"Camping"

Warning: If you read this story, you have to promise not to think that my friends and I are stupid. Please try and put yourself in our situation and realize that this could have happened to you, too.

Once we got to the beach, our GPS suddenly became unreliable at finding the condominium. So, after driving around for about 30 or 40 minutes, we decided to stop and ask for directions at the only business still open – the local bar.

Now, you should know that we were dressed in jogging pants and t-shirts so we looked a little out of place to be dropping by the bar for directions. Since everyone in our party was reluctant to go into the bar considering the way we were dressed, Joy and I swallowed our pride went inside to ask the bartender for directions. Unfortunately, between his poor explanation of the directions and both Joy and I taking little naps in our heads while he was talking, our stopping for directions was fruitless.

We continued to roam the main highway at the beach, and then suddenly Virginia recognized the condominium from the pictures, and in the words of the GPS lady, we arrived “at our final destination.” Thankful to be there finally, we loaded up our arms with all of our stuff and took the elevator to the top floor where our penthouse (5 bedroom and 4.5 baths) awaited us.

Virginia found the box to type in the code that the owner of the condo gave us to unlock the door. Sadly, nothing happened when she typed it in. After inspecting the door further, I concluded that we would need a key to get into the place.

Virginia tried to call the owner. However, in our hearts we knew that the chances of him answering after midnight were unlikely. We decided to wait it out until the morning when we could get him on the phone and learn the whereabouts of the key.

Thus, began the night of “fun” sleeping on the marble balcony in front of the penthouse. Some of has had good attitudes, like Virginia, but then there were others, me for example, who were not happy. At one point around 2:30 am, I sat up from bed of beach towels and said out loud “I hate this.” Then, there were those of us, Laura Beth, who miraculously slept 8 hours on the cold, hard marble tile. We were all jealous of her.

One of the most noteworthy stories occurred at sunrise when Joy and I both woke to see the beautiful sky. I looked at her, pointed to the sky, and said “pretty.” We smiled at each other and then went back to sleep.

Somehow we made it through the night. The next morning when Joy and I were washing our faces in the public bathroom for the building, Elizabeth came into the bathroom to announce “The code unlocks the lock box!!!” So, we hurried upstairs, typed in the code into the lock box, and suddenly had the key in our possession.

Our original plan was to pay a trick on the other girls and pretend that someone got our stuff when we actually had moved it inside the penthouse. However, we called them, Virginia was on the phone with the owner, and he was also explaining to her about the lock box.

Once we all got inside our happy home, we truly appreciated the blessing of our nice condo. We went on to have a fabulous time celebrating Virginia’s birthday that weekend and although it is not my favorite memory, sleeping outside on the marble tile will likely be the most memorable part of our beach trip.