The Craziest Things That Have Ever Happened to Us While Traveling

It was late.

We’d just landed in the Dominican Republic.

People were everywhere. Drivers held signs. Families collided into hugs. Everyone looked like they knew exactly where they were going…

…except us.

We’d skipped the resort. Dad booked an Airbnb instead — somewhere more local, more real. Which sounded like a great idea until we were standing in a crowded airport at night with no idea who was supposed to be picking us up.

Then a man walked up.

“Are you the family I’m looking for?”

We looked at each other. Nobody answered fast enough.

He pointed us toward a van anyway.

“Dad,” Angelina said. “Do you actually know where we’re going?”

Dad looked up from his phone.

“Not really.”

Nobody said anything for a second. If this was actually happening, this was actually happening.

Dad disappeared to sign paperwork. We stood there — surrounded by security guards, a stranger’s van running outside, no idea if this was the start of a vacation or a very bad decision.

Ten minutes felt like an hour.

Then Dad came back, keys in hand, completely normal, like nothing had happened.

Turned out the driver was legit. The paperwork was for the rental car. The van was ours the whole time.

We got in the car and started laughing before we even left the parking lot.

The Airbnb That Made the Whole Panic Worth It

The drive felt endless. Dark roads, no signs, Dad squinting at his phone every few minutes going “I think it’s this way.”

Then we pulled up.

Horses. Walking. On the beach. Right outside our door.

The Airbnb wasn’t a resort — it was better. Local bakeries down the street. Food nobody puts on a hotel menu. Neighborhoods you’d never see from behind a resort gate.

Ask Bella what she remembers most about the Dominican Republic.

The beach?

Nope.

The horses?

Nope.

She’ll start talking about the pastries before you even finish the question.

The Bathroom Scarlett Will Never Recover From

Hawaii. A beach. A restroom that, from the outside, looked like the cleanest one on the whole coastline.

Scarlett walked in first.

She did not walk out the same.

Nobody’s saying exactly what happened to her shoe. Just that it involved a step she can’t take back, a scream the whole beach probably heard, and a very long, very committed cleaning process involving salt water, sunshine, and what Scarlett swears was “aggressive optimism.”

Scarlett was horrified. The rest of us couldn’t stop laughing.

She got the shoe back eventually. We have never let her forget it.

Why Bella Will Never Trust a Bird Again

Every family has one fear nobody’s allowed to make fun of.

In ours, it’s birds. Not little birds. The big ones. Ostriches. Emus. Anything that looks like it could out-sprint you in a parking lot.

It started at an ostrich attraction when Bella was little, and it never really left.

Years later, Aiden decided he’d be the one to fix it.

At the zoo, with zero warning, he picked up a bird and set it directly on her shoulder.

Let’s just say his plan wasn’t exactly successful.

Bella did not thank him. She has still not thanked him.

The Ones You Don’t Plan

Nobody plans a stranger asking if you’re “the family he’s looking for.” Nobody plans a shoe. Nobody plans Aiden deciding a bird belongs on Bella’s shoulder.

That’s the part nobody tells you about traveling with your family — the best stories are never the ones you packed for.

Ask Bella about the Dominican Republic and she’ll bring up pastries.

Ask her about birds and she’ll just glare at Aiden.

Some things you don’t have to explain. You just have to have been there.

The full conversation behind this story — including a few more that didn’t make it here — is on WAG Podcast.