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Turtle Tales
by Carol Breidenbach
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
30 October 2001
Have you ever tried to get your whole family together for a week? In
late March, we started making serious plans for our family vacation. This
was to be the first time in fourteen years that our family had gone on
vacation together. To coordinate the schedules of eight working adults and
one school age child seemed an insurmountable task. We also needed a
beach house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina that would be
affordable, available, and large enough to accommodate all of us.
After days of emailing everybody to check dates and surfing the web to
find a beach house, I gave up! In frustration, I delegated the task to
my oldest daughter, Angela. She has a lot more experience in this area.
The next week she called, "The good news is that I found a beach house in
your price range that is available. The bad news is that everybody but you
and Dad have to sleep in bunk beds". Okay, okay, the price I am willing
to pay is going up. Just do it, I don't care what it cost!
This reminded me of the time I had gone prom-dress shopping with the same
daughter. I reached a point where I wanted it to be over with so bad that
I was willing to pay anything for a dress just to avoid another mall.
Being the oldest sibling, she took it upon herself to make up rules for
the week long gathering. The following is an excerpt from her email to all
of us: "Once we get to the Outer Banks we can make a trip to the grocery
store to buy whatever people would like to eat. For planning purposes,
Mom's Diner will have very limited service during the week. Apparently the
head chef is taking a vacation. Consequently we can't rely on Mom for all
of our meals. Everyone is on their own for breakfast and lunch. For
dinner we can split up who is cooking and cleaning up each night once we
get to the house. Bring any snacks that you would like.
We want this to be a relaxing and enjoyable vacation for everyone,
especially Mom & Dad. Mom always says everything is off the record, but
let's not forget that she writes a newspaper column. I think we would
all like it to be a great column as opposed to one that means we can never
visit Wauseon again! I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and
enjoying the Outer Banks together! See you soon! Love, Angela."
Everyone arrived safely and we had an absolutely wonderful time. Our
schedule was completely relaxed and people came and went as they pleased.
We marveled at sunrises and sunsets on the ocean. Everyone splashed in
the surf to the point of exhaustion. Our sand castles were award winning.
We explored the lighthouses in the area and most of us even managed to
climb the stairs to the top of one. Chip caught and cooked crabs for us.
We got to feed turtles in the bay.
Best of all we spent time catching up on each other's lives and cherishing
time with a grandson and nephew that we see too little of. Thanks to the
photography skills of our son-in-law, Robert, we now have great new family
pictures. Our last family picture was taken in 1991!
The house provided enough space to accommodate everyone well. Thanks to
Angela's throwing out the budget, we even had a hot tub, which was enjoyed
by all. Everybody pitched in with meal preparation, clean-up and laundry.
The only real slacker on the trip was mom. Sometimes, she didn't do her
share of clean up.
A very wise person, Rev. John Shanahan, told Lenny and I when we were
newlyweds that it is important to spend time and money creating family
memories. In light of the things that have happened in our nation these
last few weeks, we are very thankful that we followed his advice.
I had hoped we would get tired of each other after a week together and the
good-byes would be easy. No so. Our grandson said it best, "Grandma, I
really liked living here in this beach house with everybody and I really
don't want to go home". I know how you feel Zachary.
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