Anchorage in July

I wanted to share with you a  little bit of our Alaskan summer.  If you were here with us this week and you happened to catch the news, you would hear a little bit of grumbling about the weather.

Let me back up.  When we were house hunting, people often tried to sell their yards as part of the total house "package".  For instance, if someone had a great deck, they invariably said something to the effect of: "Fabulous deck!!  Beautiful views!  PERFECT for midnight summer BBQs".  I'm not kidding.  You can look for yourself www.alaskarealestate.com if you don't believe me.  Even the guide books talk about all the outdoor living one does in Alaska in the summer.  You can find little charts that tell you how the average high in July is like 70 degrees.  Sounds nice, huh?  

Well, on the news the other night, they were saying that so far this summer, there have been 2 days at or above 70F (none of which have occurred since we arrived 7/3).   In fact, the poor weather lady on channel 2 up here has been accosted nightly about the recent weather.  It's raining pretty much every day.  And it hasn't been above 60 in a while.  Today, it was 47F (and rain) when I took my kids to VBS.   You guys know that that is not any summer weather we are accustomed to being AZ natives....  Well, it gets better.  Today as I was driving to Eagle River from Elmendorf, I looked up at the mountains and I saw this:

See those mountains in the way back?  Yesterday, no snow.. today, snow.  Apparently, it has been snowing in the mountains.  HUH??   If this was to occur in the Fall, they'd call it the "terminal dusting", that first snow that signals the onset of wintery weather.  However, the poor, desperate weather lady assures us this is NOT terminal dusting but I don't know..

Here are 2 more views out our car window of Eagle River this morning.. note the snowy mountains and the fog.

Enjoy your sunny days, kids.  And if you think this actually sounds like a better deal than the summer you're having, come visit!