A Family Vacation - Day One

Time for a family vacation. We're headed to the pearl of the Redneck Riviera, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I've been to a number of beaches in the continental U.S., and the beaches of the Florida panhandle are some of the most beautiful. Walking along the beach with my wife, playing in the surf with my kids, lounging on the white sand beaches while soaking in the view of the azure blue waters. Sounds great, doesn't it?

On this vacation, Sue has invited her brothers, sisters and one of her cousins to join us, along with their kids. The invitations resulted in two sisters and a female cousin along with all their kids, for a sum total of me, four women, and seven boys between the ages of 6 and 16.

So as a preview we began our trip with a drive from home to a layover with the grandparents in Baton Rouge. For the first two hours, my lovely bride tried to coordinate a flight for her drifter of a brother to meet us at the condo. There was a lot of talking to airline reservation agents, sisters, cousins and mothers. About two hours into that effort, she gave up. We stopped for lunch, gas, and biological reasons a few minutes later.

Back in the car, Sue talked to me about how we need to prepare ourselves to move into a new house, about how we can't possibly have more children, about how she hoped the dogs were okay and on and on and on...

Oh, and we took a picture.



Another bio break two hours later.

Back in the car, the conversations shifted to her mother. About how her mother had started giving all of Grandma's jewelry away, how some of the jewelry was ugly and how when we have a little extra money we should reset the stone in one of the rings, about doing yoga on the beach. There was a blessed interruption of a phone call from one of her sisters to coordinate meeting up tomorrow for the final leg of the journey to the beach. After the coordination was complete, going to sister-in-laws, we spoke about the lunacy of her father and, did I mention, we're going to her dad's house to visit my brand new sister-in-law. That's right my children have a new aunt.

About fifteen minutes left to go in our trip to Baton Rouge, I heard the most magical, wonderful words I never thought I would ever hear from my wife: "My throat hurts. Maybe I should stop talking.

The silence lasted about thirty seconds. It was the most wonderful thirty seconds I have ever experienced.

Ever.

Then the talking began again.

I can't wait for day two.