Quality family time AKA vacation from hell

tapshoes · April 22, 2008

About 9 years ago my family went on our last family vacation. It was the last because...well we refer to this trip as the vacation from hell. It started off with all five of us in an RV. (Not a good idea) We pick up the borrowed RV and before we can even get to the interstate a yellow jacket flew in the window into my moms shirt who was driving and stung her three times.

Sadly, that wasn't close to the worst part of the trip. My dad gets stressed out easily so he was a monster in that RV, the RV park that we were at had a messed up sewer line or something so when they went to dump the full sewer tank in the unknown messed up line it shot back up covering my dad. We went to six flags and it was 100,000,000 degrees, I got whiplash on the first ride I rode, my little brother got sick from the heat and threw up...

I find it hard to be in a house with less than five rooms to this day because of that trip. I'm not sure if the five of us have been in the same vehicle since

In honour of ReadySteadyGo's story, I thought we might to relate our best/worst vacation time stories. My example: my mother, my aunt and I were taking a small boat to the islands of St Pierre et Miquelon (in the Atlantic). The North Atlantic ocean is not known for being calm; it is terribly turbulent and cold and unforgiving (think Titanic). It was a small ferry (transporting about 40 people), and it was the tail end of hurricane season, which translates to high winds and waves. However we are hearty seafaring folk. We get onto the ferry, and grab our seats; the boat sets off. Within minutes the crew closes the doors to the top because the waves are too high, and the rain is coming. So, we are indoors, and suddenly are in the highest swells and lowest gulleys we have ever experienced. Looking out the window, one moment you see nothing but Water (higher than the window), then a deadly calm, a falling sensation, and then you hit the water HARD. You realize that the roaring you heard was the engine out of the water; the ocean had dropped leaving the boat in the air, and then the boat followed. Because the doors are closed, the diesel fumes are becoming stronger. Then the passengers one at a time start screaming or vomiting. We are in a little boat, on the worst ride you can imagine, diesel fumes clogging our nostrils, and all around us people are screaming and vomiting. The crew runs out of barf bags, and then my aunt starts moaning "I'm going to die; we are all going to die" over and over and over and over....thanks, way to keep the situation calm, dear Aunt!

An eternity later (2 hours), we land. People stagger off the boat still vomiting and head for a hotel.