Vacations...always a much needed break, always so much fun and for us...always a "story"!!
No matter where we go, there is always a "vacation story"...something went wrong, a mishap or just a really funny story. We have great memories of our crazy vacations. Thankfully they are just great memories and nothing worse.
The best story was many, many years ago when the girls were little (they're both in college now, so it was a long time ago). It was during our April vacation. We just wanted to drive some place close and take them to an amusement park. At the time, Six Flags in New Jersey was about a 6 hour drive for us from Rhode Island. I called and asked the park when they opened for the year and she said April 1st. Oh great, I thought...perfect.
NOT
To make a very long story short...
- drove 6-7 hours to New Jersey on Tuesday and stay in hotel about 15 minutes from the park
- woke up Wednesday morning and drove to Six Flags.
- "Wow, amazing there isn't any traffic getting to the park!!"
- first gate...big orange construction pillars
- second gate...big orange construction pillars
- third gate with security guard. I asked..."please tell me this park is open." Security guard.."No mame, the park is closed.
- "WHAT??? but I called and she said you opened April 1st"
- Security guard..."Oh, yes we opened April 1st, but just for Saturdays and Sundays until May, then it's opened during the week"
- Our daughters still say...remember when mommy put her head on the dashboard and cried and cried!!
- went back to the hotel and called every where. All parks on the east coast didn't open until May.
LATER THAT SAME DAY...
Make the second part of this story very short.
- called our hotel's travel agent and booked a flight to Disney
- drove 2 hours to Newark airport
- missed our flight
- arrived in Disney at 11:00 pm Wednesday night
- stayed at the Polynesian Hotel
- spent all day Thursday in Magic Kingdom (girls had the BEST time)
- flew back to New Jersey Friday afternoon
- drove back to Rhode Island
Money spent in New Jersey...$300.00
Two day trip to Disney...$2000.00
Memories to last a lifetime...PRICELESS
Spur of the moment things for your children, even when you really couldn't afford it. Lol !!!
What's your vacation "story"???
Happy Thursday,
~Karen~
Omg....do i have vacation stories , the time we were nearly kidnapped in Egypt last November, the north Dakota trip we had t dig our Car out of the snow and Carrie kept ysobbing and yelling "we are all going to die, and it's all dads fault!"
ReplyDeleteOr the time we drove 100 MPH to the airport in new Orleans in a blinding raiin and hail storm after they cancelled out flight in baton rouge and we needed to make a cruise ship To alaska....
Yes. I have some great memories too! Don't you love those things that make this the vacation you will never forget???
Mine is a happy story...
ReplyDeleteMet DH on vacation in Dominican republic....
....fell in love...
...wrote letters ( before email time )
...few back & forth from US to Germany....
...got married....
....that was 15 years ago...
...a good vacation story :-)
Your Disney trip is amazing, I wish we lived that close that we could just do that, unfortunately our Disney trips take a year to plan and cost a hell of a lot of money (damn those UK to Florida flight prices) We arnt visiting this year (BOOOO) but we have a 3 week trip planned for next sept/oct staying at Port Orleans Riverside. Im beyond jealous that you stayed at the Poly, its a beautiful resort.
ReplyDeleteMy holiday story isnt as eventful as yours but is amusing...
Arrive at Airport for a flight to Barcelona with in laws.
Mother in law has father in laws wrong passport.
They have to run for a taxi, to dash all the way home and grab the passport, they are running out of time.
Me and my then fiancee (husband now) sit in a coffee shop at the airport waiting, looking nervously at our watches.
They literally are gonna make us miss the flight.
We see them pull up in the taxi... leisurely stroll to the smoking area and light up. My husband is blue in the face.
We spend the next 15 minutes RUNNING through the airport, security and onto the plane. We didnt stop running.
While in Barcelona, we spent a lot of time outdoors waiting for them to finish smoking before we could go into museums and such. Moral of the story. Dont go on holiday with chain smokers. lol
Sound like Chevy Chace could have planned your trip;) I think that those times where things went wrong make the best holiday stories and best memories - well, when no one get hurt.
ReplyDeleteHaha! Yep, a perfect Chevy Chase scenario. :D Karen, how awful! I hate it when people are inaccurate/incomplete with information like that. That's pretty inept. So glad you were able to turn it into a spur-of-the-moment save.
ReplyDeleteHi all! We flew to Vegas, rented a car. I heard the guy say "you are signing you know the car has 1/4 tank of gas", but hubby didn't. We noticed problems with the gages. Drove to a community about 1 hr away from our hotel. Needless to say, we ran out of gas about 20 mins from the hotel.
ReplyDeleteIn the Desert, In the Dark, on the side of the freeway, Hubby and I All Alone, with snakes, for 70 mins!!!!
Now, we always check the gas gage before leaving home, hotel, etc!
Take care, Leslie
We went to San Diego when the kids were little. Their little bodies were waking up at normal East coast time. What to do when the parks don't open for another 3 or 4 hours? We went to the beach one morning to stick our toes in the Pacific Ocean. Another morning, we walked across the border into Mexico, bought a sombrero and walked back across with the day workers. The downside was that Pete fell asleep during dinner two nights in a row!
