I never went on Spring Break when I was in college. I'm not sure if I really missed out on anything by not going. To be honest, going on a Spring Break adventure is not something that I ever really wanted to do. It just seemed like too many people trying too hard to have too good of a time. That's not me.
So, you can probably imagine my great surprise when I found myself heading off to Spring Break yesterday afternoon. I'm actually back already so I can report on how it went.
Shortly before 5PM, I threw some clothes into my backpack and tossed the backpack into the minivan. That's right -- I took a minivan on my Spring Break trip. Laugh all you want. I don't mind. After a final home-cooked dinner, my traveling companion and I headed off for our big adventure. We were out the door and on the road at 5:57PM, a full 3 minutes ahead of schedule.
We headed north up I-95 to our first stop -- 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Yes, you read that right. We headed north on Spring Break. At 30th Street Station, I successfully parallel parked the minivan on the street while we waited for the third member of our traveling party to arrive by bus from New York City. While parked on the street, we entertained ourselves by playing one of my new favorite games, "Man or Woman." That's when you watch a pedestrian approach and guess if it's a man or a woman. I know that should seem easy but, in Philadelphia, after 8:30PM at night, near 30th Street Station, it's actually kind of difficult.
Shortly after 9PM, the bus arrived and our companion joined us in the minivan. Next stop, the suburban retirement community of Waverly Heights. Yes, we had reservations for Spring Break in a retirement community. We arrived at Waverly Heights promptly at 9:30PM. We kind of snuck onto the property since I was afraid that there might be an alarm letting security know that the average age of the residents had just dropped precipitously when we arrived. Luckily, we didn't trigger any alarms. The three of us got out and brought our bags into the house. Shortly thereafter, the six other members of our party arrived for the night. Again, no alarm bells! What a relief. Our group of ten had all arrived safely.
In case you haven't figured it out yet, my traveling companions consisted of Hannah and eight of her sorority sisters. They were all off to the Dominican Republic for a week of fun in the sun. My job was simply to "chaperone" them for one night and then,with one other lucky dad from the Philadelphia area, drop them off at the Philadelphia airport for their flight.
Before going to bed, I told the girls that we were leaving promptly at 7AM the next morning. As I fell asleep, I told myself there was no chance of that happening. Imagine my surprise, then, when I found every single one of them dressed and ready to go by 6:45AM. Those girls were highly-focused on getting to Punta Cana. If you're down there reading this, watch out.
Another thing that was scary was the amount of luggage these girls had. They were going away for 6 nights. I guarantee you that, for the entire time they are in the Dominican Republic, they'll be wearing either tiny bikinis or short shorts and t-shirts. Yet, almost all of them had a big bag they were going to check. As I loaded those bags into the minivan, I can personally attest to the fact that most of them weighed at least 30 pounds. What could they have possibly had in those bags? I'm guessing it was 10 pounds of hair products and make-up, 5 pounds of sun screen and lotion, and 10 pounds of shoes. The remainder was the skimpy clothing.
By 8AM, I'd dropped the girls off at the airport. I said a quick prayer for them as they headed inside the terminal. My Spring Break trip was officially over, just 14 hours after it began. Now the real fun starts -- waiting anxiously for them to return in one piece.
This is where the magic happens.
