Vacation from He**

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Having been in N’awlins for tropical storm Cindy and SUPPOSED to have been on the Gulf coast when Dennis came ashore, I think our family vacation qualifies as a vacation from he–. Not to say we didn’t have fun, but when you wait two years to go to the beach, spending 3 days at a totally un-swimable beach doesn’t cut the mustard.

Being that time of year, please feel free to post your own family vacation disaster, current or past.

Low-lights: spending two days waiting for Dennis to come on through, my daughter’s face at NOT being on the beach for her birthday, refugee traffic in Mobile, the beach at a certain resort on the Atlantic side of Florida.

Highlights: Mass at St. Mary’s in Memphis, Shrine of La Leche in St. Augustine, minor league baseball in New Orleans (although their mascot made our one-year-old scream) and Mobile, cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans.

Question: If you just had a vacation and have fairly limited means is it ok to pray for another vacation (at a white, sandy beach somewhere)? I know I should be happy with what I had, but I really wanted the beach!

Cathy
 
Come to Southern California next time. It’s always sunny here.

Eamon
 
Better yet come to Hawaii it is more sunny then Southern Cal. Not saying that SoCal is bad, but we have more sun. 😃
 
Not to get into it with anyone from Hawaii, BUT: the advantage of going to California (I live in Vegas, which is it’s own little version of hell) is that you can go to the beach AND visit all of the missions founded by Blessed Junipero Serra and the Franciscans up and down the coast from, from San Diego de Alcala (in San Diego proper) all the way up to the one in Sonoma, northeast of San Francisco. At Carmel (the Monterey Peninsula), you can see Blessed Junipero’s grave, as well as Father Lausen’s. There’s beautiful scenery, wildlife (elephant seals, harbor seals, sea lions, whales in season, etc.), great beaches (though I wouldn’t go in over my ankles…the Great White Shark is the apex predator from about Santa Barbara to North of San Francisco), and lots of other things. It is an amazing thing to walk through the old Spanish missions and think about the light of the Gospels being brought to these shores. I’m sorry your vacation didn’t work out. I hope the next one is great.
 
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JKirkLVNV:
Not to get into it with anyone from Hawaii, BUT: the advantage of going to California (I live in Vegas, which is it’s own little version of hell) is that you can go to the beach AND visit all of the missions founded by Blessed Junipero Serra and the Franciscans up and down the coast from, from San Diego de Alcala (in San Diego proper) all the way up to the one in Sonoma, northeast of San Francisco. At Carmel (the Monterey Peninsula), you can see Blessed Junipero’s grave, as well as Father Lausen’s. There’s beautiful scenery, wildlife (elephant seals, harbor seals, sea lions, whales in season, etc.), great beaches (though I wouldn’t go in over my ankles…the Great White Shark is the apex predator from about Santa Barbara to North of San Francisco), and lots of other things. It is an amazing thing to walk through the old Spanish missions and think about the light of the Gospels being brought to these shores. I’m sorry your vacation didn’t work out. I hope the next one is great.
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And PCH is an absolutely amazing drive. Beach from SD all the way to the Bay. Wonderful!

Eamon
 
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turboEDvo:
And PCH is an absolutely amazing drive. Beach from SD all the way to the Bay. Wonderful!

Eamon
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I know Heaven is the Beatific Vision of Our Lord, but if I got to design my own heaven, I’d ask Him for the California coast…all of it…and a Mustang Convertible.
 
There are some of the best beaches in the world in Hawaii, but if it is a Religious vacation that you are on then SoCal might be better for you. 👍 But if you want to see paradise than what better palce to be. You can stand on the top of Haleakala Mountain and look out to the heavens and just get lost. Or you can go to The North Shore of Oahu and watch the sunset and forget about everything that has been bothering you at home. Don’t get me wrong when I take a vacation I leave the Islands because I live here. I really love the states. I’ve done just about everything in Hawaii, but for vacationers it would be worth your money. By the way I love Vegas. I have a lot of family and friends in Vegas. 😃
 
Well, it isn’t a family vacation (I’m a never-been-married person who has never even remotely had the kind of dough needed for vacations involving airfare and hotels), but I do have a business trip story.

I was supposed to go to a sales meeting in Orlando, Florida for five days. I got into the cab to go to the airport, and it was already snowing. By the time I got to the airport, the snow was eight inches deep. Yep, you guessed it – the blizzard of 1978 had struck!

Five minutes after I arrived at the airport, my flight was cancelled. Five minutes after that, the entire airport shut down. A co-worker was on the phone, frantically trying to scare up some hotel rooms – no luck, every place he called was booked solid. It wouldn’t have done any good, anyway, because all the roads were starting to close up.

The time I was supposed to spend in Orlando, I ended up spending in the airline terminal – I was there for three days. A group of elderly people had been scheduled for the flight; they slept on the few couch-type benches available. The rest of us slept on the floor.

It wasn’t long before the heating system broke down, so we slept on the cold floor. A plan by the flight attendants to go aboard the plane to get out the pillows and blankets never came to pass, so we just wrapped ourselves up in our coats. The one restaurant in that terminal quickly ran low on food, so they started rationing it by severely limiting their hours, but they did put out a huge urn of free coffee, which they kept filled. Instead of fine restaurant meals, we ended up dining on the packets of sugar that were put out for the coffee. While packing for the trip, I had decided at the last minute not to pack a can of mixed nuts. While I was munching on the sugar, all I could think about was that can of nuts!

