Our “Vacation”

I’ve decided to write this post, not because I want to remember any of it, but because I’m thinking one day I might find this post and think it’s funny. Right now it’s too soon for any of us to laugh about, but one day, maybe.

We booked a really short 3 night getaway to Ocean City shortly after returning from our South Carolina trip. We decided that the trip to SC was nice, but not really a “vacation”, so we thought we’d just take a trip to the beach for a couple days. We knew the kids would love it, and we couldn’t wait to see what Harper would make of the sand and waves.

We arrived at the Princess Royale Thursday afternoon, and although we were a bit early, they had our room ready for us. The room was decent, but I was concerned about the 6 of sharing such close quarters simply because Harper doesn’t have the best track record for sleeping outside of the comfort of his own bed. I just kept thinking that if he decided he wasn’t going to sleep in his port-a-crib we were going to be screwed because he’d keep everyone up with his crying and carrying on. But, I didn’t want to complain, so I just shrugged my shoulders and decided right then to make the most of it.

After unpacking a little, we all walked down to the water and give Harper a brief introduction. The water was quite cold, so Tony just held Harper out so his feet could touch the waves, and he just loved it! Every time the water would hit his feet he’d scream with delight! Since it was getting close to 5pm when we got back in our room we thought we should figure out what we were going to do for dinner. We found a flyer advertising a “Family Fun Night Buffet” right down in the restaurant of our hotel, so we decided that was a great idea since we wouldn’t have to leave the hotel and they would have kid friendly food.

The buffet had pizza, hot dogs, chicken tenders and a few other kids friendly foods, but it also had a pasta salad and garden salad for the adults. As we walked up to the buffet we couldn’t help but think that the food didn’t look all that good, but it was a buffet after all. So, everyone got a little to eat, and we went on our way.

The hotel was having a kids movie night, and while they normally do the movie out on the beach, that night was too windy so they were holding it in their indoor pool area. Landon was dying to see the movie (Megamind) and Zoe was sweet and said she’d take him to see it. Harper was already in bed for the night so Mema volunteered to watch Harper while Tony and I went for a walk along the beach. It was a gorgeous night, and we took a nice walk before finally heading back. When we got back to the room the kids were there so we asked what was going on and Landon informed us that he wasn’t feeling well.

I, of course, told him he should go sit on the toilet and see if that would help. He told me it wasn’t that kind of stomach ache, but he did anyways. When he came back he said nothing happened, but he still wasn’t feeling well, so I figured it was just a slight stomach ache, nothing to worry about…and then I realized that my stomach was feeling a little achy as well.

As we were all getting ready to brush our teeth and turn in for the night, Landon came rushing into the bathroom saying he thought he was going to get sick. And sick he was. For hours and hours. All night to be exact, and even into the next afternoon. I won’t give too much detail here, as I’m sure you can imagine it for yourself, but I will just say that it was like a domino effect from there. First Landon, then myself, then Tony’s mom, then Tony and finally Zoe. Zoe didn’t really start feeling badly until the following morning, so she didn’t have to fight for her spot in the single bathroom we were sharing that night, lucky girl.

While all of us were busy being miserable and sick, Harper decided that he was in fact, not going to be sleeping in some stupid port-a-crib. He woke up around 11pm and stayed awake, unhappy and crying until about 3:30am when he finally just collapsed. I’m sure he sensed that something was wrong, but I wish he would have sensed how much it would have helped if he would have just slept through it all!

The next morning was only marginally better as I was still unable to get out of bed and Zoe was only beginning to have her turn. Tony and Landon were feeling better and Mema was feeling better than before so they decided to take a walk down to the beach with the baby. Landon was so excited to get down there, so when he came back to the room only 20 minutes later I figured something was up. Apparently they all thought they were feeling better than they actually were and noone could stand getting in the freezing water! So, they all ended up coming back to the room and that’s when I decided we should go talk to the hotel management about getting our money back. (My mother-in-law spoke with the restaurant manager while I was asleep, and he told her that he hadn’t gotten any other complaints about the food. I think he might have been full of shit or people didn’t report it because they didn’t realize they had food poisoning. We have no doubt that it was food poisoning since we all ate the same foods and were all sick only hours afterwards.) After explaining to the hotel manager that we weren’t even able to leave our room because we were so ill he decided to let us out of our three night obligation. We only ended up paying for the night we were there and we paid a fee for using the room for the large part of the day (we checked out close to 6pm). We thought that they were very kind for giving us a break, but once we got back to the room and started packing I realized what a nightmare it was going to be to get out of there! Myself, Mema, Tony and Zoe were all still feeling awful and yet we had to pack our crap up and then drive 2 1/2 hours home. It was like punishment for stuff I haven’t even done yet! It was just so awful!

We did get everything out of that room in a hurry though, and we were home in almost 2 hours flat. Harper slept the whole way home and only woke up long enough to get his diaper and nighties on. He didn’t wake until about 3am for a little milk then he was back to sleep until 7am. I suppose he just likes to sleep in his own bed, and really, I can’t blame him for that. It doesn’t make traveling any fun, but I can certainly understand his need for the comforts of home.

Since we’ve been home everyone has started feeling much better. Of course. I know my kids are disappointed that they didn’t get to enjoy the beach at all, but it just didn’t seem like a good idea to stay and see what happened.

If you’re still here, thanks for reading all about our crazy, awful “vacation”. I sincerely hope you never have one like it.

Here are a couple of pictures I have from the 20 minutes Tony and his mom took the boys down to the water.