As a kid we went to Daytona Beach every year for a family vacation. My grandparents have a time share there and my uncle is retired from Disney so we got in free every single summer. I have many memories from these family beach vacations.

Like when I was 7 and almost drowned because I was left in the charge of my 14 year old brother. It wasn’t as dramatic as you might think. My feet got swept out from under me and I got pulled under. I made it back to shore coughing and spluttering but I can honestly say I’ve never been back in the ocean above my knees.

Then there was the time when I was 12 and my older sister (17), her best friend (15) and I forced my little sister (9) to stomp on big, giant palmetto bugs with her bare feet out by the pool at dusk. My little sister still remembers that. Man, we were mean to her. That same trip I can remember finding my older sister on the beach drinking with her friend. I desperately wanted to be included rather than have to hang out with the “babies.” Ultimately I think they told me to beat it and I ended up watching TV with my little sister.

Then there was the last time I went on a family vacation to Daytona. That one was a doozy. I was 15 and this time I was the one that brought a friend. In the span of a week my mother caught us smoking on the balcony, my aunt caught us trying to sneak beers, we fed my baby cousin candy in order to get him to eat his dinner, and my mom somehow deduced that I was no longer a virgin because of a UTI. Now you can see why that one was the last one. I think we all came home a little scared from that week in the sun.

The beach tradition has now found a new home on Labor Day. Last year when I was close to 6 months pregnant my mom decided that we all needed to go to the beach. My husband and I met my mother and stepfather at Hilton Head for the long weekend. It was fairly uneventful, just how we like it.

The weather was nice, I was actually comfortable in a bathing suit for the only time in my life and there was much fresh seafood consumed. My husband did loose his contacts because he left them in a glass in the hotel room and the cleaning people through them out. And I did learn we are all far too old to be sharing a single hotel room.

My mom has decided that this is a new tradition. So every Labor Day we will now be trekking off to some beach (this year it was Folly Beach, where it rained all freakin’ weekend) along the South Carolina/Georgia coast in search of some family beach memories for Boogie. I’m not sure if we’ll ever make it back to Daytona.

Tell us about your past, present or future family vacations for a chance to win a Sony portable DVD player courtesy of PBN and PickPackGo.