Debby...

As mentioned, I turned 25 this year and Regina turned 21.  I thought it would be a fun tradition to start with my sisters that for every big birthday - we plan a trip and celebrate together.  As kids, Regina and I were very close and always loved to go to the beach.  We would wake up - be at the beach by 9 (with lunches packed by yours truly) and stay until 5.

So - in the spirit of wanting to re-live our beach days - I planned a 5 day trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  I looked up all kinds of things to do before we departed and was very excited to get away for a few days with her.

Regina arrived in New York and we got all of our bags together to leave for what we were expecting to be days and days of lounging in the sun and going out to dinner and drinks.  Our car picked us up to go to the airport and we were on our way!

Our flight down was pretty delayed but we made the best of it.  "Peanuts, pretzels, cookies?" asked the flight attendant to every person on the plane.  Whatever they answered it was a resounding "OKAY."  We were like okay lady, enough, just get us to sunny Florida!

Anyway - we made it to Florida - found a cab and were taken to our hotel.

We were greeted by a very nice bellhop who assured us that we would have a great time, the weather was going to be great and the ocean temperature was lovely.  Why thank you, kind sir, that is exactly what we were hoping you would say.

After getting our room keys and dropping off our bags, we went to the hotel restaurant, Dos Caminos, and ordered margaritas, chips and salsa and a quesadilla (and in Noonan form, picked away at the cheese).  We were excited - and even heard our Dad's favorite song by Earth, Wind and Fire!  This was going to be awesome.

It was a long day of traveling, so we finished up our food and went to rest up in order to wake up early to get to the beach.

The next morning, we woke up.  To. This.

Oh. Is that the beginning of tropical storm Debby you ask?

Ding, ding, ding.

Okay - we thought - this will be just a passing storm and we will go to the beach tomorrow.  No problem - let's lounge in our room and order a movie - we could use a day of relaxation.  We decided to go out to dinner and drinks despite the monsoon outside.  We ended up having a great time at a bar that had live music and we were just remaining positive that this was just a one-day-thing.

Then we woke up the next morning:

That is correct - Regina - up against the window watching the rain fall again.  Welp - okay.  Not a passing storm.  What do we do?  Order room service.  Order another movie on our room TV.

After the movie - I lost it.  I admit it - straight up cried.  How did this happen?  The one place I did not want to be was inside.  We both bought new bathing suits to wear during the day, new clothes to wear at night - how was this happening!

So we decided - these bathing suits aren't going to waste - we have a bathtub.  We are getting in.

And this is what you might call our rock bottom.

Then, after we surfed for a little bit, we just decided - you know what - we are going out.  That's it.  Got dressed and went out to brave Debby.

The best medicine for a tropical storm?

Margaritas bigger than our heads.  And they were two for one - so we had to.

This was followed by a walk around town and dinner at an Italian restaurant.  We went back to the apartment praying that we might see the sun - just once.

I woke up to what I thought was a glimmer of sunlight so I ran over the the window and by the grace of God - the sun was out.  I screamed to Regina to wake up and I think in about 6 seconds flat, she was in her bathing suit and we were out on the beach.

 We soaked in as many rays as possible and went inside to get ready for dinner on our last night.

So - all in all - it was a trip that we will never forget and is much easier to look back and smile at it now than when we were there.

To give you perspective, Regina interned at a PR firm this summer and when we got back, she was looking up articles for work and this is what she found:

While much of the country was bone dry, Florida had its wettest June on record. The Sunshine State was more than six inches above average precipitation, much of it caused by Tropical Storm Debby. 

As you can imagine, the name Debby still makes me cringe and the only request that I have to Victoria  is that she has a good 5 years to say prayers that wherever we go for her 21st birthday, we are not surfing in the bathtub and ordering $16 movies on the TV for 5 days straight.