Summer Vacation: Cut short...sort of...

Phew.

So. My dad's side of the family was planning to have this week-long bash at a wonderful lake resort to celebrate Grampa and Gramma's 50th anniversary!

*short round of applause*


And we were indeed having a blast!

Meg made a cake...

I discovered the chair of my DREAMS (seriously...I wish I could buy that thing from the resort!!!)...

We swam in the lake, having a great time on all the awesome inflatables and rafts, eating delicious meals, and enjoying our time together, since we hadn't seen each other in a while.

And for that one moment, everything was perfect.

And than that moment ended.

On the third day of our vacation, I awoke at about 7:15 a. m. to what sounded like the air conditioning having a stroke (roaring like a monster). Than I realized it was the wind, so I peeked out the window and was like, "Wow....that's strong wind. Ah well. Back to sleep."

About 0.5 seconds later, I was jolted awake by my younger brother shouting, "WE HAVE TO GO TO THE BASEMENT! THERE'S A TORNADO COMING!!"

Say wha?

I fully admit this was ALL my fault. After taking one peek at that creepy basement, I declared I would not set foot in it unless a tornado was coming. I apologize, family and fellow vacationers.

Well, tornado or no tornado, I really needed my glasses, some shoes, and to go to the bathroom.

A small child was shoved at me and I went straight to the basement with no glasses, no shoes, and still needing to use the bathroom.

Aw, well.

The basement wouldn't have been so bad...if there hadn't been a GAPING HOLE IN THE FLOOR. Don't ask me what its purpose was...some water pipes drained into it, but I don't know why it looked like a crater. Weird.

It was a dark and blustery morning, indeed.

Grampa opted to stay in bed. Fortunately, Gramma and the Aunts insisted he come down.

We were down there at least fifteen, twenty minutes, joking and making light of it, while my meteorologist father stood by the window going, "WOW! That's gotta be 80 mile-per-hour wind! Wow! Look at that lightning!"

Oh...did I mention the power was out? No? Go figure.

So, when we FINALLY went back upstairs, anticipating cold bagels with cream cheese (not bad, but we were anticipating egg muffins *shniff*), we were all pretty stunned.

We had no idea from the basement how BAD it was.

When we took a walk later, the damage was incredible:

From the window...grass and bits of leaves were ripped up and plastered onto houses!

On the path...why did only the FLOWERS stay put??

Holy buckets...the floating mat blew up into someones yard!

Tree uprooted right by our house...thank You God it wasn't big enough to hit us/cause damage!

The deck stuff all scattered../

That same uprooted pine from outside

Some poor people's cars...

A badly flooded yard.

The Saturn floaty blown into shrubs far from the beach!

One of the flooded paths.

The water trampoline, popped and blown up over a fallen electrical pole.

A wagon fell into the hole caused by this uprooted tree (see below)

EEP!

The ONE thing I was sure would be out of the water was still there....the slippery mat.

Ripped up path...see the uprooted tree there?

Ok...CRAZY! This line of debris shows how high the waves washed up on the shore!!

Beach chairs...part of a dock...

There used to be a dock there. I jumped off of it less than 12 hours before...

A wooden dock...what was left of it :(

Flooding...our cars were all spared!

More ripped up dock.

An up-side-down pontoon....not something you see everyday.

Ripped up docks...oy.

With no electricity and a heat advisory on the way, not to mention the mournful word from the manager that he had no idea when he'll be able to reopen, we could either rough it or leave.

But where?

Well, the closest place was....

HOME SWEET HOME.

So, aside from one aunt and uncle who decided to go home (since they were close, too), we all made the two hour drive to our place, where we'll be continuing our family vacation till next Saturday.

And how was YOUR summer vacation?