Personal Narrative Essay: The Family Beach Trip

Each year, a pilgrimage to the Florida or Alabama gulf coast is a highly anticipated and enjoyed event for my family. In the beginning, it was just my wife and I. Man oh man, these trips were some of the most relaxing times that I can remember. Now, our yearly “beach fest” includes our two children, Kaylee and Garrett. While this is still a wonderful family event, I no longer use the phrase “relaxing”. Elbert Hubbard once said, “No man needs a vacation so much as the man who just had one”. Before children, I had no idea what he meant by this. Now, I completely understand the statement. The family beach trip is one of my favorite vacations we take each year, even though it has changed greatly with the addition of our children. Differences …show more content…
I can remember loading up a cooler with beer, grabbing the latest Tom Clancy novel, and a beach chair and being set for the day. When lunch time rolled around, we would head up to the pool bar and grab a quick sandwich and it was back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. Now, I like to use the term “pack mule” when describing getting items from the room to the beach. Even with the addition of a fancy new multipurpose beach cart I am looking at a minimum of two trips to get everything set up, most likely three. Now I have a tent, beach toys, water toys, and chairs. Each year, I still continue to bring myself a chair in hopes that this will be the year that I get to sit down for a few minutes again. My cooler is filled with juice boxes, water, and snacks. If I am lucky, I have room to fit one or two beers in just in case I have a break from riding the waves and building sandcastles. If you are not in a location that allows you to leave all of these items set up, you are doomed. It is too much for any husband and wife team to break this camp down on a daily