Like most people I know, we go on a family vacation every
summer. Usually we visit a coastal area.
Mostly we have spent our vacations on the east coast somewhere between Nags
Head, NC and Daytona Beach, FL. However, my oldest brother and his family had
been going to Siesta Key on the gulf coast of Florida during spring break for
years. Several years ago, we took the kids to Disney during spring break and
drove the couple of hours to see my brother and family at Siesta Key. We fell in love with the white sand that
stayed cool to the touch. We were amazed at the clear blue water. We liked the
calmness of the Gulf.
So, we began making the trek to Siesta Key every other year
or so for our vacation. We had never been morning people, so we never really
witnessed the sunrise over the Atlantic.
But, I will never forget the first evening we watched the sun descend
into the Gulf as we watched it set and disappear. For me it was a spiritual phenomenon
that filled me with awe and wonder. I
saw it as a demonstration of the power of G-d and the beauty of his
creation. Tonight, we will be witnesses
once again to this magic. This week we will experience our last family vacation
before our oldest daughter leaves for college. I know that we will continue to
have family vacations with her, but somehow it seems like they will be
different. She will be an adult. How
much will she change in the coming year?
We always look forward to vacation week. I should note that not all family vacations
are rosy and pleasant. But even those not-so-great ones make for fun stories to
tell later. Sometimes, much later. We
often reminisce about the “bad house” at Ocean Isle Beach. First, the screen
door was like a steel-jaw trap. You know, the kind that ruthless fur traders
leave behind to torture and kill animals.
Before the trip was over, we had
all been victims of its mean and quick snap on our arm or leg! Then, we woke very early the first morning to
the loudest hammering and sawing that we had ever heard. A new house was going
up next door! I went and asked if this
would continue all week. The foreman informed me that it would and that they
were following all codes concerning hours of construction. We went to the drug store to buy a box fan.
It took a while to find one in an old dusty box that didn’t have the words “whisper
quiet” emblazoned across the label.
On the second day, we heard a knock at the door. A man
introduced himself as the owner of our vacation rental. He said that if we
would let him put a roof over the deck while we were there, he would give us a
$100 cash to go out to dinner. He assured us that he would only be working on
it while we were spending time on the beach.
The only problem was that he left stray nails all over the already very
splintery deck. We spent quite a bit of time removing foreign objects from our
feet. Eventually we realized that the deck was just unusable. But one thing was great about the house for
the first two days. The AC worked great. Until it didn’t. On our return from a
hot, hot day at the beach, we immediately noticed that the house was not cool
when we walked in. Then Lyric, my youngest, noticed that there was a lot of
water dripping from the ceiling. I called the rental company. They said that
they would send someone. We waited and waited. Then I called the nail-dropping-owner
and complained. He got someone out to fix the AC, but we could not go anywhere
until he arrived. We had to let him in.
Now, the AC was working, we had a loud fan to try and drown
out the construction noise, we were avoiding the deck, but still occasionally
being crunched by the steel-jaw door!
Maybe things were getting better. Predictably, we noticed that the
previously vacant house across the street began to come alive. Pick-up trucks
with fancy paint jobs and tall wheels were arriving by the dozens. These trucks
were filled with muscle-bound young men and skimpy bikini-clad girls. They were
unloading cases and cases of beer and a few kegs as well. The party started
just about the time we were having dinner. I kept thinking it would eventually
settle down. But it was louder than ever at Lyric’s bedtime. She could not
sleep. It was just as loud when we all wanted to go to bed. We could not sleep.
The box fan was ineffective.
I used to party. I didn’t want to call the cops. But at
2:00am it was still going full force. There were some drunk and loud fights
between girlfriends and boyfriends. There was a whole bunch of hooting and
hollering. I called the cops. I played Gladys Cravats and watched through the
blinds. A single police car arrived. He stopped and began fist bumping and
high-fiving the muscle-bound dudes. He pointed at our rental house. I ducked
behind the curtain. Then he drove away. The party continued all night. I had had enough.
I called the management company and voiced all my
complaints. I insisted on a refund. They explained that the party house
belonged to the Ocean Isle Police Chief. His son was visiting with friends from
college. I was fighting authority and it was winning. The landlord agreed to refund my initial
deposit. So, I had a hundred bucks from
the owner and $250 from the rental company. We decided that we could use that
money to rent a boat and get away from all the chaos. We could tour the intracoastal
waterway and its sandy beaches. Finally,
things would be calm.
For some reason, it was an especially rough day on the
waterway. Some family members were feeling seasick. I said, “No problem, we
will just beach the boat on this sandy island and take a break.” I wondered to myself why all the other
boaters had anchored off the island rather than beaching their boats on the
powdery sand. I grew up on a large lake and we regularly beached boats. I
expertly raised the motor, cut the engine and released the anchor for a
perfectly smooth landing. We clambered
onto the shore. The nauseated ones took a seat in the sand to try and get the
world to right itself again.
Within a span of about five minutes, I noticed a
problem. Waterways have tides and this
one was retreating quickly! The boat was
now halfway on land! I raced to try and
push it out into the water. It would not budge. We had rented the boat for two
hours. How long before the tide goes all
the way out and then back again to float the boat? I was panicking. Some other guys, younger and stronger, came
to my rescue. They heaved and pushed alongside me and the boat began to inch
back into the water. I was pushing as hard as I could when it became buoyant and
released itself from the sand. I took one more step and I was chest deep in
salt water. My brand-new iPhone was in my pocket. Siri drowned.
We packed up and headed home a day early. This vacation was
doomed from the start.
But I have a good feeling about our trip this year. We drove
halfway yesterday and even though it rained most of the way, everyone was in a
good mood. We will finish the second leg
of the trip today. Tonight, we will stand on the cool, white sand and watch the
sun sink into the sea. All day long today, the sun will make its journey from
the day’s birth and then it will dramatically leave us. But we will be secure
in the knowledge that it is not gone, it’s just out of our sight. A nice reminder that our girls will not be
gone when they depart from our home. They will just be out of our sight. But we
can be secure in the knowledge that we have created a memorable journey that
they will always be part of. They will always
return and we will have many new sunrises and sunsets to celebrate.
