A Vacation Gone Wrong

7/28/20

Dear Diary,

I am so excited about vacation next week! Mom promised a nice beach and Dad promised to bring our bikes, so we’re going to have tons of fun! As long as Willie and Benny behave. I wish I could have convinced Mom to leave them home and have just her, me, and Dad go on vacation—just the three of us. That would have been nice. Sigh. Oh well. At least Alicia’s coming too. We’re going to have so much fun together! I can’t wait!

7/31/20

Dear Diary,

I am SO ready for vacation. Work today was AWFUL! You know those days where everything seems to be going wrong and you wish you could do better but there’s nothing you can do about it? Today was like that, only worse. My boss kept yelling at me for no reason, and I spilled my coffee on my new skirt. Shelly decided to avoid me all day and I’ve no idea why. I was stuck working with Ryan at the counter, who doesn’t know when to stop talking, and I messed up three customers’ orders. I can’t wait to get away next week!

8/4/20

Dear Diary,

It’s almost here! Today we are starting to pack, though I don’t know why. We’re only going to be away for a few days, yet Mom insists on bringing basically her entire closet plus the kitchen with her. Geeze. Give me a baseball cap and a swimsuit and I’ll be fine. I keep telling her to calm down, that we can just have pb and j for every meal. Though I suppose I’d be sick of it after a while. Oh shoot! I forgot I was supposed to stop at the store and get more sunscreen. Uh oh. Better go do that before Mom has another “heart attack” while packing.

8/6/20

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is almost here! I wanted to write really quick before going to bed, cause I am so tired. Mom kept me busy packing literally ALL DAY with hardly a break to sit down, and then Dad needed help loading the bikes on the rack. The spare moments in between were spent chasing down Willie and Benny, trying to convince them to pack their clothes while attempting to save the furniture from total destruction by nerf weapons. But I can put all that behind me. Because tomorrow, we’re starting fresh. Alicia’s coming at 7:00am, and then we’ll hit the road. Vacation, here I come!

8/7/20

Dear Diary,

Well, first day at the cottage went well, I suppose. When we arrived, I was shocked at the size of it. I though it was going to be some tiny little shack in the middle of nowhere, but it’s this huge, well-furnished almost-mansion tucked in the woods with a personal beach in the backyard. There’s a firepit and picnic table out back so we can roast hot dogs and s’mores. There’s four bedrooms, enough for everyone to have their own room. And a fully stocked kitchen, which was a relief for Mom. After unpacking, Alicia and I hit the trails on our bikes while the twins went swimming. It was hot! But guess what? We saw a bear and three deer! Thankfully, they didn’t attack us. I don’t know what we would have done if they did. Anyway, it was a nice day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow to come so we can do it all again! Maybe we’ll go swimming too. Oh, I forgot to mention, there was something strange today. About mid-afternoon, right after Alicia and I got back from our bike ride, some construction guys showed up and said they needed to repave the long driveway leading to our cottage. Guess the State Park decided gravel wasn’t nice enough and wanted to replace it with asphalt. Whatever. Downside is, we can’t drive on it tomorrow while we wait for the asphalt to dry. Guess Dad’ll get some practice in off-roading! Ha ha. Shouldn’t be that big of a problem though. I plan on spending all of my time outside either riding my bike or swimming at the beach.

