The intangible price of Austria

I know I’ve complained before, but the point of this blog is to share my thoughts, so…

It’s summer 2020, I’ve been home for about 7 weeks (after spending 2019-2020 in Salzburg), and you girls are still in Salzburg having much fun I know.

Last week I finished a 6 day float down the Salmon River in Northern Idaho. 10 boats, 24 people including 6 teenagers. The teenagers were having a lot of fun the entire time, kayaking and rafting down the river, and I couldn’t help but think about you three and how much fun something like this would be to do as a family (or as a family within a larger group).

The reality, of course, is that summers in Austria prevent any sort of family summer event. We’ve made use of School Spring Break over the years (Death Valley and Dana Point and Disneyland and Florida) but with one exception (2015 and the houseboat trip to Lake Powell) we’ve never been able to enjoy a summer in the US. The personal investment I’ve made in you girls spending the summer in Austria with Mimi and Opa is important, but like any investment there is a (hidden) cost, too.

It’s a sacrifice I willingly make – and at the risk of sounding terribly pitiful, I’m really the only one making a sacrifice in this regard – but it’s a sacrifice that weighs on me year after year. My time with your lovely ladies is finite, and loosing 16% of my potential time with you each year is a high cost.

I want to think that we can make up for this lost time, post college. Go rafting as a family, visit some National Parks, hike the John Muir trail, etc. And if that happens it will be fun and different (you three being older and more mature) and worthwhile, so that’s what I’m hoping for. That will be my final return on my summer-in-Austria investment.