vacation chronicles, day three: relocation

Easter Sunday

The kids sleep late even for a holiday that comes with presents. They awake to baskets filled with books, desk supplies, giant bubble wands, hemp cord (for stringing together the shells we found that have perfectly small, round holes already worn into them), and snacks.

Our host graciously tows the Jeep to a repair shop, and Lee and I decide that we don't quite feel like we're on vacation yet. I log onto the laptop, transfer some funds, and reserve a hotel room in Mobile while Lee tries to find a rental car place that's open on Easter. Our host lets us borrow his truck to pick up the rental car at the airport, and we pack up and head north.

On our way out of Foley, we stop at Lambert's Cafe, home of throwed rolls, for Easter dinner. Indeed, they throw rolls to you from all the way across the room! As you eat, servers come around with buckets full of side items like okra and fried potatoes. The kids get helium balloons on the way out, and play on the wooden train for a while before we leave.

We arrive at our hotel, hand over the debit card, and are informed that it has been declined. What?! Online transfers are real-time. Crap -- what happened? She runs it through again, this time for a bit less after we promise we won't make any long-distance calls from the room. Success. I rush upstairs to boot up the laptop and figure out what happened.

Oh. The rental car company added a $200 deposit to the total amount. When I transferred the money, I left myself only a $200 buffer. I transfer some more.

We're all a lot happier to be in a hotel. Everything is clean. There is a small balcony that overlooks the bay. The kids are giddy thinking of the breakfast that will be offered downstairs in the morning. We are finally starting to feel as though we are on vacation.