The best part of the vacation was having 3.5 bathrooms in the house. A few years ago, when we were family vacationing in Port Aransas, most of us caught a stomach bug that had us bowing over the toilet every half hour or so. Even worse, the house we were staying in only had one bathroom. Orderly rotations for bathroom use just don't work when that many people are sick in one place.
Fortunately, this time, no one got sick, and if they had, plenty of bathrooms would have been available.
The house we stayed on was right on the beach, so every morning when I woke up, I could see watch the waves through the window by my bed. Make that sofa bed, actually.
Up until last week, I hadn't slept on a pull-out sofa bed in several years. Generally, if I'm given a choice, I prefer to sleep on the floor. After sleeping on that sofa bed and refreshing my memory, I was reminded why. I'm not sure who invented sofa beds or who made the particular one that I was using last week, but they apparently thought I needed an iron bar to run across my back and shoulder blades. You know, just in case my back was in danger of being comfortable.
Aside from the bed, my vacation was nothing short of relaxing. My oldest sister and I did provide some nail-biting moments for the rest of my family, though, as we zeroed in and won our family's first annual Pinochle tournament.
Those with the last name Kezar or who have married into the Kezar family know the rules of Pinochle. For those of you who aren't so privileged, I can't really explain how the game works. I vaguely know how to play myself, and am generally known as a non-aggressive partaker of the game, which makes me last pick for a partner. My oldest sister is the same way. We were stacked as the underdogs in the tournament, so we felt completely justified in screaming and jumping up and down when we beat our parents, who pretty much play telepathically, my brothers-in-law, who play with a lot of testosterone, and my other two sisters, who play with a lot of - well - testosterone, I think.
All I can say is, that plastic trophy may have cost my brother-in-law four bucks, but its worth its weight in gold to me.
But winning the Pinochle tournament wasn't the best part of the trip. Neither was scuba diving, snorkeling, being stalked by a remora (a type of sucker fish), watching the antics of a pod of dolphins, running on sand so clean it squeaked under my feet or stuffing myself beyond good sense with crab at the Crab Trap. Though, come to think of it, those were highlights.
No, the real peak of the trip was spending time with my family. Three bathrooms or none, couch sofa beds or memory foam mattresses, we are and always will be a tight bunch. While this means I'll never be able to take a shower in peace, it also means that I have 10 people to call at any time, day or night, for help, support or love. And we can put up with each other for seven consecutive days in close quarters. Not every family can say that.
So, back here in Texas, now a slightly off-white color because my freckles are starting to merge together a little after so much time in the sun, I'm settling back down into the routine of work and everyday life. And my family is already planning our vacation for next year. As for me, I'm just hoping Vacation 2013 brings me a real bed.
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| Shannon (right) and I on the boardwalk near Crab Island. |
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