“Does anyone remember where we parked the car?”
We had just finished eating delicious Cuban sandwiches and had walked back to our rental car…only to find that the grey mini van in front of us was not our rental car and nobody could remember where we had parked.
There were many suggestions for locating the car.
“I think it’s around the corner, across the street from the Sushi place.”
“It should be to the right of the light house.”
“No! It’s to the left.”
“Let’s split up and search.”
“Let’s stay together!”
“I don’t remember any of these streets!”
This was the first family vacation with all six of us – my parents, sister, brother-in-law, my husband,and myself and naturally something had to go wrong. This vacation was baptism by fire for my husband because it was his first time traveling with my family. My brother-in-law had already experienced the craziness of our family a few years ago when we traveled to London over Thanksgiving. I had warned my husband about my family, but nothing quite prepares you like the live experience.
When you’re growing up you don’t realize how quirky your family is and that many of the things you consider normal are not really normal. Most think a vacation at Key West will be spent soaking up the sun on the beach, but that’s because they don’t know my family. We did not swim or spend time at the beach, but we did visit many museums and historical sites.
My parents, sister and I all enjoy visiting museums…the boys are not quite as enthusiastic. We had already visited the Ernest Hemingway Home and were planning to see the Little White House, Audubon House & Tropical Gardens, and more (museums that is) when the car situation happened.
I suppose losing our cars in parking lots runs in the family. Our great aunt often lost her car in the mall parking garage and once had to be driven around by a security guard in a golf cart to finally locate her car. This story was recounted at numerous family gatherings.
After thirty minutes of traipsing around the same six blocks of Key West searching for the car, we decided followed my husband’s suggestion to “Go back to to the Ernest Hemingway House and retrace our steps” and finally found the car.
Sometimes reality is more ludicrous than fiction. You can’t make this stuff up. At least those Cuban sandwiches were worth it!
Welcome to the family!
A Lively Fancy 