I gut-shuddered reading this. Ours had a bar too.

Growing up my parents would rent a cabin somewhere in the northern part of our state for a week every summer. It was the early years of online listings (but you had to contact the owner by phone/email) and somehow my mom agreed to rent a place despite the owner declining to share photos. It was....bad. Small, dingy…

Every. Single. Year. My parents get a condo down at Orange Beach, AL.

I was 12. My family (mom, dad, and 2 year old brother) are invited on a budget vacation in the Florida Keys with another family, consisting of a mom, dad, teenage daughter, and two younger children. “We can stay for free!” at the vacation home of the grandfather of dad-friend, who is none other than the late county…

Well there was the one summer when I was 13 at my grandparent’s place in Spain (they were typical British ‘ex-pats’ living in an almost all English neighbourhood) where I started my period and got mastitis. Having a breast exam when you’re 13 from a doctor who doesn’t speak a word of English was *chef’s kiss*. Plus my…

Not a summer vacation, and not family. In 2000, I was having a tough time, several family bereaved including my dad. A friend of mine was also widowed that year, so we decided to go off on holiday together. Another friend had moved to ireland, so she invited us over. We had all met up before, so I knew them getting…

My family love hiking and me and my sister grew up hiking in the mountains, sleeping in tents etc. However, it has apparently always been my mom’s dream to canoe across a mountain plateau close to where she grew up. So the 10-day trip was planned and collapsible canoes bought. We start by hauling the canoes up the…

One summer, the parentals decided that it would be a GREAT idea to fly out to Tennessee, rent a minivan, and drive through the Smokies with my grandparents. This... was never going to end well.

So, I was a regular attendee of Christian horse camp when I was a kid. Didn’t care so much about Jesus, even though I tried, but I was all-in on the campfires and trail rides.

I was invited to go camping in North Central Washington state - Lake Bonaparte - in June. I had no part in planning it. It being June, I assumed everything would be warm and fine. We got to the camp site and there was snow on the ground. It was 8 at night and we were hours from civilization, so we decided to pitch…

My mom and dad thought it would be fun to schedule our time in Old Forge for a couple nights and then “wing it” the final two nights. Except that it was August, in the Adirondacks, and we were three tweens in a minivan with air conditioning that didn’t work, and we kept driving up to hotels with “No Vacancy” signs on…

I would probably “win” this posting but there is so much abuse and triggering stuff involved that I’m going to sit this one out. Pouring a seltzer tonight for others, like me, who have experienced such horrible vacations that have irrevocably broken their families.

I’m the eldest of 4 and we are all 4 years apart, so you can imagine all the horrible birthdays I was dragged along to. I hated the food and noise, even as a kid. My sister was about 8 at the time and I was 12 and she brought a van full of friends to Chuck E Cheese. They ate the nasty pizza and were playing in the…

PICTURED: Charles E. Cheese attempting to secret assets from the bankruptcy court:

ya know, I’ve heard folks that worked at Chuck E’s, that a huge quarter-driven petri dish of sick & ick, wind up inoculated against almost every communicable disease known to man.  Consider yourself lucky. 

I guess we’ll eventually have to tell my daughter and nieces that our local Cheeze bit the dust during COVID. The hard part will be not smiling while they cry. Not because I’m a monster who likes making children cry, but because I may never have to visit one of those awful places again.

Tangentially related, but I just bought a bottle of Faygo Cotton Candy flavored soda. I actually said “ew, gross” out loud, but before I knew it, I was opening the cooler and into the basket it went. I just had to get that off my chest.

Alright just the bite mark and bloody leg thing should be enough to freak people the fuck out, but a kid with open wounds sliding through toddler diarrhea? How did this not end up in some kind of 20/20 murder feud?

The E. stands for Entertainment? I though it stood for E.coli.

I brought my kids three times to Chucky Cheeze. The first time, about three days later we all caught the most nasty flu ever. The second time, went fine, so we went back a third time with friends and their kids. This whole next thing happened in about 30 seconds.
We were watching them play around when a kid slides…