Boating

Just in time to leave Sweden we have done the most Swedish of Swedish things and taken a boat out to the archipelago for a picnic on a perfect summer night. Our dear friends Andreas and Conceicao (Swedish and Portuguese) and their daughters Annika and Louise invited us out on their boat and we putted over to a little island called Kvarnholmen that has a playground and sauna (!) and a beach where the kids fished for crabs and collected shells while Andreas grilled sausages. We searched for wild strawberries to no avail, but we did find a snake skin, a goose egg and, most importantly for Julian, goose poop! Oh, and the kids love that there are a couple of sheep on many of the islands to keep the vegetation to a minimum. A charming sight.

Swedes are obsessed with summer and it totally makes sense if you have to suffer through long, depressing winters. They do a wonderful job of making the most of them, including guaranteeing everyone 3 weeks time off in July (out of your total 5 weeks paid vacation a year). And it seems like almost everyone has a summer house and/or a boat or at least a family member who does. Because of the insanely long days (the sun has been setting about 11:15pm and is up again around 3:00am right now) it's just magical to be out in nature this time of year. A great note to end on.