Recently, I went on a family vacation.
My husband, Keith, my son, Dean, and I loaded up our car and drove to Destin, Fla., where we had rented a house for five days with my two sisters and their families. The last time I went on a vacation with my sisters was 1996, when I was a college student at Ole Miss.
To say my sisters and I needed a vacation after the last year-and-a-half is an understatement. In that time, we lost both our parents, wrangled through the legalities of their estate, went through 50 years of my parents’ personal treasures, and cleared out and sold our childhood home. It is surprising we aren’t roommates in a padded room, but we are our parents’ daughters. We are some pretty tough girls.
For a journalist, I am uncharacteristically superstitious. Rather, if I get a gut feeling that something isn’t right, I take it as gospel. And in all my years, that gut feeling is rarely wrong. My mother always said I was just sensitive to body language and other people’s feelings, and I had a tendency to overthink things. Maybe so, but my female intuition is like my own Jedi power.
As the family planner, or what I refer to as the “cruise director,” I was responsible for reserving the house, which I did a few months before our scheduled trip. These days, you are required to pay the entire cost of the reservation up front, which I was weary of, but did.
I even checked in weekly with the rental agency to verify everything for our trip was on track so there were no last minute surprises. Thankfully, my keen research skills and hefty dose of neurosis was beneficial because when I called to double check some issues I saw on past guests’ reviews, I was told the house we had rented months ago was under renovation. This was the Monday before the trip’s departure that Wednesday.
“Someone should have called you and given you the option of selecting another property,” the customer service agent informed me.
Well, no one called. She did inform me that there were other properties available, and she would make sure not to charge us extra for another house. Yes, that was very considerate.
None of the other houses were a fit for our family, and I was close to a nervous breakdown that I singlehanded ruined our family vacation. In addition, we had already paid for the house in full and I was getting the runaround on receiving a refund. I had to threaten legal action just to get a returned phone call from the person in charge. (We finally did receive a refund.)
On that very same Monday, the air conditioning in my car died, and we were facing a seven-hour drive on one of the hottest days of the year. Thankfully, Nissan was able to repair it the Tuesday before we left the next morning.
Needless to say, my gut was telling me to keep my tail at home and forget about the vacation. What is the saying: if everyone says your dead, lie down. That was where I was Tuesday night as I put the newspapers together a day early so we could head out first thing Wednesday morning.
However, there was one thing that made me push my female intuition aside and pack for a five-day trip in a new house rented online, sight unseen, by my sister -- Dean.
For more than a month, Dean had been counting down the days until we went to the beach. He had big plans to build sandcastles and swim in the ocean and share a room with my sister, Stephanie. And, of course, he knew he would be spoiled rotten by every member of the family while we were there.
With both newspapers at the press, we loaded up our car with every possible necessity and a lot that were not all that necessary, and headed to Florida. Our early morning start ended up being an afternoon start, but we safely arrived in Miramar Beach around 9:30 p.m.
We hadn’t even finished unloading the car before Dean was doing cannonballs in the swimming pool, and we sat outside in the humid, salt-smelling air watching as he displayed all of his fancy jumps and dives (made up as he went). Eventually, the exhaustion of the drive and the stress of the few days prior, we all collapsed into a deep sleep.
The next morning, I awoke at 10:30 a.m., the longest I have slept since becoming a mother. Keith said he and my sisters bribed Dean to keep quiet so I could rest. And I did.
I spent the entire day in the swimming pool with my boy and enjoyed spending time with my husband and sisters that did not require making big decisions or keeping to a schedule or responding to emails.
The next day, we went to the beach, and set up an impressive “campsite” which included a couple of tents, comfy chairs, and a bag full of beach toys for Dean. (Thank you, Shonda Milton, for the loan!) I took pictures of Dean digging in the sand and swimming with his cousin, and idol, Hunter. I laughed with my sisters and enjoyed the sea breeze and sunshine.
These activities continued until Sunday, when we packed up and headed back to Mississippi and the real world. Dean had school work to make up, and I had more than 1,000 emails waiting for me at the office.
I did learn a couple of things during my family vacation. First, my female intuition isn’t always spot on. Also, I learned that sometimes you have to step away from all of life’s stresses – deadlines, financial reports, emails, school work, and even seriously incompetent vacation rental agencies – and enjoy a little time in the sun spent with those you love the most.
The trip was such a success, we are already planning next year’s family vacation. We want to take the trip my parents always dreamed of taking but never got the chance – New England in the fall. They will be with us in spirit – they always are.
Life really is so fleeting. None of us should take one second of the time we are blessed with on this earth for granted.
