I use air quotes whenever speaking about the “Summer” of 2023. It is easily confused with Winter 2022, minus the daylight of course. Sure, we had to mow the yard instead of shovel the driveway, but the moral of the story is we wore the same coat for both chores. And a person shouldn’t need a coat to cut the grass.

The saying “there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad gear” is supposed to apply to a chilly days in the raft, not cleaning up yard carnage from weekly hurricanes. Warm coats may have salvaged a Kenai River float trip for our “summer” houseguests, but nothing could save my poor flower pots from the wind.

Sam came home for the “summer,” but the four of us rarely slept under the same roof at the same time. He started his “summer” working at a local warehouse, but quickly jumped ship to help a friend’s family build a dream vacation home on Kodiak Island. Maggie worked crazy hours for a local tourism company, and spent lots of time at the horse barn as well. Throw in teen social lives and throw out the concept of family dinners.

We did enjoy some forced family fun the week Clark ended up in the hospital with a painful bout of pancreatitis the day before the kids had all their wisdom teeth pulled. A nurse I am not, so thankfully everyone bounced back quickly. We queued up a Harry Potter movie marathon and made the best of it.

In July Maggie and I flew to Nebraska to honor my Grandma, meet new family members, and visit a few college campuses. It was a few glorious weeks of 80 degree bliss. Finally: summer!

When we returned to “summer” in Alaska, we carved out time for one family outing before Sam left for college. What’s the bigger miracle: that it stopped raining long enough to snap a somewhat sunny photo, or that even the dogs are looking at the camera?

Before we knew it Sam was on a plane back to Nebraska to begin his sophomore year at UNL, and Maggie started her senior year of high school:

Summer is usually our reward for enduring Alaska’s long winter. It’s the time of year that brainwashes us into believing six hours of daylight in December is a fair trade for July’s midnight sun. That wearing ice cleats in grocery store parking lots is normal. That snow skirts are the definitive example of functional fashion.

Sadly, “Summer” 2023 didn’t fill my tank with any of these untruths. But not all is lost, because it did convince me that we need to make our own sunshine. Ideally, in the form of round trip airplane tickets out of here in the middle of winter. To a beach.

See you soon, Kauai!