Once Upon a Time

There was a family of six who loved and cherished one another. They sat in an overcrowded Suburban for 15 hours, drove through the night to reach their paradise destination, didn’t argue once, didn’t complain about anything, and then arrived on the beach to frolic happily -- and contentedly -- for seven glorious days.

Or something like that.

This vacation is -- in fact -- pretty darn close to perfect. The kids are old enough now to entertain themselves during the day. Which means, of course, that I am free to sit on the beach drinking White Cran Peach and vodka tumblers of goodness while devouring all the latest novels that I’ve been neglecting over the past few months. (And just for the record, my friends, MANY of those are actually from The Library. Yup. THE LIBRARY. And I haven’t developed any communicable diseases from them... yet.)

In true Beverly Hillbilly fashion, we loaded the kids bikes up on the back of the Suburban, and Chris and I rented two more when we arrived. We’ve been biking all over the island. We biked to the State Park, biked for ice cream, biked for dinner, biked in circles like the Shriners. We’ve been biking fools. On our first full day here, we biked over 12 miles. Yes, there was a bit of complaining, but we soothed our girl’s concerns with a little yelling and a lot of ice cream.

We’ve watched dolphins swimming right outside our windows, we’ve examined jellyfish that washed up on the shore during the night, we’ve eaten oysters. OYSTERS!

We’ve played Scrabble, painted our nails (well, the boys didn’t participate in this little adventure, but I probably could have convinced a couple of them if I’d promised some extra trips to the ice cream store...), watched movies together, thrown the football on the beach, attended Bingo night at the local firehouse.

Our faces are sunburned, the tops of our feet are peeling, and life is good.

Saturday, we’re scheduled for a fishing excursion with Captain Terry. We’ve loaded up on seasick bands and bought a lifetime supply of Dramamine. Jared suggested we “keep our eyes on the horizon,” and Brian requested video footage of the barfing carnage that will most likely ensue. We’re keeping both options open.

I’m ready to walk away from our rumor-addled small town and embrace this kind of life permanently. The problem is, however, that at some point we’d have to work. And the kids would have to go to school. And then we’d just create a new small town life -- one that’s just a bit sandier.

But for now, we’ll enjoy every minute of our vacation. We’ll barf our way through our sea fishing expedition. We’ll play some more high-stakes Scrabble, eat some more ice cream, and enjoy the ride.

And if I can get video footage of Chris on his girly beach bike? I’ll be sure to post it for your viewing pleasure.