Family Vacation

Gemma Young

Ms. Boyle

Honors Literature and Composition

November 16, 2011

                                                     Family Vacation

It’s winter vacation, the perfect time for a family to spend quality time together.  And what better way to do it than to go on an actual vacation, away from the bitter 10-degree weather and the constant accidents on black ice ending in bruised bums. The kids are out of school, the parents are on a two-week break with pay, and the cost of the trip is not a problem because everyone wants some sort of luxury that is not being given to them at home. Luxuries such as nonalcoholic fruit drinks with tiny umbrella decorations for the kiddies and massages on the white sand beaches for mum and her sister.       

So on the day that we’ve all been waiting for, the whole motley crew piles into the car and we make our way to the airport leaving our cats with the house to themselves, 6 bowls of food, 3 clean litter boxes, and a Pyrex pan, big enough to cook a turkey in, filled with water.

Five minutes into the car ride and big brother and mum are already bickering about which exit to take and who is driving back on the way home. Cousin and I have given up on trying to make peace with the two in the front seat and have now started a back scratching chain in the trunk while little brother catches up on sleep and blasts DJ Shadow through the headphones I’d given him a week earlier. Auntie curls up with the map upside down as she tires to find where we are to help end the nonsense in the front. As we near the airport, bladders full and legs cramped, we find ourselves in the American Airlines parking lot, ready to unload the over packed suitcases out of the car and back onto a luggage cart with old gum stuck to the handle and one or two loose wheels. Here we are, now standing in a line with 8 open registers and 2 people working as we move our 40 pound suitcases three feet every five minutes.

Finally. The most exciting part of the whole airport experience, security. As I am taking off my shoes, big brother jokingly whispers in my ear that I should watch out for the Leatherman he hid in my makeup bag, I chuckle and punch him playfully. I look at little brother as he takes off his sterling silver cuff bracelet, I can tell by the look on his face, he is very concerned how the workers will handle his brand new Mac Book Pro. Mum is at the front of the line with a constant eye role as it takes all three of us to get through security. Cousin, however, is further back in the line because she just had to stop to get a free coffee sample with the perfect amount of whip cream. However, Auntie is right behind me still getting checked, she had forgotten about her belt, then her hair clip, and for a while refused to walk barefoot on the airport floor, so getting through the scanner was quite a process.

Just when we think that it is a time to relax a little bit, Seabiscuit (mum) makes a run for the gate, not that we have two hours before the plane takes off or anything. As big brother, who has the second fastest legs in the family, tries to catch up with mum, little brother, auntie, cousin and I take it nice and slow all the mile and a half down to gate e63.

As it turns out, after mum hogging the tickets for and hour and a half (“to keep them safe”) we get our tickets and we see that we are not all sitting in one place. It is probably for the best though, seeing as if we were all sitting together, we would have been the biggest safety hazard on the plane.

Family vacation is a time when, if you’re lucky enough, you get to spend with the people you love doing something really fun and worth a lot of memories. Sometimes the most interesting part of the vacation could even be the trip there.

So, as we make our way through the isle, big brother and little brother are fighting about who’s getting the window seat, cousin and I are debating what movie to watch, and mum and auntie are already half asleep getting to there seat.

Despite all the crankiness, and all the stress of the airport, and the feud of who gets what and who goes where on the plane, we all find ourselves fast asleep as we take off for our wonderful family vacation.