You and your child can get sent on a cruise, but it will require some scheming. I accomplished this by accident, and we had a fabulous time on a week-long cruise through the Caribbean.
First, you have to get your husband to take a business trip that sounds like a vacation during a normal vacation season. One summer Paul went to Hawaii and swears it was Not for Fun. (He did go surfing, however.) Poor Lily and I stayed home and went to Folly Beach, S.C., where a dear and fun friend lives. We were all hunkey dorey with this until....
The "What I Did Last Summer" essay. Imagine Paul's shame when he was standing in the hall at school on Open House night alongside the other parents reading the essays posted on the wall. Here's how Lily's started:
What I did last summer. Last summer Daddy went to Hawaii and Mom and I went to Folly Beach....
Now, Folly Beach is a great place and I would love to live there. This is where DuBose Heyward wrote the book Porgy and Bess and I think that George Gershwin spent some time there writing the opera.To find out more, (which I doubt you want to), read: Folly Beach: A Brief History However, Folly Beach has a checkered past.
From the book: Ask anyone from Charleston or the surrounding areas, What do you remember about Folly Beach? and you will get a remarkable array of answers. For some, Folly Beach is a memory of youthful days of freedom; for others it is where the avant-garde, bohemian types lived. Having hosted plague victims, playwrights and maybe a pirate or two, Folly has had a checkered past.
I have probably six friends who have gone to Folly Beach to live out various follies. The name fits. And folks around here know that....
So, standing in the hallway reading the essays, shoulder to shoulder with Paul, they're thinking: what's going on with Lily's Dad? He goes to Hawaii -- and the poor child and her mom go to Folly Beach? There's something up with this family, and it's not good.
When Spring Break rolled around Paul needed to travel to Switzerland. We almost went with him, but it got very complicated. So, he booked us on a cruise.
What I did on Spring Break: Daddy went to Switzerland, and Mom and I had the time of our lives cruising the Caribbean.
To make this plan a success, you may have to tinker with the school calendar as well as your husband's travel schedule. It is well worth the trouble.
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