Have you ever been to a wax museum.? A couple of years ago we went to Washington D.C. and one of the places we went was a wax museum. it was very nice and well lit and not scary - the wax dummies looked like wax. But years earlier on our honeymoon we stopped at a small potatoes wax museum somewhere in Kentucky. That museum scared the s&*$ out of us. You had to walk through a door into a long dark walkway, and the door locked behind you with a thud/latch. Along the way were dummies. W were certain we were traveling down a walkway to our deaths. We were making our peace with God - and then we rounded the corner to the final display. Which was a wax figure of Jesus. We knew it was a sign. And past Him was the only way out. A single black door. Do we open the door? If it is a door to death can you just crack the door and peek out? Then if it is bad, run back through terror tunnel and bang on the locked door? We decided to join hands and push open the door together - bonded against certain demise by our love. We opened it, closed our eyes and took a step. Into the parking lot. AND THEN RAN TO OUR CAR AND SPED AWAY! Death - come back another day.
Our first year of married bliss, for Valentine's Day Bret took me skiing for the first time. I had no clue how to ski, but I was too impatient to wait through a lesson. Bret took me to the bunny hill, showed me how to put my skis on and gave me a lesson on how to start and stop. Then he took off down a big hill for awhile, leaving me to my own devices. I was afraid of even the bunny slope, so I was take off and then immediately stop myself. Pause. Take off again and then immediately stop myself. All the way down the bunny hill. So I made it. Now, to get up to the top. I looked at the ski lift, and that didn't look safe enough - not even a bar over you as you sail through the air. But I didn't want to have to walk all the way to the top so I hopped on the ski lift. Fear flying through the air. I mean, the ground wasn't even close - if I sneezed I would fall and die. Finally we get reasonably close to the ground. I watch the people in front of me gracefully just hop off and land on their skis. Easy. Ok, I can do this. But then I lost my nerve. But then the lift started to go up again and THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO RISK MY LIFE ON THAT THING AGAIN. I had no choice. Only, when I got off the ski lift there was no grace or class to it. There was no landing on my skis effortlessly. I fell - too far off the ground because I waited too long, panicking. I landed all over the place with tons of people watching. And then got up and ski'd-stopped. Ski'd-stopped my way to the top again. From then on and I just climbed the hill which made me hot. By the time Bret got back to me I had stripped down to the bare essentials, and had ski'd myself right through the ski instructor's lesson. 
We went several years afterwards with no vacations (who can blame us with our track record?) But when the 4 year old stepson had grown to the ripe fold age of 10 and my baby bump was a 6 year old girl - we went on the grand daddy family vacation. To Disney World. That vacation was chock full of mishaps (Tommy got the stomach flu our first night there).
Our first experience was driving there. We were a couple of hours away and low on fuel. The car we were driving told us how many miles we could drive on the gas we had in our tank. The gas was getting really low so we decided to stop to fuel up. The gas thingy told us that we could go about 30 miles before we ran out of gas. Problem is, we were stuck in an area where there were no towns! And no gas station. We prayed and prayed and eventually did make it to a town - coasting in on fumes. The one stretch of interstate all that way with no civilization and no gas. Just our luck!
We were there for a week, but a couple of days into it we went to Animal Kingdom. The kids rode a few rides and were having fun. And then we entered Dinosaur World. Two things about Tommy: he didn't think any of the rides we had gone on were exciting enough, and he was a former dinosaur fanatic. And then we saw IT. A ride - featuring dinosaurs - that promised thrills and chills.
Now Bret and I are thinking - how scary can it really be? It was in DinoWorld in Disneyworld - the happiest place on earth. After waiting in line in a sunny lobby, we made our way to a set of doors. When opened, the doors took us to a very dark, damp set of metal stairs going down, underground. There we were briefed by a video of the mom from The Cosby's about a top secret mission featuring "real" dinosaurs. Cute right? NO! We got in these boats which took us through tunnels of terror very similar to the wax museum of death. The boats took us through a dark waterway where we would be able to see nothing, only hear very faint moans, but THEN OUT OF THE DARKNESS A DINOSAUR WOULD POP OUT AT US AND BLOW HOT AIR IN OUT FACE!!! We were terrified!!!!! Tatum and I screamed outright in unashamed fear. Bret wasn't scared cause he lived though the wax museum - nothing can get to him now. Tommy said he wasn't scared - although at the end of the ride they kindly flashed a ride photo up on a screen and there was a certain 10 year old boy -screaming. Pictures don't lie!
“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”
― Isabelle Eberhardt, The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt
Our family needs a vacation from our vacations.
People Can Plan What They Want To Do,
But It Is The Lord Who Guides Our Steps
Proverbs 16:9
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