The Tropical Vacation

I am from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. It is nice here, but this winter my family and I decided that in the upcoming summer we were going on a trip to Florida. We get to stay at the beautiful, tropical, and colorful beaches for an entire two weeks. Since I am lucky enough to have a summer birthday my mom, my two brothers and I go on vacation as a family every year around my birthday. I am fifteen, Craig is now eighteen, and Lane is eleven. One of our cousins, Leslie, who is twelve, recently moved closer to us with her family. Over the last year, Leslie and I have strengthened our relationship. I decided to ask mom if Leslie could come with us on this trip and thankfully my mom and Leslie's mom both agreed to let her come. 

The time finally rolled around where we were getting ready to head out for the tropical vacation ahead. The trip would take approximately twenty-one hours, excluding the time spent at stops. Even though we had three potential drivers, we did not leave until Mom got home from work around three o’clock. We decided to stay at a hotel that night. We stopped at a fast food restaurant for dinner near the eastern edge of Arkansas then checked into a hotel. It was around ten o’clock. My favorite part of staying at hotels is always swimming before we go to bed. We all got our swimsuits on and headed straight for the pool. We did not have much time to swim because the pool closed soon, but we still had fun. The next morning we packed up our bags, and right after breakfast, we headed for Florida once again. None of us kids got much sleep that night, so we slept in the car for a couple hours while Mom was driving. 

We finally made it to our resort in Florida. After getting everything gathered up, we brought all our belongings into our rooms. It was a little house with three bedrooms, a living room, and a small kitchen. The boys got one room, Leslie and I had another, and Mom had the last. The first day we did not have much time for anything big, so instead we just went exploring around the water by our resort and went swimming. Soon it became supper time and had started to get chilly, so we went inside and ate. At dinner, we were discussing what we should do tomorrow and decided that we would explore the city, find some elegant restaurants to eat at for the next two weeks, and find some exciting activities we could do together. 

The next morning we headed out. The first thing we did was find a place to eat breakfast. We knew we could not eat too much, because if we did, we would be miserable walking around all day. Our next stop was the mall. Since we all have different interests, we split up. The boys headed to look at games and sporting stores, while us girls went to look at clothes. We made a plan to meet up for lunch at the food court. We had only been separated for about half an hour when we heard an announcement telling everyone to go home immediately because there was a blizzard headed our way. Some people did not believe this, as it was the middle of summer in Florida. We did not rush, but we gathered our things to leave.

A few minutes later, we exited the mall. We did not see the boys anywhere, but we knew the storm was going to get intense quickly, so we needed to hurry back to our resort. Mom figured that Craig knew how to get back to the resort, and keep Lane and himself safe. As we predicted, the storm rapidly began to worsen. Snow was blowing faster than anyone could even imagine. The few trees in town were bending so far over they almost touched the ground. Business owners were letting some people in to stay safe then began boarding up windows and doors. Mom, Leslie and I were holding on to each other as tight as we possibly could trying to make it somewhere safe to hide out from the storm. It soon got to the point that I could not see anything. Not even Mom or Leslie only six inches away from me. The wind was strong and we were dressed for tropical weather, not a snowstorm. We could not hold on any longer and Mom got separated from Leslie and I. When we realized it was just the two of us, we both felt instant fear. What would we do? Would we survive? Are we going to make it back to the resort? What about Craig and Lane? 

At this point we had no idea where we were but we knew we had to get out of the storm. Leslie and I managed to get in a tiny alleyway between two buildings where the snow could not get to us. It was better here, away from the wind, but of course it was still cold as we were only in shorts and t-shirts. We walked away from the street to get further between the two buildings and found three other people hiding out from the storm as well. They did not talk much but I could tell they were kind hearted. They offered Leslie and I a blanket to help keep us warm. The five of us gathered close to keep each other warm with our body heat under the blanket as well. 

The next morning we awoke to a small dog climbing on our blankets. The storm had settled. The dog was shivering. Leslie and I decided to go looking for the rest of our family. The dog followed us through the snow, everywhere we went. We decided to give him a name. Loki, we liked the name and the dog seemed to come when we called him by it. I was a little afraid we would get too close with Loki. We would have to go back home, Mom would not want us to bring him back to Kansas with us, but right then I was just focused on finding my family.

Leslie and I were walking through the town, trying to think of somewhere they could have been. Luckily the snow was compacted so we could walk on top of it without hardly sinking at all. We had been walking for a while. Loki was still right behind us, as he had been since that morning. Leslie faintly heard a voice shouting from a house down the road. She asked if I heard it. We both turned and looked around. Four houses down from where we were standing I saw Lane. We ran as fast as we could to hug each other. I now could relax a little bit knowing that we were reunited. Lane asked us about the dog and we told him his name is Loki and that he had been following us around and we grew a bond with him. Lane has always loved all animals and him and Loki instantly bonded. We followed Lane into a house where he had been staying overnight. As we entered there stood a woman, a man and their son named Kai. Lane told us all about the night he had, staying up late playing games with Kai. Leslie and I got a nice breakfast while at the house then got ready to go searching.

The next journey began. Now that we have all, even Loki, got a nice breakfast and some warmer clothes, we are on our way to find Mom and Craig. It was not too long after searching that we found Craig. We ran to Craig as soon as we realized it was him. He was by himself in an old, closed building. It looked a little scary but it kept him out of the storm. He said he was thankful to be out of the snow and wind but he was pretty hungry. We had brought some extra food with us from Kai’s house that we gave to Craig. Once again after resting for a bit and introducing Craig and Loki we headed out in search for Mom. It was getting later in the day and starting to warm up. 

Craig had said that he saw a small church the previous night that was helping people and maybe Mom had found her way there. We ventured through town and found the church Craig was talking about. We tried to open the front doors but they were boarded shut. We walked around and found a side door, but this time we knocked first. A middle aged man came to the door and asked if we needed help. We told him that we were looking for our mom and think she might be there. He let us in and showed us where all the people were staying. Along the back wall we spotted Mom. We ran up to her and she was obviously extremely happy to see all of us. Again we introduced Loki. Mom had never been the biggest fan of animals but she also grew a bond with Loki. Together we all headed back to the resort that was only a ten minute walk from the church. We ended the trip early and got ready so we could leave for home the next morning. The time had finally come, I had to convince Mom to let us take Loki home. I made a slideshow of reasons he would benefit our family. My hopes were that Mom would realize how much I wanted Loki to come with us. I convinced Craig, Leslie and Lane to also help me present it to mom. After a lot of talking and debating we finally got her on our side. The next morning we loaded up the car and headed home with Loki. The five of us decided we would spend the next summer at home and just enjoy eachothers company.