summer vacation, leg two

Summer vacation is not nearly as fun when you don't have summers off anymore. This is my first summer that I've had to work straight through--no school vacation and minimum wage summer job here. It's all traffic and lunch breaks and nine-to-five business.

Phooey. I don't think I ever even believed that regular life carried on when June ended.

On top of that sad reality, this summer vacation opened my eyes to real life. Life where you learn that your family isn't everything your twelve-year-old self thought it was, life where you learn to accept things for what they are, life where you learn to really see what's before you, instead of blinking a lot and pretending you're seeing something else. That's what this summer vacation did for me.

Good, in many ways, and absolutely inevitable. But a bit disheartening, as well.

However, there were many a good thing about this vacation:

Driving in a minivan for over 14 hours collectively, turning drinking games into PG "car ride games" for the little girls (all we had was a bag of Skittles, so "Drink!" turned into "Skittle!"), listening to Virginia's (way more than two) Christian bluegrass radio stations, eating at a Bojangles for the first (and last) time in our lives, dispelling bound-to-come-about feuds brought on by said 14 hours in a minivan, and getting lost in a town off the highway called "The Tulip Town."

Visiting the local YMCA my grandparents belong to and watching the little girls go down the water slides about 469 times, while we waited patiently for "adult swim" and explained to them that it is indeed called "adult swim" and not "parent swim," and that there is, in fact, a difference.

There's not all that much to do at my grandparents' house. Roller blading like a pro takes your mind off of that.

Watching my Nana laugh has got to be one of the best things ever.

Of course, going to a North Carolina beach was definitely on our itinerary, even if I did leave my sunglasses on the front seat of my car at home.

Water towers in the south seem to multiply at alarming speeds the farther south you get.

The above photo exemplifies my goal for the trip: close my eyes and listen to waves. My Nana's gardening hat might not have been part of the plan, but, like I said, I did not remember to check the front seat of my car for left-behind belongings.

Isn't my sister gorgeous?

My grandfather, who we affectionately call Daddy Jim (isn't that strange?), isn't as energetic and involved now as he was when I was little. But when it came time for my little sister and cousin to whip out their fishing poles, he was right beside them to attach their lures and teach them how to cast into the river that runs through their backyard.

While swimming in the creek was totally acceptable fifteen years ago, nowadays it's become so polluted that it's not recommended. But that didn't stop these wild women.

It also didn't stop us from going for a canoe ride (Rachel and I might have lounged in the middle while the little girls paddled us around) and holding on for dear life when boats whizzed past and rocked our little canoe as we tried not to imagine what we'd smell like we were tipped into the murky water.

Alas, Monday rolled around and Rachel and I packed up to head back to our homes for work as the rest of the family stayed behind for another five hot days. (See paragraph #1.) This resulted in a mini-extended vacation, as we had plenty of sister-time in multiple airports, and it didn't involve children or a minivan. Coming home to an empty house was a complete shock from normal life, but this week has gone by awfully slowly.

Mom, you might need to pick up some more ice cream and wine on the way home.