Rachel Burkardt spent her St. Patrick's Day in Malibu -- a Chevrolet Malibu she rented to drive 18 hours straight from Miami to Philadelphia.

Burkardt (junior-information science and technology) said she had just returned from a cruise to the Bahamas on Friday and, after waiting in the Miami airport for more than four hours, found her flight would be delayed.

"We could have stayed and waited for a standby plane or waited to fly home [tomorrow]," Burkardt said.

Not wanting to wait for the rare chance of getting a standby flight and not wanting to miss classes today and tomorrow, Burkardt and her friends rented a car and drove until 4 a.m. yesterday -- staying awake on Red Bull and switching drivers whenever one got too tired.

Ice and snow storms across the Northeast this past week have caused delayed returns for many Penn State students because spring break is one of the busiest times for airports and bus terminals, said Charles Welch, of Centre Country Airport Authority.

"Every seat on every plane is full ... There's nothing you can do about weather delays," he said. "People do get upset, but they understand."

Amber Reardon (sophomore-mathematics) was another of the students whose flight was delayed. Her flight from Orlando to Allentown kept getting pushed back, she said, and when she and her friends arrived in Allentown, they had to get a hotel for the night to avoid driving on the icy roads.

After checking in at a hotel in Allentown, they realized the kitchen staff had been sent home early, also because of weather conditions, she said.

"We had to eat out of a vending machine," Reardon said. "We had Cheetos and Coke for dinner."

Along with returning home later, Reardon said she had to miss work the next day because of the unanticipated delay.

According to the Associated Press, about 100,000 airline passengers flying on U.S. Airways were stranded system-wide. Many of the passengers had to be redirected to Charlotte, N.C., because of adverse weather conditions in the Northeast.

"It's just a busy time of year with spring break ... and then with that storm, that really put a wrench in the works for a lot of folks," JoAnn Jenny, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Airport Authority, told the AP.

Philadelphia International Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal told the AP the airport gave several hundred stranded passengers disposable blankets and pillows to spend the night in the terminal Saturday. Aaron Bilby of the Campus Weather Service said snowfall in State College was 7.7 inches and varied from six inches to a foot over the week across the Centre Region.

Weather for this coming week will be "a lot quieter than last week," Bilby said. Today through Wednesday will have highs in the lower 40s, and Thursday and Friday will have a high of near 60 degrees, Bilby said.