62 - Length, in days, of the 2011 summer vacation for students in Watauga County. The last day of school was June 8. The new school year starts today, August 10, exactly 9 weeks later.

It's so easy to envy Phineas and Ferb. They have 104 days of summer vacation, before school comes along just to end it! The annual problem of the mountain generation, is having much less time to spend it!

Thanks to proactive scheduling forced by expected snow days, the schools of the High Country are among the first in the state to start class. And, thanks to recent years when the actual days lost outnumbered the expected, the year has lasted been spread further.

All nine schools in Watauga County open today. Also opening doors are the eight schools in Avery County, where students enjoyed a slightly longer vacation ..... by six days. (The 2010-11 year ended June 2). Ashe County students enjoyed the second longest break of the High Country, but saw it ended soonest. They were in class yesterday. To mark the occasion, here's the Ashe County High School Choir singing, appropriately, "I'll Be There."