A few mishaps attempted to upend our recent family vacation to NOLA:

On vacay evening one, my son, who wasn’t feeling well the entire trip, vomited all-up-in the Dave and Buster’s. There wasn’t a single change-of-clothes in his diaper bag, so he and I ended up chilling in the car for over an hour.Also, on this National Lampoon’s NOLA summer vacation, The Lafreniere Spray Park attendant ended up getting sick resulting in an early closure and the girls being unable to play at the more affordable non-Audubon $5 splashpad. So, we hit the playground up and ate yummy snoballs instead.It gets better though…. I ended up reporting my debit card lost when it was in my purse the entire time ’cause I’m a boss and I make boss moves or whateva.Now, the coup de gras was when thunderstorms and flash flooding hit on Wednesday morning, nervously waking us all up and demanding that we take life seriously. We learned that Tropical Storm Barry had formed and was expected to hit Louisiana as a hurricane and cause life-threatening flooding. Back-to-back tornado warnings led us to the hallway for some serio-comedy.The sudden and non-stop rain left our vehicle surrounded by floodwater and debris– giving us a taste of what could possibly occur if we hung around the rest of the week.For this trip, our AirBnB was a beautifully remodeled shotgun home situated in a neighborhood off of Canal.This is also the same location where the photo of a man “swimming down the street” soon surfaced on the internet. Nonetheless, we made it our home-away-from-home for three days before deciding to cut our plans short and weather the storm back to the Sipp.Overall, this vacation was impromptu, entertaining, endearing, economical and quirky.Not too much went according to my plan, and that oddly turned out to bless me beyond measure. As a result of our unpredictable family escapade, I was forced to relax, go with the flow, and trust the wonders of nature without being over-tethered by plans.And having to wait patiently on street water to drain and clear is quite the wonder. There’s a quote that goes, “No matter the natural disaster I’ve covered, whether it’s a wildfire or flood, I always come back with a much greater perspective.” Almost always, it doesn’t matter what is going wrong or how difficult things may get. ‘Tis life. And with children, it proves to be more chaotic, humbling, and gratifying in that the key takeaways are nestled in the memories you create and the miracles you encounter along the way.

Clinnesha is a writer, wife, mom, meta-artist, and social entrepreneur who feels most accountable to southern, black citizen-artists, elders, children, and families. Her work is at the intersection of arts, culture, innovation, and community.