Our Travel & Vomit Story

Soon, I am going to start writing a weekly column for the amazing travel website, Traveling Mom. Whenever the founder, Kim Orlando, interviews someone for an article, she always asks a vomit story, since every mom seems to have one.  I thought it would be a fun idea to post ours, since it’s actually a long story.

My husband and I have gone on many trips, and unfortunately have had our own share of vomit stories, involving a few factors, alcohol, illness, or bad food.  But the ultimate vomit story happened in 2005, when we went on our first real vacation with our daughter.

My friend Liz was getting married in Sonoma Valley, one of our favorite spots in the world.  My husband and I used to vacation in Napa/Sonoma annually, and once my daughter was born, we’d figured that we wouldn’t go there again anytime soon.  Since we had the wedding to attend, and my daughter was only 7 months, we decided to take one final trip.

Children weren’t invited to the wedding, so we hired an in room sitter at our hotel.  The winery was about a 15 minute drive from the hotel, and while my friend thoughtfully provided a shuttle, we chose to drive since we were so nervous about our daughter being with the sitter.  I had wanted the ability to leave anytime in case of emergency.

We didn’t think we would know anyone at the wedding, but my friend had been very smart about the seating arrangements, and sat 6 to a table, with us sitting with several others with ties to Boston.  One of women actually had been one of my husband’s co-workers in the past, and we found ourselves chatting quite a bit with everyone.

When the meal was finished, we all headed outside, for dancing, a cigar bar, a port bar, and dessert.  At that point, we pretty much lost track of the other couples, until we decided to leave.  The first shuttle bus had left a few minutes earlier, and as we headed down the stairs toward the parking lot, we ran into my husband’s former co-worker and her husband.  They had just missed the shuttle and were waiting for it to return.

Since we were all headed to the same place, we offered them a ride.  They were very concerned about how much alcohol my husband had consumed (he was completely sober), and after talking to him, they felt comfortable getting in the car.  We had a nice ride back, talking the whole way, until we arrived right in front of the hotel.  Suddenly, the husband shrieked, “Let me out, let me out”, and then proceeded to vomit all over our rental car, as well as all over his suit.  When we pulled into a parking spot, they both ran out of the car and rushed into the lobby.

My husband and I were shocked, but also amused.  Especially when we headed to the lobby to see all of the front desk staff laughing hysterically.  My husband, great guy that he is, had to completely clean the car himself.  And the guy who did it?  Never offered to help, never apologized, and we never heard from him again.

Luckily for us, that seemed to break our vomit streak!  No vomit on vacation since!!