, mouthwatering, chocolate-covered strawberries.

For details, call 800/321-0444 or visit harrylondon.com.

Animal Magnetism
Now’s the perfect time to go wild at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Through April 17, “Extreme Mammals: The Biggest, Smallest and Most Amazing Mammals of All Time” are waiting to make your acquaintance. Displays, animated computer interactives, hands-on activities, touchable fossils, casts, taxidermy specimens and — last but not least — a colony of live, naked mole rats, give visitors the opportunity to explore creatures great and small. They range from a 200-ton blue whale — the largest animal ever known — to the bumblebee bat that’s no bigger than a bee.

Discover how life evolved, why animals look so different from one another and how there can be such extraordinary diversity within a single group. Which just goes to prove that all families have their differences.

For more information, visit cmnh.org or call 216/231-4600.

Slice of Life
Raised in poverty in the rural community of Quincy, Florida, Dean Mitchell never let circumstances deter him from his dream of becoming an artist. The Canton Museum of Art is showcasing his extraordinary talents in “Dean Mitchell: Space, People & Places,” on exhibit through March 6.

Through 40 watercolors depicting the people and places of his life in the south, Mitchell captures the vibrancy, spirit and essence of African-American life — from the timeworn faces of beloved family members to the street scenes that are indelibly woven into the fabric of his being. It’s easy to see why Mitchell — who received his formal training at the Columbus College of Art & Design — has been compared to American masters Andrew Wyeth and Winslow Homer.

“My work is not about color, it’s about life,” he says. “Once you get to know your subjects, you can develop a love that comes through in your work. In the end, you hope you can do something that will help people come together. Emotions are universal, no matter what color the skin.”

Visit cantonart.org or call 330/453-7666 for more information.