Morrison Family Summer Vacation

It's my favorite time of summer again! Every August, I spend a week with my parents and brother on the beach in Carlsbad, California (North Coast of San Diego). We've been staying in the same two-story condo on the beach for the past 15 years, and every year it gets better and better.

While they fly six hours from New York to get here, it takes me less than an hour and a half to fly from San Francisco. Every year my dad says "Now, we have to go to sleep at 9 tonight so that we're not jet lagged this week." Fortunately, this statement no longer applies to me (though, I still end up going to bed early and waking up early because that's how vacation works). Normally a mere comment like this would send my brother into his groaning eye-roll, but he agrees with my dad this time and mentions that it would be nice to wake up early and take advantage of the day.

Before settling into our condo, we stop for a nice lunch in Del Mar Heights. We sit atop the roof patio, sipping on a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and talking about how well our parents brought us up with such an open communication about drugs and alcohol. After our lunch arrives, we decide to order another bottle because, after all, we ARE Morrisons.

The rest of our afternoon consists of Mommy and me, Daddy and he activities: manicures and pedicures and some window shopping, and a trip to BevMo to stock up on booze (which will honestly probably only last the first two nights, if that) and a stop by the 24-Hour gym to sign up for the week - God forbid my brother goes a week without pumping iron. My dad pays a whopping $15 for the three of us to use the gym for the week, and he doesn't shut up about this deal, and he probably won't for the rest of the vacation.

We order take-out from our favorite California-Italian restaurant up the street, and watch the sunset - a family tradition for the first night of every summer vacation. My dad goes Ape-shit if he doesn't get to see the sunset at least four out of the six nights we're here. "That's what we're paying for! Sunset on the beach and the sound of the ocean in our bedrooms!" It never gets old.

After two bottles of white, and one of red, my mom suggests it's time to open another bottle of red. The four of us finish off the last of the four bottles of wine, sitting in front of my brothers laptop watching the Yankee game, streaming live from mlb.com. While my brother and my parents are DIE HARD Yankees fans, it only comes out in me when I am with them. Or if they're playing the Red Sox. In any case, the four of us sit together on the couch watching the game, making jokes and laughing about how ridiculous we would look to any other normal person.

At the ages of 24 and 20, I suppose my younger brother and I are old enough now to actually enjoy time spent with each other and with our parents. My parents have become more like friends to me, and I hope that my brother gets to that point soon. I can tell he is still annoyed by our constant presence around him, but hopefully he will be able to make it through the rest of the week without cringing.