Globe Corner Blogs

A guest post by Lorie K., winner of the Funny Family Vacation Story Contest

There are two ways to experience the Caribbean: The first is to enjoy a resort vacation with Mai Tais on the beach, massages, and fabulous meals while watching the sunset; the other is the way my family decided to do it – camping during monsoon season. After getting through the embarrassment of running through Laguardia Airport on Christmas Day to catch our plane with tents, sleeping bags, and coolers wrapped with duct tape in tow, I thought the worst of going camping on St. John island was over. I had visions of snorkeling, beach combing, relaxing with my parents and sisters after a harrowing first semester at law school, and possibly meeting a cute boy… oh, the folly of dreams! Instead, I found myself sleeping on the ground in a constant puddle due to sudden rain outbursts, slathering myself with aloe to relieve the sunburn, and trying to digest food cooked over a Bunsen burner. And no cute boys would deem to approach me on the beach with my dad lurking nearby in his black knee-high socks!

When we finally got to the last day of our vacation, I thought I was home free. Apparently, I was tempting fate. I woke up with a pounding migraine which was only exacerbated by a boat ride over the choppy water to and from Tortola with my grumpy (and slightly inebriated) sister, Melisa. When evening came, I was thoroughly looking forward to a restful sleep in my now-smelly two-person tent that I was sharing with both my sisters. We had trudged to the public latrine, endured a freezing cold outdoor shower, taken our contacts out, and stumbled blindly back to the tent. My youngest sister, Andrea, was the last one in to the tent and, in typical flaky fashion, had only zipped the vertical zipper, leaving the bottom one undone.

After drifting off to merciful sleep (the only thing that truly cures a migraine!) I was woken abruptly by a loud THUMP against the tent directly above my head. And a warm, furry thing in my hair! “What the??” I yelled. Andrea started screaming, “Mongoose! Mongoose!” She apparently had pet it in her half-asleep state, realized what it was, and picked it up and hurtled it across the tent directly at me. The three of us bolted awake, and began an improvised crazy, body slamming dance within our tent. With a mongoose still on the loose! Without our contacts, we smashed into each other in a mad dash to get out of the now mongoose-infested tent, each of us emitting a loud shrill of a scream when something brushed up against us! We released ourselves from our nylon confines, and ran to the communal campground gazebo, where, I’m sure to the dismay of the Scrabble-playing family, we decided to sleep on the outdoor benches. Three wet, bedraggled, fighting sisters had invaded their bonding time!

After a fitful night on the hard wooden slabs, the three of us woke to discover that spending the night outdoors in the Caribbean was not the best idea. Each of our faces had been bitten multiple times by small black flies, leaving large red welts. We looked like prime candidates for Proactiv. And the welts lasted longer than our tans! Oh, the mortification of having to go back to law school looking like I had the measles… No cute boy would approach me for weeks! I guess the silver lining is that at least I didn’t have accompanying mongoose-shaped bite marks.

I have yet to go back to the Caribbean.

Read more: Caribbean, Family Travel, Funny Family Stories, Touring with the Parents, Travel


Nicole -- Nicole hails from metropolian Conway, South Carolina. While she's not busy doing Southern things like eating biscuits and heavily buttered grits (often together), she likes to travel to other countries and eat their food. Her favorite exotic treats include: Icelandic Skyr, South Indian dosa, British Jaffa Cakes, and Austrian strudel.

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