Yesterday, we Alaskans were basking in the sunny, 30 degree range temperatures (at least in my little part of Alaska) and wondering if spring was going to arrive a couple months early this year. Fast forward to this morning, when I woke up and looked out my back door to this scene:
I KNOW I should not be surprised to see snow in Alaska in March, or April, or May, or sometimes even June….but — I just wanted to say AAAAAAAAGH!!!! Doesn’t Mother Nature realize it is Spring Break here in Alaska?!?! We should be having 70 degree spring days with sunshine and warm beaches, right? My concept of Spring Break is forever attached to where I grew up the first 22 years of my life in Alabama. Here is what I think I should see when I look out the window during Spring Break:
Ah, now that is what I call a Spring Break photo! That was taken on my Spring Break trip in 2007 – we ventured down the road to Panama City Beach, Florida. How I miss you at Spring Break, Panama City!
Days like today get me thinking about all the little things influencing my children’s childhood experiences and memories, which will make their growing up experience so much different from my own. Not different in a bad way, just DIFFERENT. If you had asked me 10 years ago (during my pre-Alaska days) if it ever snowed during Spring Break, I would have thought that was the most ridiculous idea in the world!
Spring Break in Alaska will never mean tanning in the warm sunshine, enjoying flowers, or relaxing on a sandy beach somewhere. Instead, it means enjoying longer daylight hours, which we appreciate after the short and dark winter days. And this fresh snow will make for a fun play day outside, building snow caves and having snow ball fights. It’s sort of a last hurrah for winter…during Spring Break.
Believe it or not, Alaskan kids, my own included, don’t think a thing of all this snow – they are thrilled they get to do more skiing and other fun snow activities. Just another way growing up in Alaska is such a unique experience.
Sabriena says
Oh man that makes me cold just looking at your picture! However, the snow is always so pretty!