Family Vacation

As can be seen in the Chevy Chase films, there are many ups and downs typically experienced during a family vacation. Whether it be losing money playing "pick a number," finding an underage family member at a live adult show with a prostitute, or having to drive the loud grandma to Arizona, only for her to die during the drive, many things can go wrong during these trips.

None of these extremes occurred during our vacation (not to my knowledge, anyway), but plenty did transpire to irritate me here and there. For one, my dad always feels it obligatory for him to drive. It's the "man's" job or something to that effect. Even though he's never been in an accident, he's a very nervous individual and his driving reflects that. He also has a rather perverted sense of humor and once in a while, the jokes are funny, but his ears aren't the greatest anymore, so unfortunately, he feels the need to shout these perverted comments just so he can hear them. Often times, this occurs at a public place, such as a restaurant and he has the expert timing of saying these things right as our waiter walks by our table. He's made it into an artform. My mother, father, and brother also have a knack for getting cranky when they're tired or hungry. Unfortunately, they're hungry and tired in the morning and evening and just hungry during the day, so I've got to put up with this regularly. Don't bother to open your mouth, especially if the comment is meant to be humorous, because they'll snap at you like a tiger. They also are very argumentative (my dad, especially), even about the smallest of things. At a restaurant, my brother said he wanted some cinnamon and I said something like, "Yeah, cinnamon sounds good." But, right after my comment (in response to my brother's, of course), my mother and brother talked to me about how cinnamon isn't actually good. I was sitting here thinking, Chad (my bro), you're the one that brought it up in the first place. But, I decided just to keep my mouth shut. That was another thing. My family knows I'm kind of the nice, sensitive one of the bunch, so they can tend to take advantage of that by taking their crankiness out on me, knowing I won't get into any heated scuffle with them and will just eventually let it go.

When I did finally open my mouth, it dealt with ignorant stereotypes and generalizations made by family members of mine. There were there ladies on this bus tour who were quite loud. I guess they were from New York, so my bro and dad felt it necessary to bash on New Yorkers and claim that they are "all" loud and obnoxious. I pointed out the fact that there were others on the bus from New York who weren't making a peep and said, "Saying all New Yorkers are extremely loud is like saying all Nebraskans are rednecks" to which my brother said, "Yeah, we are." I kind of rolled my eyes at that and it was the end of the conversation.

On the way back to the airport, some people were attempting to get on the Hertz bus before everyone got off and my brother and father complained about that. My brother then said, "Well, it is California." I kept my mouth shut again, but, yet again, what a dumb statement. The bus was there taking people to their respective airliners, so, the majority of people were probably not Californians, but people going back home, like we were. My dad also mentioned how he hadn't seen too many "California blondes."

Sometimes on family trips, especially when visiting a gorgeous place such as San Diego, one has to shove their families comments and actions to the side and just enjoy the experience as much as one can. That's what I tried to do and think I succeeded in doing that.