Vacation

Do you kids remember that old song "Vacation" by the Go-Go's?  I know that song may seem ancient to you, but it was pretty popular in all those 90's movies/tv shows I spent my summers watching on TV.  That song pretty much highlighted the two weeks of my family vacation that I took with your aunt, uncle, and grandparents- my immediate family.  Those two weeks were a ton of fun because I went down to Georgia to visit the family.  We started off in downtown Atlanta, but that didn't end well because of the ever increasing traffic and wrecks.  That's how I didn't become an Emory Eagle.  When we finally got out of Atlanta and into Snellville where my cousins were, we went shopping, swimming, and even tubing down the Chattahoochee River.  We also went to go see the movie Brave in theaters.  Kids, one piece of advice, you're never too old to go see a Disney or Pixar movie in theaters.  I had a whole lot of fun hanging out with your cousins and we even ended up in some crazy situations.  We had gone to go swimming down the street in the neighborhood pool, when the severe thunderstorm warnings came on the television.  When we looked outside, there wasn't a cloud in sight so we dismissed this warning (silly us).  We headed to the pool, which was about ten minutes away and by the time we got there, there was so much rain that we couldn't see the road.  Instead of blindly making our way back to the house, we decided to wait out the storm in your Aunt Sam's little Honda Civic.  We just chilled and listened to Country music as the rain continued to beat on the windshield and after about two hours, the storm finally passed.  Family vacations are always the best to go on because the kids don't have to worry about paying and you get to spend your time annoy your parents.  Or at least that's what our family seems to do- kids don't get any ideas.  After our week in Georgia, we trekked back to South Carolina to spend the 4th of July hanging out with our neighbors.  Your grandpa, my dad, came to pick us up to take us back home, but the car wasn't going to make that easy.  The little Honda decided to overheat and refused to start.  Dad had to call our neighbors to drive two hours to pick us up so that we could get home in time to celebrate the 4th.  Luckily, we have the nicest neighbors ever and they came to rescue us.  Here's another lesson kids- be nice to everyone you meet because you may never know when you might need to call upon a helping hand.  After we celebrated the 4th at home, I left for another family vacation, but this time it was only with my sister, brother, mom, and dad and we headed North to Maggie Valley, NC.  We stayed in a cottage up there and traveled to West Carolina to go whitewater rafting down the Nantahalla River.  We ended up getting kicked out of our cottage early due to miscommunication so we had to pack all our stuff in the van and take a road trip to Gatlinburg, TN.  Kids, just so you know for the future, miscommunication is the leading cause of death of relationships.  In Gatlinburg, we toured the city looking for something to do and finally settled on an aquarium visit.  After that we headed to Asheville, NC just for the heck of it and ate dinner at the Wild Wing Cafe.  We then traveled back to South Carolina where the roads were familiar and the feeling of home was present.  That, my dear kids, is why I didn't become a Boston College Eagle, a Rice Owl, a Wash U Bear, or a Notre Dame Leprechaun; I loved South Carolina and my home too much that I couldn't bear to leave it.