My mother has always had a thing for vacations. Since I was 11 we went on a big family vacation to "someplace warm" every year during the long New England winter. Sometimes it was Florida in April, sometimes it was a cruise ship in February but we always came back with a tan when everyone else was pale and cold.
My sophomore year in college I was afraid that I was out of luck. My spring break was not going to coincide with my brother and sister's high school vacation and there was no way my mother was going to let any of us skip school. INSTEAD, she took us to Mexico the day after Christmas so that we could spend our vacation together on the beach.
The highlight of our flight down was a newlywed couple who made a big show of squeezing themselves into the restroom together to join the mile high club.
Then we got to the hotel - it was gorgeous - and all inclusive! I had just started drinking in college and I hadn't really gotten the hang of it - especially of the garbage they served in the hotel bar. I was drinking Tequila Sunrises and singing "Just another tequila sunrise" over and over and over (it was the only line I knew) until my sister and brother both threatened to throw me into the pool if I didn't shut up.
I did shut up but I didn't stop drinking. Eventually my sister went back to the room we shared while my brother and I stayed up. My poor sister, who didn't drink at all, had no idea what to think in the morning when she woke up to find lettuce in the toilet. She thought that I'd gotten ebola and that my dinner had gone right through me. She didn't stop to consider what had actually happened - that it had come out the way that it had gone in - I had been up ALL NIGHT vomiting.
This may have been the highlight of the trip except that my hungover brother woke up at 10:30am and make the mistake of eating the breakfast burritos that were STILL on the buffet. 6 hours later he was doubled over in his hotel room with a case of Montezuma's revenge that made my vomiting incident childsplay. They had to summon a doctor to the hotel to give him a shot and an i.v. My mother came out to tell us that he was lying in bed shaking and singing Tequila Sunrise.
Luckily for him he was so sick that he missed my sister's performance of Bobby McGee at the hotel talent show. She sounded like a feral cat with a trap on it's tail.
My brother told me he could hear it from the window and he just covered his ears and went back to vomiting.
You have to love traveling with family.
Oh, dear. Food poisoning is no fun, especially when traveling. I had a similar experience in Ireland. Spent more time in the bathroom of that backpacker's hostel in Cork than in my dorm room.
I wonder if anyone has started a meme blog for crazy traveling/family vacation stories. If not, then I think somebody should. And hopefully that person will remember me when they get their book deal and are rolling in millions from my idea. :)
Posted by: buzzvibe | June 15, 2010 at 08:28 AM