Hurricane Irene Dampens our Outer Banks Vacation

As luck would have it my parents rented a beach house on the Outer Banks this past week for our entire family. It was our first whole family vacation in at least 10 years. It was good to have the whole family together albeit less relaxing than I remember our earlier family vacations, in part from the 3 young children (ages 1 to 3) that are now a blessed part of our family. I had hoped to spend more time reading and writing while on vacation, but the kids occupied most of the day and I didn't have much downtime - guess that is parenthood.

It was great to get away and get the whole family together. Unfortunately the vacation ended on a bit of a sour note as family member began to scatter as Hurricane Irene approached. We didn't have the opportunity to wind down the vacation properly and set the stage for future plans (I believe its better to set the stage and get people thinking about a future vacation before the current one ends with everyone in a vacation mindset). Some of us departed Thursday evening with the rest leaving Friday morning; all of us leaving the area without any problems or traffic delays.

In terms of vacation expenses, my parents paid for the beachhouse ~$2,800, and my brother and I split the major grocery expenses. The groceries ran us ~$600 for the week, plus we each made 3 dinners for the family. My sister provided appetizers and some desserts for the week. My guess is it there would have likely been some tension/concern over the finances across the family if my parents hadn't picked up the major expense of the rental, but with my parents generosity the rest was easy.

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