Funny Summer Traveling Story from Montana

From a dear friend's daughter who was traveling from Montana home to Maryland:
Yeah, the bat in the purse is pretty funny. Here’s the full story: I’m on the plane, getting ready for take-off, and hear a chirping noise from my purse as I’m shoving it under the seat in front of me. I hold the purse up to my ear, thinking it might be my new phone – but phone was turned off so nope, not it. I open the purse and the chirping gets louder – and now I think I have a cricket in my purse. At this point I hold my OPENED purse up to the lady seated next to me and ask her if she hears the chirping, and she says she does (can you imagine the scenario had the bat then flapped out of my purse at that moment?!?!). So I start rifling through my purse looking for a cricket and I have to start taking things out b/c my purse if black and it’s dark and I can’t see anything. I suddenly see a movement and think to myself, “whoa, that’s one big cricket” and I take one more thing out (at this point I’ve risked a bat bite about 10-12 times the entire morning without ever realizing it). I look closer into my purse for this giant cricket and the bat decides to spread its wings – now that it has room to do so – and that was the moment of shock when I realized there was AN ALIVE medium-sized BAT in my lap! I believe I yelped and said “Oh my God, I have a bat in my purse!” and I slammed my purse shut. Heads turned and I remember looking around and having the very fleeting, very naughty, and very ridiculous thought of shaking my purse out right then and there and seeing what would happen if my stowaway started flapping around the cabin and what my fellow passengers would do. (Like I said, it was a fleeting thought…) Anyway, people start murmuring “what”, “did she say bat”, etc. I start looking around and wondering what the heck to do and I’m sure I was mumbling stupidly at this point about having a live bat in my purse – and I probably had this slightly panicked look on my face because people around me start getting wide-eyed as they realized what the deal was. I press the button for an attendant but since stragglers were still getting on the plane she couldn’t get to me very quickly so I decide I need to be proactive and go dump the bat outside the plane while I still had the chance. I remember shoving this guy out of my way and holding the purse to my chest very tightly as I try to get to the front of the plane. At this point I think I must have started freaking some people out and I remember thinking “what if they think I have a bomb and jump me?” so I started saying something like “it’s just a bat” and “there’s a live bat in my purse”…which I guess to some people isn’t that much better of an option, judging by their reactions! I finally get to the front of the plane and stand over the crack between the plane and the gate ramp and start shaking my purse upside down trying to dislodge the poor bat…who at this point was determined to hang on for dear life and was probably having a heart attack. I finally get the thing out but nowhere near the crack and the flight attendant makes to kick it, but I stop her (thinking she was going to stomp on it) and take a pen and scoot it to the crack. Now I think – gravity will help it fly, but unfortunately it falls to the ground. At this point, we’re supposed to shutting the door to the plane and I realize I left Brendan and my entire purse contents at the back of the plane, so I go back - and yes, everyone is staring all bug-eyed and several people ask me if I really had a bat, and Bob is laughing thinking it’s hilarious. (Natalie said that the flight attendant ended up going down to the tarmac and scooping the bat into a cup and showing it around.) The cutest was the little boy who sat across from my row who started asking me these questions about what it looked like and something about it biting me, etc – he was fascinated.

So that’s my story!! Happy reading!

Summer Vacations are relaxing right?

Last week was an interesting trip outside the Brentwood bubble. After a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles, I am reflecting on how vacations change as your family grows up. Since we had our first child, we lived away from our family for eleven years. As my husband's career grew, so did our number of moves. That is the case for many families these days; move to get ahead.

Six states later, we moved back home to Brentwood. Our plan of staying with Nashville-based healthcare companies worked and we were back home with all of the grandparents, aunt, uncles and cousins. But all those years we lived away from home, our vacations were to our hometown of Brentwood or meeting the whole gang at the beach in Fort Morgan, Alabama. We were always taking those few precious vacation days to see our families.

Now, we have been home for nearing eight years, the kids are all teenagers and and our vacations are away from home. We are blessed to see our families on a regular basis so we are more free to explore. We started going skiing every year after Christmas. We started tying family vacations in and around cities that had soccer tournaments, volleyball tournaments, and in the last two years, colleges that were on the short list. College visits alone have taken us to Chicago, Winston Salem, Greenville, Knoxville, and Ohio. We have been on mission trips together to New Orleans, Juarez, Mexico and the girls went to Biloxi, Mississippi. Our before mentioned oldest child went to Europe with a school group two springs ago. We grow and evolve but one thing has stayed the same. Our family loves to travel and be together, no matter what the destination or the activity.

This last vacation to visit friends in Hermosa Beach, California, we tried to do it all. We hit the beach, we rode bikes on the famous beach cities strand, we went to a theme park, we went on the ocean in a boat, we toured Warner Brothers Studio, watched our beloved sunsets and we enjoyed the July 4 fireworks. Our first day on the beach provided a special moment as the dolphins came very close in to shore and were sufing the waves. Our family was thrilled to see such a rare sight and knew we were privileged to witness the beauty of nature. All of it wore us completely out, but it was so great because we were together.

Most strangely, we took a detour around a wreck on Los Angeles' 405 and ended up passing Michael Jackson's funeral motorcade, hearse and all, on their way to the Staple Center for his memorial. Later, we again passed the family in Beverly Hills following their family luncheon. As weird it was to run into the Jackson family unintentionally twice in one day, it did give me pause to reflect on my own children. MJ's kids are going to miss their dad and will have no more family moments with him. I am grateful for each and every day with them, vacation or not. I do love what great travelers they are and I hope they continue to explore the world, even if they need a weeks rest after each vacation.