If you were accustomed to stay up past 9:00 PM to read, play board games, or whatever, well, that was too bad, because the lights were turned out at 9:00 PM. Some people amused themselves by watching the little coin-operated televisions bolted to some chairs – I think it was 25 cents for 15 minutes.

Unlike most of the people there, I had retrieved my checked luggage (not many people used carry-ons back then) before the luggage conveyer was locked up for the duration, so at least I had changes of clothes, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. Instead of long, luxurious baths, I washed up in a sink in the public toilet.

Finally, on the third day, a road to my home town opened up, and I managed to get a cab to come get me. The road had been plowed out barely wide enough for one car to fit through, with snow piled high on either side – I gave that cab driver a very good tip! 😃

So that’s the story of my Orlando trip. When I got home, the first thing I did was to eat the can of mixed nuts I had left behind (taking a shower was number two on the agenda). My co-workers who had made it down to Orlando brought me back a personalized, glass Mickey Mouse mug, so at least I got a souvenir. 😃
Crazy Internet Junkie Society
Carrier of the Angelic Sparkles Sprinkle Bag
 
At least you weren’t in New Orleans with an aunt, younger than your mother (about 45) who had 3 strokes and having a sieure… doing therapy for a whole month… wow… I think my poor mother working with her little sister in the stifling heat had the worse end of “vacation”
 
Cathy - we were doing the almost same vacation as you!! We stopped in Memphis on our way to New Orleans. TS Cindy was a blast wasn’t she? Then the bonus visit from Dennis while on a cruise ship. Actually, the cruise was wonderful and we were able to sail around most of the worst part and the seas weren’t too rough. We couldn’t snorkel in Cozumel but were able to hit the beach.

Most of the fun from our vacation came from the fact that my whole family - parents, siblings, spouses were together. We had 16 people - 8 adults and 8 kids and we were still speaking at the end of the trip!! I think that might be the miracle JPII needs for canonization!!

Kris
 
Thanks for all the replies!

Kris- The original bad omen was that were were going to go to Lamberts in Sikeston on our way to Memphis. The wait was over an hour so we ended up at Burger King instead. Memphis was great, though. The Mud Island museum was fun. Any museum that encourages you to take off your shoes and wade is all right by me!

Cindy had my husband panicked, but other than knock out power, it didn’t really affect us. We were able to do most of what we wanted. Well, except get good Cajun food. Do you know anywhere in St. Louis that serves good Cajun food?

To On My Way- I think I’ll have to listen to Aloha Joe Radio today to get my beach fix. That’s the only part of a Hawaii vacation that I can afford.

To JKirkLVNV- The sad part of all this is that ANY beach is out for 2 years. DH has already informed me of the imminent demise of Yankee Stadium and that IF there is ANY vacation next year it will be to NYC. I guess I can slip in a trip to Coney Island at least. Not exactly the Gulf of Mexico, but it’ll have to do.

Cathy
 
Cathy, how crazy is this? We stopped at Lamberts also and skipped it because of the hour and a half wait. I was looking forward to it too. We enjoyed Mud Island in Memphis plus we ate good bbq ribs.

In one of my few moments of brilliance, I sent my dad to cajun cooking school in NO for his Father’s Day gift. He had such a blast and now plans to make gumbo and jambalya for our first Rams tailgate party. I don’t know of any place in StL that serves any cajun food, much less good stuff.

Kris
 
Cathy-

I was disappointed by not being able to swing a beach vacation for us this year too! Get a recording of sounds of the ocean, find some movies with beachy themes (like the old 60’s surfer/Gidget stuff) Fix shish ka bobs on the grill for dinner, run around in your bathing suits all day (or all week! LOL!) Spread out towels in the back yard, visit a local pool if one is available (Or spend the night in a nearby hotel with a pool :D) And create your own home grown beach vacation. (Not the same, I know, but perhaps it will smooth over the rough spots!)

God Bless!
 
Kris-That’s really funny that you stopped at Lambert’s too. I had no idea it was such a huge place.

I think I have resigned myself to no beach anytime soon. However I am seriously considering painting our bedroom in a beachy theme. Sand color paint on the bottom and ocean blue/green on the top. In the 13 years we’ve lived in our house we still have the basic cheap white paint in our bedroom. I’m goin’ to Loews tonight! It ain’t the Gulf Coast, but it’ll have to do for now!

I’ll paint the room while wearing a swimsuit and listen to the Beach Boys and Los Straitjackets.

Thanks to all!
Cathy
 
This thread has inspired me to post a poll… I am curious about how many families actually take a family vacation.

The only real vacation hubby and I have had in our 6 years together was our honeymoon to Florida. And that was put on credit and took us forever to pay off, but it was worth it!

When I was a very little girl, my family would go camping in the summer. But once I hit about 8 years old and had a little sister, we couldn’t really afford to go anywhere.

I guess it’s all about perspective. I try very hard to be happy with all of the blessings in my life, but the beach *does *sound good!

Malia
 
Took the kids camping and pitched the tent in a nice low flat spot. LOL it was in a dry creek and we got flooded out.

Had to get our money back for a cruse when the orthodontist told us our eldest needed braces. Now I get to tell her our cruse is in her mouth LOL.
Car broke down two states away with seven of us in it, including my mother. Got to stay in a motel with a pool and walked up to a Wendy’s drivethrough since the doors were locked. It turned into an adventure. Oh, I found out you can’t rent a van in a small town in WV on short notice:D .

Lots of memories> We can now laugh at.
 
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