In the beginning of the summer, Trav’s sister, Krishna, got married to Jeff in Siesta Key, Florida. A group of us (which included my whole family) decided to make it our summer vacation. After I coordinated nine flights from three cities over two days to get everyone there before the wedding, I thought about changing careers to a travel agent. The wedding weekend was beautiful and oh so much fun! The band was rocking and the dance floor was full! It was an outdoor wedding on the beach followed by a reception and band under a tent at a resort. Aside from an early blast of rain, the weather was perfect. To be honest, that whole first weekend was perfect. The shenanigans didn’t begin until we moved up to the north side of the island for our week vacation. 

We did not rent a car for this vacation, because what could we rent that could hold nine people. Besides, there are plenty of ride options around Siesta Key, including a free trolly that runs the island the entire day. There are also some “free” ride shares that work on tips. We quickly learned that once you tip well when coming from a rental house, they are very speedy about getting a ride out to you. Krish and Jeff managed to get into their rental house early, so we coordinated a combination of rides (thank you Ken and Mel) for our crew with friends and family and the trolley to move to the village, as it is called locally. We dumped all our stuff at Krish and Jeff’s place and went to explore the village while we waited to get into our unit. A couple hours later, we moved all our stuff two doors down to our place. By this time, our kids were scattered like the wind, so we sent a message to let them know that we were in the unit and that Trav and I were going to the beach. Like many beachy rentals, there were multiple units in a confusing layout, as the unit was divided from the original grand mansion that it once was. There was also an entirely separate house. When a group of the kids came back, they guessed the wrong house (all were the same address and not marked very well), and Tayden walked into another family’s rental. I try to imagine this family’s surprise when Tayden just walks into their place. That family left the next day, so I never got to joke with them about their new, adopted 20 year old son. I guess he got pretty far in before he encountered the family, so there’s that. He apologized awkwardly, turned around, and walked out. I was worried that we scared them away, but another family moved in the next day, so I’m sure it was rented that way.

After we settled in for a bit, we assigned the sleeping arrangements, which included Tessa and Nick sleeping in a pull-out in the living room. When we went to set it up that first night, it had a considerable slope to it. I told them that Grandma Clare always said to put the mattress on the floor to sleep. They opted to leave it as it was, until Tessa woke up the next morning in a heap at the bottom of the mattress, after losing her night long battle with the bed slope. So, they moved it to the floor for the next night. But the morning after they slept on the floor, we found three cockroaches in three separate locations around the living room. Of course, in Florida they call them palmettos to make them sound more appealing, since they are apparently everywhere down there, but we all know that they are just 4 inch long cockroaches. We killed two of them (the third got away), which was disgusting, since they are huge. We all had the shivers, and not good shivers. So, Nick and Tessa went back up on the ski hill bed and off the floor, which was abandoned to the palmettos. We adjusted the bed with several flip flops to make it more level. There were also house lizards, but we actually liked them and adopted them as pets for the week.

One morning, we woke up and the house was swampy, even though the AC was working. We decided to turn off the AC to see if the unit froze up. That was a really HOT day in the house (hello beach), but the AC thawed and worked fine the rest of the time. 

Another day, one of our neighbors went out on the ocean with a kite and a board. He was quite good, but a storm rolled in quickly and he had to release the kite and chase it down, abandoning the board in the water. Tessa, Tayden, and I decided to retrieve his board, as we were friendly with them. I never thought much about drowning, since I am an excellent swimmer, but trying to haul that board in while the ocean swirled around us had me considering my options. I figured I could abandon the board and haul in one kid, but not both. Fortunately, we managed to get the board in, but that was actually scary! Lucky for me, my kids are pretty good swimmers too.

In the end, we had a great trip. It’s nice to think about that trip now that everyone is back at their school year endeavors… until next year, when we maybe try another vacation together. Have a great week everyone. And remember, we have cold winters for a reason, palmetto control. YUK!