Parenting Guru: Ode to Summer Travel...being over!

Our family has a reputation for complex travel stories. Rarely do things go smoothly. If there's any chance of delays, lost luggage or acts of God, we are there. Right smack in the middle of things. Case in point: our latest 3 generation family reunion trip last month.

Could we have a stress-free departure? Nope. How about being in the path of Hurricane Irene? Sure, we can do that. Unexpected layover in Miami? Check. Brand new laptop left behind in taxi? Yup. And I'm not going to get into the fire alarm going off in the airport, the fact that everyone had to be deplaned due to lightning, or the extra trips through security. Suffice to say, we did eventually arrive, flustered but safe.

So, you'd think we would get a free pass on the return trip, right? Far from it. Hurricane Irene wasn't done wreaking havoc on our travel plans. She kept veering into the path of every place we were attempting to go. My husband ended up flying separately and had a 24 hour odyssey involving 2 planes and a 16 hour drive with random strangers. And when he got home, he found the power in our house had been out for 4 days (Irene again!). There's nothing like throwing away spoiled food and no electricity to say "Welcome home!".

Not to be left out, when the kids and I managed to get a flight 5 (!) days later, my teenaged son was flagged by customs because -- wait for it ---he apparently shares the name of someone on the terrorist list and had to be cleared by Washington. That charming pit stop shockingly did not make us miss our connecting flight, which had been delayed (no running water, no captain, no assigned seat for one of us, no kidding). Really, it's sort of a miracle we arrived home.

Believe it or not, the vacation itself was pretty wonderful. Compared to others' experiences with Irene, we shouldn't complain.The optimistic view would be that, in the end, we were able to spend an extended time together in the Caribbean as a family. I'm sure those are the memories that will live on much longer than these pesky travel ills. But for now I'm staying put. I don't have the energy for another vacation.

Have you experienced a family travel fiasco? Care to share?