It has been a while since I vacationed with the family. The next several blog posts are dedicated to capturing the good, bad, and tasty experiences of a week at sea with my father, his girlfriend, my sister and nieces.
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| "I never get to go anywhere," said Roxy, petulantly. |
On the first day of vacation, everything went smoothly. Our
people and their luggage all fit into the van. I won the largest suitcase
competition, but in my defense a guy needs an adequate supply of costume
changes to get through a week at sea. There were a few traffic slowdowns and
one road construction detour in Washington DC that confused the GPS, but other than
that it was a smooth trip from Raleigh to Baltimore.
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| Seaside Crabhouse, which is surprisingly nowhere near the seaside |
After freshening up, we met in the lobby and the desk clerk
gave us directions to a local crab house for dinner. For the most part, I am a bit averse to
interacting too forcefully with my food. In the case of seafood, however, I am
a beast. I am happy to rip a mollusk’s flesh from its shell, to crack the leg
of a succulent crap and dredge the slightly salty flesh through some warm drawn
butter, and peel a pound of sweet steamed shrimp for dipping in a spicy
cocktail sauce. I love seafood, particularly in the summer, so I was more than
delighted to split a seafood steamer pot with Linda. We each had plenty of our
favorites and at the end of the night we had the dirty fingers to prove we had
enjoyed the spread.
Upon returning to the hotel, my niece Kaitlyn and I
immediately curled into our beds and went to sleep. All was well in the world, but I was a bit
concerned about sharing a room with a light sleeper. According to those in the
know, I am not a snore-all-night sort of guy, but I was a bit nervous that my
intermittent snoring would ruin this princess’s sleep. I did not want to be the
pea under her mattress preventing her from enjoying our week at sea.
At breakfast the next morning she proclaimed that I was very considerate
in my snoring except for the one time I reached a crescendo and actually woke
myself up. I blame the pillows.
I am sticking to that story.
My father was a world class snorer, had a night shirt that had "Olympic Snoring Team" on it. It was often difficult to vacation in the same room with him. Manys the night I wound up sleeping in the bathtub.
ReplyDeleteSo we went up to Quebec, Canada one summer when I was about 13 or so. and my father was very bothered to see so many people begging on the streets, many of whom were draft dodgers which really annoyed him. So we had gone to sleep, and he was really going strong. Usually my mother would tell him to "Turn over" but not that night. I got out of my cot to go over and went over to wake him up to turn him over. He woke up half asleep, reached up and grabbed me around my throat and was weakly choking me. My mother woke up and yelled "Lee, it's your daughter, let go!" I went back to bed shaking. In the morning, he told us that he had had a nightmare that one of those draft dodgers and come in our room to steal. He evidently woke up at little, saw my shape with long hair hanging down over him, and thought it was hippie! I never ever tried to wake my father up during snoring. Christine