Picture of the day - Me and my Dad

This is picture of my dad and me on our family vacation on Myrtle Beach circa 1981. That was my last bikini, and I probably shouldn't have been wearing one then. I picked this picture because family vacations have been on my mind. My family, immediate and extended (like 30 of us), would always go to the same hotel at Myrtle Beach for a week every June. Those were some of my earliest memories. My family would start off caravaning down from Ohio, stay at our house in Virginia, and then we were all off to the beach. We always had a good time, and it was so cool because it didn't matter what time of day it was there was always someone to take us little ones to the Pavillion to ride the rides or play skeeball. Then in July, my immediate family and one other family (my mom's cousin, Cynthia, and her family) would go to Hilton Head Island. We would go for either a week or two or three. That was nice, but that one week in June every year was like heaven. Drinkin' Tahitian Treat, picking up shells, ridin' the waves on my bright yellow Hawaiian Punch "Punchie" raft (the really thick ones that were ocean worthy), finding sharks teeth, watching the sunset every night, getting dressed up to go to dinner, and loving life. It just didn't get any better.

I hope one day that my kids can have those same kind of vacations.

Sidenote: It wasn't until I was older that I understood what my mom and Cynthia's joke was at the end of the day. One would say "Don't you think we should go get the baby?" And the other would say "Yeah, I think it's that time." Well one would go up to the room, and would come back down in about 10 minutes with something wrapped up in a towel. It was the pitcher off the blender. I'm not sure what the mixed drinks were, but they were always a hit. They had to wrap up the blender in a towel because it was glass and it had alcohol in it, and then you were not allowed to bring either on to the beach. One funny addition to this story is that my family always made friends with the lifeguards out front of our hotel. Usually they were hot for one of my older cousins, but they always fell in love with our family. Well after "the baby" exchange between my mom and Cynthia, this one precious lifeguard said to my mom so seriously when he saw Cynthia coming down onto the beach with this towel "Did she really leave her baby in the room all day?" My mom about fell out of her chair laughing. He instantly because one of my mom's favorites.