Tribulations About Vacation

My wife and I try to take an annual trip to the Outer Banks. My wife went to school at the University of North Carolina. To tell you what a fan of North Carolina we are, that's where we spent our honeymoon. Yup, Chapel Hill.

But the honeymoon is another discussion entirely. Like I said earlier, we try to get to the Outer Banks every year. Well, as usual, we rented a house on the beach well in advance of our trip. I have two weeks off in a row and I plan on doing nothing except taking pictures, surfing the net occasionally and maybe getting a little inebriated after eating lots of seafood.

My wife asked her work for the same two weeks in a row off that I asked for. Shockingly, she was able to get both weeks off. Then this last week, everything fell apart. That line, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans...", never rang truer.

My wife's work tells her that because of a drop off of staffing, that she can't have the third week of September off. She can have the second week off that she requested though. That totally threw our plans into the proverbial toilet. We made the reservation for THAT third week.

Ok, no problem, right?? A frantic search of the web site showed the same house available the week earlier. We called the rental company and explained the problem. Well, no problem on their end. Just send another $260 for the change of date because the move of one week moved us from off-peak to peak season. This also will cost us an extra $600 in rental fees.

So, the wife and I get ready to send the $260 when she gets a call from her work explaining that she will not be able to take that second week off either. Oh Joy!!

I looked at my wife and said, "Well, I'll send you and the boys a postcard from the beach." That did not go over very well. So, we called the rental company, explained the situation and were told that we'd lose our original deposit unless we'd like them to try and sublet the place for the second week. We'd at least get SOME of our original deposit back. Well, some is better than none, so we told them to have at it.

Not 10 minutes later, my wife's work calls her and says, "We've made a big error. You can still have that second week off, but not the third. Sorry if that messed up your plans."

My wife and I are staring at each other opened mouthed while hearing this on the answering machine. What do we do now?? Pay an extra $860 for the first week, lose our deposit, try to get some of it back or just chuck it all and stay at home??

As we're contemplating those options, our phone rings once again. It's my wife's aunt. She lives in North Carolina and she's calling to see if we're available to come down and stay with her at their BEACH HOUSE in Nags Head the second week of September.

The timing of this was nothing but a miracle. My wife's aunt OWNS a house on the beach. They do lease it out on a time share, but on a very limited basis. They're going to be there the whole month and they thought we'd like to come down for a week.

Prayers answered. Just need to sublet the other beach house. Anyone interested??

I'm just waiting for phone to ring once again..