A Vacation to remember

Brian's boss highly recommended that he take a vacation to get ready for the fall H1N1 flu season. At first we thought we wanted to go to Colorado. Brian went there about 15 years ago and really enjoyed it, but that was 15 years and a lot of changes ago. We had hoped that Rene's nephew Austin would be able to come along, but that fell though. In the end we concluded that the kids were probably too young to enjoy it, at least the way we wanted to and we would postpone it for another year.

Back to square one. We had been talking for some time about going to the Omaha, NE zoo and we thought it would be more up the kids alley. Still sticking with the camping theme we made reservations at a state park near Omaha. We gathered our camping gear and even borrowed some so we would be all ready. We had three days worth of meals and activities planned: the zoo, a water park, and the children's museum. On our way home we planned to visit Brian's grandma and go fishing and do some more camping. Everything was set, or we thought anyway.

Two days before we were to leave we went out to eat. In the middle of the night Jessie ended up getting sick with food poisoning. She spent the next 24 hours being miserable. We hoped that this would be an isolated event, but it was not to be so. Unfortunately, Noah got sick that next morning (the day we planned on leaving). Unlike Jessie, he bounced back quickly and we were still able to leave that day.

We arrived at our campsite late Sunday afternoon and go everything set up.
I was slightly disappointed because little did we know that the state park we chose to camp in was just a mile or so off Interstate 80. My idea of a secluded quiet campsite was not going to be so. No big deal I thought, I was not going to let it ruin our vacation. We got all set for the night and were fast asleep until were awakened about 3:00 am with thunder and lightening. Then shortly after that we realized that our tent was not keeping the water out. We made a dam in our tent with our clothes and hoped that would work. No such luck, the rain kept coming in and by now our clothes and sleeping bags were getting wet. We decided after about an hour or so of getting dripped on and the slow soaking up of water from the floor that we would abandon the ship and sleep in the van.

It was still raining when we woke up the next morning. We ate cold cereal in the
van, so much for pancakes and scrambled eggs over a camp fire. I did brave the
rain to heat some water on the camp stove for the kids to eat instant oatmeal and
for us all to warm up with some hot chocolate. We were still determined to keep
to our plans and went to the zoo hoping the rain would stop and that our tent
would dry out during the day.

The zoo was great! There was a lot to see and the exhibits were really neat, such as a butterfly garden full of butterflies all around, and a walk-through 900,000 gallon aquarium with sharks and stingrays. Although it did rain, it sure beat enduring 100 degree weather. While we were there we went to an IMAX 3D film about "Under the Sea". Rene and I felt like we were back in college as we struggled to stay awake from our lack of sleep the previous night. Noah was scared most of the time and Jessie could have cared less for the most part. What a waste of $.

After the zoo we set tfor the laundromat to dry our wet clothes and sleeping bags. An hour or so later we had dried most of our stuff, some of it was too wet and we gave up.

That night about 10:00 pm we finally had a good dinner successfully cooked over the fire. However, our tent was still too wet to sleep in, so we slept in the van again. We shuffled things around so at least the kids could stretch out in the back and we could recline our seats. We hoped to get a better nights sleep, but it wasn't to be so. Rene ended up getting sick in the middle of the night. After we settled back in, we were sleeping lightly, while the kids were sawing logs in the back (oh to be a kid again!) Sometime later we observed 2 guys walking past our campsite on the road with flashlights. Then they came back by our campsite and we didn't think much about it. Just a few minutes later we heard a noise and Brian saw someone through the rear view mirror walking very close around the back of our van without a flashlight. My protection instinct kicked in and I quickly grabbed my camping knife and got out of the van and confronted the man. I asked him if I could help him with something. He said that he was looking for his camper and something about not being able to find his campsite. I asked him what number his campsite was, he didn't know. This entire time I was wondering where the other guy was. I was sure that I was going to be attacked. Fortunately that did not happen. Everything about the incident just felt funny. He left, but after that I so keyed and shaken up that I didn't sleep much and when I did sleep I had one eye open.

At some point that night I did fall asleep and woke up at dawn to realize that I too had caught the family bug. I spent the next hour or so waking up the rest of the nearby campers calling out for "RALPH". Rene and I then spent the next few hours driving each other to the bathroom while the kids slept on. We briefly discussed still going to the Children's Museum later that day (if we felt better), but quickly "threw in the white towel" and retreated defeated and sick and tired for the long 3 hour drive home. Rene drove home while I sat with a trash can handy. We slept for about 4 hours as soon as we got home (even before we thought about unloading the van).

We postponed the trip to Brian's grandma's until we felt better. Long story short (at least this part is) we recovered quickly and were still able to visit everyone and had a good time. This will be a vacation that we will not forget for some time.