Tomorrow I have to try REALLY HARD...

[bearmom]

He needs to learn to roll with it. It does make for more memorable vacations.

I have yet to go on any major trip without there being a few glitches, and a few near hurricanes (cheapskate that often travels in off season), but missed the big action each time. Those were the most memorable storms I've ever seen. Usually it's something stupid I do like forget the disney world passes, which is not huge but never makes for a fun story.

The only rule we have with each other for traveling is to not let minor **** become huge and ruin our fun. We've had changes of plans that turned into grand adventures. I hope your neighbor learns this before she if forced to kill him.

 

[southernlady]

He needs to learn to roll with it. It does make for more memorable vacations.

The only rule we have with each other for traveling is to not let minor **** become huge and ruin our fun. We've had changes of plans that turned into grand adventures.

We have too...and we never actually talked about how to handle things, we just happen to agree. NO plan is absolute concrete...you have to be able to roll with the punches in life or you will end up black and blue.

 

[Terri]

omg - honeymoon: YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG

Umm I don't think they were doing it at all!

 

[hilary1617]

On our honeymoon, we experienced the joys of being Americans travelling in October 2001, in the direct aftermath of 9/11. While logging 40+ hours of flight time, we had plenty of travel blips, but we just decided to enjoy each other's company during delays and annoy those around us with PDA's.

Chicago --> Massachusetts (married at Old Sturbridge Village) ---> New York City --> Milan, Italy --> Mauritius ---> Rome, Italy ---> Chicago.

Some of the mishaps:

1. The Americans were corralled and encircled by heavily armed carabinieri, for our protection. (Nothing like drawing attention to us - felt like we had targets on our heads!)
2. We missed our flight from Milan to Mauritius due to security delays so we had to spend an additional night there next to the airport.
3. Our luggage travelled from NYC to Frankfort, Germany for special bomb review, leaving me, SMO, in Mauritius for two weeks wearing two sarongs tied together topped with tourist t-shirts with phrases such as "So delicious, so Mauritius".
4. All museums in Rome, including the Colliseum, were closed for the entire week we were there due to a strike. (So we took a train to Pompeii and stayed there a few days.)
5. We literally broke our bed in our apartment in Grand Baie.

I'm not sure we even mentioned these to our friends. We were too focused on what went right!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

On our honeymoon, we experienced the joys of being Americans travelling in October 2001, in the direct aftermath of 9/11. While logging 40+ hours of flight time, we had plenty of travel blips, but we just decided to enjoy each other's company during delays and annoy those around us with PDA's.

Chicago --> Massachusetts (married at Old Sturbridge Village) ---> New York City --> Milan, Italy --> Mauritius ---> Rome, Italy ---> Chicago.

Some of the mishaps:

1. The Americans were corralled and encircled by heavily armed carabinieri, for our protection. (Nothing like drawing attention to us - felt like we had targets on our heads!)
2. We missed our flight from Milan to Mauritius due to security delays so we had to spend an additional night there next to the airport.
3. Our luggage travelled from NYC to Frankfort, Germany for special bomb review, leaving me, SMO, in Mauritius for two weeks wearing two sarongs tied together topped with tourist t-shirts with phrases such as "So delicious, so Mauritius".
4. All museums in Rome, including the Colliseum, were closed for the entire week we were there due to a strike. (So we took a train to Pompeii and stayed there a few days.)
5. We literally broke our bed in our apartment in Grand Baie.

I'm not sure we even mentioned these to our friends. We were too focused on what went right!

Our daughter worked for Lufthansa at the time. From a customer service perspective, it was chaos. Probably the more emotionally flexible types did it your way...and the others are STILL bitching about it! LOL

 

[hilary1617]

I'm gifted at picking times to travel. It helps me build patience.

In flight midnight, 12/31/1999 NYC --> Helsinki (year 2k bug allowed me to get r.t. tickets for $250). In flight 8:45 am 9/11/2001 Boston --> Chicago (returning from weekend planning wedding /getting marriage license)...
Friday "rush hour" flights LGA->ORD with regularity.

 

[southernlady]

Our most recent vacation had elements of National Lampoon's Vacation in there. We are still grinning about some of the adventures we had. But we did NOT let it stop us. Memories are made that way!

