The Griswold's Easter Vacation

Sorry about the delay in the Holiday wrap up. I was up at 4am yesterday morning to catch an early morning flight back to NYC from my parents place down in Boca Vista. Well that’s not true, they’re not living in Boca Vista quite yet.

The weekend actually started late Thursday afternoon as my dad picked me up from the airport. He has for as long as I can remember driven Crown Victoria’s. If your not to familiar with this model, think ‘squad car’ from any TV police drama. But this captain is trading in this cruiser for a new ship, a Nissan Quest was now his means of transportation. It’s a bit soccer mom for my taste but it’s got every bell and whistle you could imagine. The interior looks like it was designed by the people from The Container Store, little compartments everywhere…

We met my mom and younger brother at a great place on the water for dinner. The weather was just damn near perfect! The sun on your face while drinking a Corona with your family in movie set like weather…does it get much better than that? We ordered some drinks and some appetizers to get the evening started but didn’t even look at entrees for another 30 minutes. I think that’s the difference between just eating dinner and truly enjoying the company of the people sitting around you! All told dinner was a few hours long and probably a few hundred dollars, but I was with the family and didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Now Friday, Friday morning no less, was when the real madness started. I came down stairs around 9, grabbed a cup of coffee and joined my parents in the living room while they read the paper. The get the local Boca Vista paper that reads from cover to cover in about 3.5 minutes as well as the NY Times delivered everyday. After reading a just a few sections I hopped in the shower and heading to my dad’s office for a conference call of all things. It was the one work related thing I would have to think about for the next few days so I didn’t mind.

So as I’m sitting in my dad’s office, head set on, listening and chiming in when necessary with everyone on the call, I hear a ruckus come from the living room. I hear my brother yell, then a few minutes later my mom starts showing off her reach of her voice too. I started to get up to see why in the hell they’ve waited until I was on a work related call to show off their craziness but it soon stopped. As the phone call seemed to be wrapping up I started to hear the weird noises from the rest of the house again, only now my dad was in the mix too. At this point it wasn’t just screams but bangs, booms, and everything in between.

I opened the door to the office and shot my dirtiest look towards my mom and brother who were lucky enough to be the only two in my direct sight! The roar was over for a minute and I was back in the office only to hear it back again just a few minutes later. Thankfully, only seconds later everyone on the call said their good byes and I could now go play Perry Mason in the rest of the house.

So as the story goes, my brother who had just recently woke up was sitting on the couch, watching TV as a bird strolled across the tile floor directly in front of him. He, not sure if he was completely awake yet, got up to see if he was in fact seeing what he thought he was seeing. As he did, this large black crow took off, circling the room with a not a fear in the world. The 22 foot ceilings made this little guy seem like he was as home. Thankfully, a combination of my mom swinging a broom, my brother opening up every window in the house and my dad barking orders the crow flew to its freedom though an upstairs window. Although not before my dad yelled, “holy shit, there’s bird shit on the wall!” That’s right just another relaxing day in Boca Vista!

More to come soon, I promise!

Thanks for listening.