Every Memorial Day weekend, for the last six years, my sisters and I load up our kids and head down I-5 to Seaside, Oregon.
This trip is huge. It is four days of us, doing our own thing. We have to eat at the same fish and chips restaurant the first night, the same pizza joint the second night, we have to get salt water taffy from the Candy Man, we have to hit the beach in sun or rain, wind or calm and sit there for hours while the kids play.....We have traditions that make this trip one of the best sister things we've ever done.
The first year, it was the three sisters and my two kids, in a two bed hotel room, one roll out bed for my son, and ONE BATHROOM! When our extended family heard what we were planning, we had much ribbing. How on earth would the five of us share a bathroom and a tiny room without fighting?
I'm not sure how we did it, but we did, and it was a great trip. As soon as we left we said next year we're doing it again.
And we have. Seaside is not for husbands. It's for sisters and moms and kids. It's us goofing off, eating junk food, having giant ice cream cones, for the brave ones to ride the tilt a whirl after stuffing themselves at dinner. It's us singing along to old country favorites (Your Nobody Called Today...) and laughing until we have zero upper body strength.
Its a four day trip that really makes our relationships better, stronger, funnier! And what I love about it is how our children will have memories of us laughing. They will grow up, and have kids of their own, and will tell them of going to Seaside every year, of almost drowning once, of almost having to rub silky underwear because blankie was lost and panic mode was on, of deciding to go back to the hotel alone and seeing Mom fly across the sand to catch a very independent child, of laying in bed at night listening to their Moms and Aunts giggle like kids.
Only two more days and then we are on the road again!!!!