 

[hilary1617]

Our dear friend gave us tickets for an "undersea walk". I hauled myself up the ladder of a boat moored in the bay, then the guide tied metal weights to our ankles and waists. We donned bell helmets attached to the boat by tubes. I struggled to even move while bearing all of the weight. When I managed to sort of belly flop back into the water, I started being dragged out to sea with the current. The weights were not sufficient to counterbalance the flotational device that was my body. I ascended as gracefully as a soaked, double-saronged, t-shirt-wearing, newlywed with superpowers of buoyancy could manage, and they strapped ALL of the remaining weights on the boat onto me. Despite the additional anchors tethered to me, I remained a human pontoon. The guide had to drag me through the water by my hand so that I didn't bob off to sea... Not a high point for my dignity. I can only imagine the image I left for that guide as I struggled back up the ladder with my muscles straining to manage all that weight... DH had a underwater camera and took a picture of my face in a kissy fish expression in that ridiculous helmet. In the end, it's our favorite keepsake from that trip.

 

[brooklyngirl]

Omg, @hilary1617 and @4KidsAndaDog ! God bless you both because you went through the source of my recurring nightmares! I always had huge anxiety about losing my luggage when traveling because I'd never be able to find clothes in tropical places. And both if you made it through with smiles on your faces, I love it!

 

[hilary1617]

@brooklyngirl, I'm guessing @4KidsAndaDog 's carry-on always includes a spare pair or two of panties and possibly a change of clothes. I would love a Djellaba, though probably not under those circumstances. I'm trying to figure out what monastic garb fantasies men might have. Brewing? Elf Quest? I've sworn off sarongs, though who knows, if I threw one on, maybe it would spice things up a bit!

 

[brooklyngirl]

I did lose my luggage once, but I was only in North Carolina and there was a walmart about 3 minutes away from my in-laws. I may not have loved my cheapo "big girl" section outfits, but I attempted to rock them with my Louis Speedy
*ETA- why is L-o-u-I-s. V-u-I-t-t-o-n a banned phrase???

 

[bearmom]

The clothing posts reminded me of my favorite travel mishap, because it wasn't me that made the screw up.

We traveled to DC on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and all that was on the tv screens on the back of every seat were news channels replaying 9/11 scenes - NOT the funny part of the trip. Silent and morose flight. I was wishing they would block the tv stations that day.

What was funny to me, is that my boyfriend at the time thought I put clothing in a bag for him, despite my saying to pack his own clothes, as I had no idea what he wanted to wear in September on the east coast. He stumbled upon a duffle bag filled with clothes and gratefully shoved it in his suitcase, only to learn on the east coast that it was my dirty laundry and undies from a weeks travel in the motor home that had been overlooked.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

One day a hundred years ago, when I was about a size 20 (so the size COULD BE found) a friend and I took our collective three girls to the beach in her new car which had a new fangled button that opened the trunk from inside the car. At the end of the day, we were starving and had three starving children. My friend changed clothes in the restroom and loaded the car while I showered off three sandy-crotched little misses.

Then, except for me, standing there in my swimsuit, we were ready to leave.

And, of course, the trunk locked itself for all eternity. With my clothes inside.

We finally drove to a shopping center...only place open with that size was...remember them?...Montgomery Ward. I wrapped myself in my wet sandy towel, put on my wedge heels and...standing as tall and statesman-like as possible...walked into the store. I found the clearance rack, bought TWO (because if it works in black it will work in navy) identical dresses and put on one of them, over my swimsuit, before I left the store.

We went out for dinner--on the outside, I appeared the best dressed of the lot--and, eventually, home.

I wore those two clearance dresses for YEARS and I can still see them in my mind's eye.

 

[JackieOnLine]

I think you mean "Monkey Wards"

 

[hilary1617]

@Spiky Bugger, I can only imagine!!!

When I was SMO and pregnant with what turned out to be a very overdue 9.5 lb bundle of joy, there was a dearth of plus-sized maternity clothes (especially size 30). I found one shirt that actually fit *and* was work-appropriate. I bought it in every color and pattern in which it was offered. My then boss, who was extremely vain and took to calling me in her office for matters such as to her view as to how my eyebrows should be plucked, called me in her office for another fun tete-a-tete. The topic at hand: Whether or not I sewed my own clothes. FMR.