Posted by Leslie at Jul 3, 2012 6:00 am
…from my vacation!
We’re home–got home late Sunday night after a very long drive home from Jacksonville. Five of us in a small sedan made for some interesting hours in the car–fortunately my girls are extremely entertaining so when they weren’t singing or cracking jokes, they still kept us laughing with the sisterly bickering going on in the back seat. It was very poignant, I must say, considering this is our last “family road trip” since oldest is getting married in October.
We managed to have a good time despite: A. Staying in hotel hell (complete with cockroaches). B. Bad weather for the first couple of days. C. Did I mention the cockroaches? D. My debit card number being stolen (by, I firmly believe, someone who worked at the crappy hotel) and our accounts being wiped out and/or frozen while the bank investigated, leaving us with no money and no recourse on moving to a non-crappy hotel. E. ROACHES!
Seriously though, we managed to laugh a lot. Had a nice time hanging out on the beach and the pool, which were the nicest parts of the (very crowded) area where we were staying. We enjoyed Broadway at the Beach and had a blast at Medieval Times. And we capped off the trip by driving (another 6 hours…ugh!) down to Jacksonville to visit my brother and his beautiful wife and their two adorable children. This was the first time we’d had a chance to meet my new niece, Addison, who is the sweetest, happiest baby I have ever seen! She is 7 months old and I swear we didn’t hear her cry for the entire 3 days we were there!
The trip ended on a sad note on the way home when I got a call from my Dad that his sister, my Aunt Rennie, had passed away. She was 93–an amazing woman who lived in Egypt for the past 60 years and was fabulously exotic and exciting and truly left us all wide-eyed whenever she came to visit. Very sad to think my father, the youngest of six siblings, is the last one now…it definitely makes me want to hug my own five siblings a little more tightly next time. And was a reminder of how worthwhile that extra trip down to Jacksonville really was.
Anyway, all in all, a worthwhile break from home, but I can’t say it was the best vacation ever…lol! Ahh, well, maybe we’ll be laughing at it in a few years.
How’s everyone been while I was gone?
PS: Here’s baby Addison. Isn’t she precious?!?
Hope you can laugh about it in a few years. My itunes account was hacked right before RWA a couple of years ago. Luckily my bank had all my money back within 24 hours of it coming out of my account. Now I just keep giftcards loaded on itunes. Hope they get everything fixed quickly.
Your hotel sounds like the one we stayed in years ago when we went down to visit my sister and her family over Easter. My dad, brother, and I actually went to Walmart to buy sheets rather than sleep on those at the motel. We actually still give my sister crap about it to this day…while laughing.
Addison is beautiful! So sorry about your aunt. Those memories of the road trip will keep your family laughing for a long time.
Oh my – she is precious.
Sorry to hear about the hotel. Too bad they didn’t offer to a) send you to another hotel or b) cut your daily rate to zero. You might want to try and dispute it with your cc company. Even tho you stayed they might be able to recoup your funds since there was no other place to go and based on the conditions. No guarantee but worth the shot if you felt so inclined.
That child is adorable. Thanks for sharing her picture. I love babies!
Since you are such a good writer I loved the description of your vacation. That said, it sounds like it was an adventure you didn’t need. At least the hotel part of it & having your debit card number stolen. That certainly put a damper on things. The memories will bring laughter once you get over the bad part of the trip. I’m sorry to hear about your aunt. She sounds like a very interesting woman.
:flag: :flag: :flag: :flag:
Your niece is adorable! Love that smile!
I need a vacation from my vacation, too. Too much vomiting (from a virus that decided to show up on the first day and really hit my boys hard midway through), whining and complaining. They are not usually so whiny!
We had a vacation like that a few years back. Someone hacked into our credit card (the only one we used at the time, from a bookseller, won’t mention the name…), the dvd players broke, so we were buying dvd players (our saving grace) and the credit card company declined it…then they declined the hotel, we tried to use a credit card that I don’t think the hub ever validated and they declined it, too, we had to have the original credit card company Fed Ex a new card to us in Anaheim and had to max out our ATM to pay cash until then (for gas, food, etc). Augh.
Oh yikes Katie–sounds like our situation! Thank goodness they were able to get a replacement card to you! Fortunately our girls are old enough that they had their own bank accounts so if it had coe to it we could have bummed money off of them… :biggrin:
Your niece is gorgeous! What a smile. So sorry your vacation was very hard on your nerves. It’s a vacation you will never forget!
Taking traveling lessons from Carly????
I had a hotel employee steal my credit card number once too, and it wasn’t a crappy hotel. Now when I travel, I have a card only for putting down deposits, etc and not linked to any of my accounts.
she’s precious. Almost as precious as my GG daughter who I got to spoil this weekend. LOL The best picture I have of her is reaching for a beer in the tub of ice!
Ev, the hotel manager argued with me, insisting it was “absolutely impossible” that it was one of their staff members since “they don’t have access to your information, it’s all encrypted.” Uh, except when they have my damned card in their HANDS? I used the card at a Shoney’s restaurant in North Carolina and at that hotel before the number was stolen, and the person used it to pay a gas bill in Georgia. I just can’t imagine that’s not connected.
OMG she’s gorgeous!
I need a vacation from my life, LOL. So I totally understand!
Do y’all have power? And AC? I was worried when the storms hit that area, then remembered y’all were in Florida. Where it flooded.
:ohno:
Glad y’all made it through vacation hell!
We had AC that was broken and leaked water onto the carpet of the bedroom floor, leaving it drenched and musty, and maintenance never showed up to fix it until after I had a meltdown on the hotel manager.
My brother’s street was flooded early in the week but by the time we got there Thursday night all was well!
Our ocndolences on the loss of your Aunt.
Such a beautiful little girl, so cute.
Sorry about the problems you encountered during your vacation!
ohmigod Leslie, I want her! shes soooo cute!
What a cutie.