8/8/20

Dear Diary,

Where do I even start? I never thought things could go this wrong in less than a day! I mean, it was supposed to be a perfect vacation, and this day was a mess! I woke up with the sunrise and sighed in bed while listening to the birds chirp. For about two seconds. Then the groaning of the construction trucks blocked out all of nature’s soothing sounds. Peeking out the window, I saw the workers were already preparing to lay down the asphalt. They had dug a ditch by the driveway, and there was dirt everywhere. Pretty ugly, if you ask me, but I guess they had to do it. Blissfully ignorant of the horror that was awaiting me, I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I turned on the faucet and…nothing. No water came out. No steady stream, no trickle, no drops. Nothing. Running into the kitchen, I tried the sink in there. The same thing. Now, I’m normally pretty chill, but this kind of freaked me out. A lot. After waking up everyone else in the house (due to my screams, I’m embarrassed to admit), I begged Dad to fix the problem. I mean, how was I supposed to brush my teeth or wash my hands or do ANYTHING without water? He called the park ranger, who then talked to the maintenance guys, who then talked to the construction workers. Long story short, the trucks broke our water line. They said it would only take an hour to fix, but our water was out ALL DAY! To make matters worse, the construction workers had to re-do part of the asphalt driveway, so we couldn’t drive on it at all today and probably won’t be able to tomorrow either. What kind of a vacation is this? No driveway, no water. With our luck, the electricity will be out tomorrow. I mean, I know we’re technically camping, but we’re also staying in a cottage! I wasn’t planning on LITERALLY roughing it! Tomorrow I’m just going to get up and get outside as fast as I can. Maybe if I just stay away from the cottage, nice as it is, all day, I can forget about these troubles and actually TRY to have a nice time.

8/9/20

Dear Diary,

You know how I said last night that I wanted today to be as “normal” as possible (whatever normal means anymore)? I tried, I really tried. I got up, grabbed a bagel for breakfast, and went on a bike ride with Alicia before the sun got too hot. Yeah, I know, you’re probably wondering, “Where did I get water to bring on the ride?” How do you know I brought water? Ha ha, I’m just kidding. Of course I brought water! Anyway, the park was kind enough to give us a huge case of bottled water to use while our water is out, so I just grabbed a few of those. Back to today, though. I thought if I rode and then went swimming, I’d stay far away from the cottage and avoid all the problems. But of course, once the bike ride was done, I was hot and sweaty and just wanted to shower. Well, couldn’t do that, so I changed into my bathing suit and went to cool off in the lake. Except, the lake water was WARM! I thought all lakes, rivers, and oceans are normally cold! But for some reason, this water was warm. So, I couldn’t cool off. SO annoying! But it did help a bit to refresh after the bike ride. I splashed around with Alicia and the twins, happily ignoring the “water issue” at the cottage and hoping against hope that it would be back on when we finished. It wasn’t. So now I was hot, sweaty, AND soaking wet from the lake. Which, in my mind, wasn’t the cleanest water either. So I was dirty too. Still, I attempted to make the best of it. Back at the cottage, we had a fire and roasted s’mores. The delicious melted chocolate and oozing marshmallow were so good! I’m ashamed to admit I ate more than I should have. But, in my defense, I was hungry after my physical exertions of the day (aka bike ride and swimming, remember?). Now I’m sitting outside in my stiff, dry swimsuit, watching the sunset. Maybe the water will still turn back on today and I can shower before bed. If not, I guess the sheets will become as dirty as I feel right now. I am so excited to get home tomorrow so I can wash away all this grime!

8/10/20

Dear Diary,

Well, our vacation is done! I don’t know whether to say I’m sad or glad. At the very least, it was an adventure. Not surprisingly, I took a good, long shower as soon as we got home this afternoon. That reminded me how glad I am to live in the city, with reliable water and electricity and every other modern convenience. Camping is fun, I’ll admit, but I am so glad to be home. Oh, stop laughing at me. I know last week I wrote how excited I was for vacation, but that’s just because I needed a break. This vacation was NOT a break. Ok, fine, I guess it was…sort of. It was a break filled with anxieties. So that doesn’t really count. I guess I’ll admit I had a fun time. But I’m ready for normal life now. Yes, it might be boring, and yes, it might be frustrating, but at least it’s home. I don’t think I’ll be ready to go camping again for a while. Wait? What’s that? NO! A mosquito bite! And another one! One, two three…there’s at least fifteen of them! I DEFINITELY won’t be going camping for a while – there are too many mosquitos! Now I’m going to itch for weeks! Ugh. Oh well; that’s all part of camping, I suppose. You know, when I was out watching the sunset last night, this vacation didn’t seem so bad. Yes, I wasn’t able to shower and wash away yesterday’s grime. Yes, we weren’t able to drive anywhere due to construction. Yes, the vacation wasn’t quite what I expected. But it was still vacation. I guess it wasn’t that bad anyway.