Charlotte and the Family Rental

When Charlotte saw the vacation house that was available, she went crazy. The island location was a perfect paradise and much better than some pricey hotels. The photos online were showing a cute home with manicured landscaping, palm trees, and a cozy carport with bicycles and a street-legal golf cart for six. According to the online map, the beautiful beach, grocery stores, and many restaurants were within an easy bike ride or a fun family excursion in the cool-looking golf cart. The island was also safe with an excellent police force, wonderful firefighters, and two urgent care facilities. All the reviews for the island vacation home were rating the tropical destination with at least four stars, but some enthusiastic families were giving the island home a full five-star rating.

Charlotte was the planner in the family and had orchestrated many fun-filled vacations in the past. It was not easy hosting the annual summer reunion and vacation, because many in the family were hard to please. Eating out was always a challenge for a big group dining together, but according to the rental home website, over 60 restaurants were waiting to serve delicious and fun-filled food. Charlotte was ready and her family needed a vacation.

Accommodations were another plus for renting the vacation home. The home had three bedrooms and a “Florida Room” - whatever that was - but the big airy space next to the sliders for the pool would be perfect for the kids to camp out and sleep on a small ocean of air mattresses. Also perfect were the grill by the pool and the resort umbrellas, tables, and lounge chairs.

Without speaking to any other family member, Charlotte whipped out her credit card, entered the pin numbers, and booked the island paradise home on the southwest Florida coast. The reunion would be great and the family would love it!

Everyone but Charlotte flew into the closest airport and took a ride service to the rental property. Charlotte also flew with her husband and kids, but she rented a cheap car for the whole ten days of the family retreat. After all, the six-passenger golf cart could only hope to cram ten onboard, and the grandparents would absolutely insist upon the air conditioning in the compact rental.

Charlotte and her team were the first to arrive and after a quick survey of the island home and resort, she pronounced the vacation site ready for occupation. Everything did indeed look like the website photos and even though the tropical island was hot and humid, summer was hot and humid everywhere.

All afternoon, the family began to arrive. The grandparents, Aunt Flo and Uncle Charlie, the sulky teenagers, and all the kids. The younger kids loved the idea of sleeping on the air mattress ocean, but the teenagers began to pout over not having private bedrooms and booming Wi-Fi.

For the first night together Charlotte, as the planner and vacation activity facilitator, had made reservations at a popular restaurant. For the ride to dinner, everyone but Charlotte, her husband, and the grandparents jammed on board the six-passenger golf cart. On the way to the restaurant, Charlotte cringed as she followed the overloaded golf cart that was almost dragging on the pavement. The weight of the kids, the teenagers, and big Aunt Flo and Uncle Charlie must have been too much. The golf cart, because of all the weight, could only move along at about eight miles per hour, and the huge line of traffic behind Charlotte as she followed her family never stopped honking and loudly voicing the frustrations of life in paradise. Because the big cart was moving so slowly, the local mosquitoes were having their own eating out experience with a fresh blood banquet. When the six-passenger cart finally pulled into the restaurant parking lot, all 12 riders on the golf cart were ready for both urgent care centers because of bug bites.

The following day Charlotte was hoping for the best, but when she awoke to screaming and ran out of the master bedroom, everyone was awake and freaking out. Overnight, the crab spiders and their intricate webs that the home service crew had removed the day before were back. When Uncle Charlie went out first for a morning swim, the spiders and the spider webs crisscrossing over the pool were like something out of a horror show. When Aunt Flo went into the garage for a broom to knock down the spider webs, a pair of flying roaches flew straight into her hair. When Charlotte dashed out the front door to escape the screaming kids and call the troubleshooting number on the home rental website, she walked into another early morning creep show with another nightmare of crisscrossing webs and spiders.

After speaking to the service on the phone, Charlotte learned they were now in Florida and that spiders were everywhere. She also learned the flying roaches in Aunt Flo’s hair were actually palmetto bugs and very common in Florida.

During the afternoon, when the maze of spider webs was clear, the backyard pool became the place to beat the heat. Charlotte was finally beginning to relax until she moved a lounge chair, and a black snake made a beeline for the water and the kids in the pool.

Late in the afternoon on day three, the kids grabbed all the bikes, the teenagers the golf cart, and everyone else who could fit, crammed into the tiny rental car. When the sun was low on the horizon, the family was almost free from the nightmare of everything tropical, until the no-see-ums began to chew off the ankles of everyone at sunset. When the sun finally went down in the Gulf, the local mosquitoes came back for another dining experience, and Charlotte went crazy.