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 80's, when the kids were 6,8 and 10, we took a driving trip throughout the southwest. We didn't realize we had only one cassette tape in the car....Patsy Cline's greatest hits. It never occurred to us to buy more tapes along the way.....so it became the 1,400 mile Patsy Cline Vacation! The kids still talk about it! lol
ReplyDeleteMy story is too long to write here,but you have sparked me to tell it on my blog. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteIt is similar to yours in that we ended up at Walt Disney World...but we were from California and started our vacation in the Cayman Islands!
WOW! WOW! WOW!!! OK, I vote you the best mom ever!...a little touched maybe, but AWESOME just the same! Disneyworld is by far my favorite vacation spot...but years ago a friend came over one night to visit and we started talking about wanting to go to Six Flags (in Texas...about 9 hours away) It went from wishing to running all over town to different "anytime tellers" pulling out $200 from each...and then driving all night long to get there, spent the day and drove back that night. EXHAUSTED but HAPPY!
ReplyDeleteMy hubby and I planned a stay at Lake Tahoe with two of our children - 12 & 13 yr old girls. Wasn't a thing for them to do there and they were really bored - read in the Sunday paper that the CA St Fair was opening in Sacremento so change of plans - drove there, got a room at local Howard Johnson (poolside) and spent 3 fun filled days at the fair. We were from AK at the time, and my children had only experienced the AK ST Fair - quite a difference I tell ya....great memories.
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous memory you created!! Love the story! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteOh my word I love that story! How fun was that...thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI took my youngest son to Texas over spring break this year. I wanted him to see "real" cowboys so I took him to Bandara, Texas...the cowboy capital of the world. Not a cowboy in sight. I saw a diner with a few cops so I went in and told them that we had come all the way from OH so I wasn't leaving until my son could see a "real" cowboy and could they point to a field or barn or anywhere they thought one might be working so I could take him. Yep....we got to meet some "real" cowboys that day and had a ball.
Thanks for the fun story!
Smiles,
Kelly
Man you brought back the memories today. We would get in the car to go for a "drive" and we never knew where we would wind up. Once we drove from Utah to Rock Springs, not much there so turned around and made it to almost the Utah boarder and decided we were to tired lets get a room. Well we didn't even have a toothbrush! So leave the kids at the hotel and ran to WalMart. Got swimming stuff, toothbrushes, food snacks and such and headed back. Well DH missed the exit to our hotel! We were forced to go into Utah and turn around and head back to Evenston. All the way I was crying we left our children in another state they're gonna take them away from us. Needless to say the kids were fine, and excited to go swimming and wondered why we were gone so long. LOL
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Vicki
Oh my, I think every vacation we take has a “story”! A good one was the year of the 3 back-to-back hurricanes. We were going on a Disney cruise – the hurricane was coming and our flight from Philly got cancelled. I didn’t care, we were going on that cruise! We threw all of our stuff in the car and made our way to Florida – at one point it was us and all of the emergency vehicles on 95 heading into FLA when everyone else was heading out….
ReplyDelete…almost ran out us gas before we got to WDW because no stations could pump (until we drove through that magic Welcome to WDW arch – Disney had gas!)
…had lunch on the sidewalk in Deland at a bar that was grilling all the food they were unable to keep cold (and using the restroom in the dark bar)
…cruise, leaving 3 days late, moved port from Canaveral to Ft. Lauderdale – had to bus everyone from WDW
…WDW forgot to put our luggage on the bus – so no luggage until the last day of the cruise!
…on the long drive home we tried to stop overnight in VA – no hotels rooms to be had because NASCAR was in town, so drove straight thru 18+ hours.
BUT, we made it on that cruise!!!
Then, there was the time we were going to Scotland for my FILs funeral and found out my daughter's passport had expired - as we were boarding the plane - Yikes!
Back in 2000 Hubby and I did a "why not?!?!" moment and the next day took our (then daughters (6 & 7 at the time) to Disneyworld. It was such a sweet surprise for them too cause we loaded them up in the car and told them that we were going to a big flea market in Orlando (we happened to live a couple hours away at the time)...when we drove up to the the big arch that welcomes you to Disney I asked the girls to look and read it to us...The cheers and excitement and great day that followed will live with me forever. One of the highlights of the day was seeing my 6 yr old's face when she saw Cinderella's castle was REAL! It brought tears to my eyes, the happiness she felt. And we did it all on $300! (We didn't spend money in the shops...except at the end of the day for 1 souvenir each to remember the day.)
ReplyDeleteNow, you are an awesome Mom! Not giving up when everything was all blocked against you and splurging the way you did for a moment with your girls like that. Disney was the best choice in the long run (by far!) even if it put you out a couple grand....I would say it worth it.
Yes every vacation does have a story! I will never forget when we went to Disney World and met Mickey Mouse. Nathan was ready to go home after meeting Mickey--we had only been there an hour! We did talk him into staying longer.
ReplyDeletesounds like you need a vacation from vacation. lol
ReplyDelete