What It’s Like Traveling With A Big Family
By Ashley Twigg
You will arrive with an obscene amount of luggage and someone will still manage to forget something.
It doesn’t matter the time of day, someone in the group is always “starving.”
You can typically be found eating or deciding where to eat next.
No one is ever on the same sleep pattern, and it will be obvious.
You spend more time waiting or in transit than actually going anywhere. “Oh, there’s how many?…it’s going to be a little wait for that.”
You are either having the time of your life or absolutely miserable and you will fluctuate between the two the entirety of the trip.
You will hear the following: “We should have just left you home,” and “I should have never come,” and “What time is it?” and “Do you think they have WiFi here?” You will hear these far too often.
You will momentarily lose a family member and celebrate finding them like they just came home from war.
You will momentarily lose a license or passport and upon finding it celebrate like someone just came home from war.
You will share bottled waters, because that shit gets expensive.
There will be MANY, many attempts at the group photo.
There will always be someone unhappy with the group photo.
Someone will either get really burnt or really sick and the rest of the trip you will have to keep asking them how that’s going.
There will be one near fist fight with strangers.
You will see many families that make you feel really good about your own.
You will come home feeling like you need a vacation, following your vacation.