The Sun Will Bake Your Brains
Written by MJ Reporter Willow LaMunyon
Usually, when we anticipate an event with the highest of expectations, it is impossible for that event to live up to our dreams. If movies are to be believed, high school proms are a hotbed of disappointment. The biggest, fancy party we were so excited to attend turned out to be when you have a bad hair day, and everybody ignored you.
Three years ago, my family booked a cruise to happen a year later, and we were ready for the best time of our lives. Then COVID came along, and most of the family opted out of the vacation of a lifetime, but my youngest son, Charley, his wife, Karla, and granddaughter Chauntel, stuck it out along with me. I tried to avoid the high expectations trap. After all, I was a cruise veteran with one under my belt already. It didn’t work. I was every bit as excited as my family.
We decided to leave home a day early and drive to Galveston, TX., where we were to board our ship the next day. We were rested and refreshed rather than exhausted from a long drive. Charley warned us that there would be no extra stops, and we would have lunch at a drive-through.
Although my kids and granddaughter are full-grown adults, the mom in me came out full force. I needed to feed my family on our journey, so I brought a box full of snacks. It looked as though I was planning on opening a quick shop. We all learned that a 12-hour drive with no stops was hard on our backs and butts, so we did stop to walk around, fill the gas tank, etc. We also had a nice lunch while my box of snacks remained uneaten except for a few courtesy potato chips.
Chauntel is my mini-me in thinking and ready to be ready for whatever comes along, which means we both had plenty of luggage which included five pairs of shoes each for our 7-day trip.
Our ride was Karla’s truck, but between all our bags and a little room for the kid’s luggage, the back of the truck was full. Chauntel and I had to wrap ourselves around the extra luggage in the back seat. We couldn’t complain because all of it was ours. That unnecessary box of food rubbed my leg the entire way. When we arrived, we discovered our hotel was lovely with a view of the ocean right out the window.
There was time for a delicious Galveston dinner before we went to our room and crashed. A great deal of that beautiful view was lost on us since we went to bed early, and I suspect in our exhaustion, we all snored. At least we didn’t wake one another up, and the next day we were indeed refreshed if not yet relaxed. We had to wait until midafternoon to board the ship and start our big adventure.
We used our extra time to explore the shops and hunt for our very evasive parking garage. It turned out to be wise to find that garage in the morning because we could have easily missed our boat hunting for that hidden place.
The shops were tourist treasures with more souvenirs that had an ocean theme than we thought existed. My mother always got hats for the family, especially to wear on vacation. She kept reminding us that the sun would bake our brains if we didn’t wear those special hats. To honor that memory of mom, I got everyone a hat and reminded them that it was important not to bake their brains.
The day was fun but much too long since we were all anxious to get on our boat for the trip of our lifetimes. I hope you will share our adventure by thinking of your own vacations and maybe even posting a humorous or memorable occurrence in the remarks area.
For now, I am out of space, so I will continue our adventure next Wednesday. Until then, have a great week.