Are We At The Beach Yet? Vacation Part 1

Captains Log Friday March 28, 2014

Day 1:

All packed!

Vacation, vacation, vacation! Yeah the beach, the sand, the sun on my face. One week of pure relaxation, right? I would say that “relaxation” is a questionable term when you are talking to a mother preparing to take a family of five out of town for a week. Though, I am a seasoned pro at traveling with kids, I still struggle to get out the door and I don’t think we have ever left the house on schedule. Take this morning for example, our time of departure was set loosely between 6-8:00 am. What time did we actually leave the Toledo area you ask? Well at exactly 1:19 pm we pulled out of the Perrysburg, OH, Panera Bread and onto the highway. Ultimate FAIL... six hours behind schedule and the start to a veryyyyyyy interesting vacation.

It might seem strange to some that we set a time to leave and COULD NOT stick to it. But here’s the thing… I did not want to leave the house a mess, because who wants to come home to a messy house after a nice getaway? So I ended up running around like a crazy person trying to finish packing, cleaning, running that homework assignment that Gabby should have taken in on Thursday out to the school and did I mention that I had to squeeze an appointment in at the vet for our cat, Sophie, to get her nails trimmed? Then as we were loading the car, I caught my breath, hooray we were ready to go!  I walked back in to grab one last bag and by God there was a tube of toothpaste in the middle of the floor with no lid, ooooozing out blue paste onto my dark hard wood floors. Are you freaking kidding me? So as I'm on my hands and knees scrubbing it off, Gabby walks in and says, "Are you ready to go yet?" What went through my head at that moment was a slur of bad words that I will not repeat. Bottom line, maybe if I had tidy children and eight arms, I would have gotten out the door on schedule, realistically those things are figments of my imagination.

Finally, we hit I-75 full force because we were long overdue for some fun in the sun. If you live anywhere in the Midwest, you feel me on this, LONGEST WINTER EVER! My children who are naturally olive skinned and maintain a tan all year long, looked sickly this winter. It's like the Polar Vortex took every single bit of color from our bodies along with all the color from every plant, tree, flower and lawn. Everything has just been WHITE, people included!!! Maybe the cold, snowy winter also froze my children's common sense, because I have never heard them ask the same questions so many times. What questions you may ask? "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?" Usually these questions start midway through the trip, this time they started in the driveway. "We are just as eager as you guys, we will get there as soon as we can!" So with the peddle to the medal and a great song on the radio, we tuned out the kids and set our sights on a halfway point, Nashville, TN.

Did I have a little motivation for getting there? Definitely because it is home to one of my favorite people in the whole world, my bestie Jen! Trust me when I say that this stop was a impromptu (we decided that morning) and that she could not have been more surprised when I snuck up behind her in her living room... creeper alert! Although, I will say that I know she loved every moment of my sneak attack and the look on her face was priceless.

Our first day, although starting out a bit crazy, being filled with endless repetitive questions and leaving me exhausted from the start, ended out on a high note! A great visit and a huge start on our drive to the sunshine state. It's a good thing too because Day 2 was a N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E!

TO BE CONTINUED...