I was born in northern England but spent a majority of my life playing in the beachy suburbs of Florida. It wasn’t exactly a smooth move on my family’s behalf. I think for any little kid, a move to a foreign country isn’t the easiest thing to handle, but we took the deal and grew (somewhat) accustomed to the sweltering heat and the daily, summer rain explosions. One thing that was quite new to us though was “Florida’s Hurricane Season.” Although I was quite little, I still remember a particular hurricane called Hurricane Elena. It was 1985 I believe, young enough to still love theme parks and also to feel cursed by my strong British accent.

Hurricane Elena took a strange path through the Gulf of Mexico, which included a loop, and prompted many Floridians to evacuate from the coastline. Being that my family lived 5 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico, we were included in this mass exodus.

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The timing couldn’t have been better for us though. We had just secured our summer, family vacation in the centrally located, family loving, theme park boasting wonderland that is Orlando, Florida, for that exact weekend. For any kid, this is obviously a complete dream come true.

While others were packing their belongings and driving to the nearest school or church to take shelter in, our family was packing up the car with neon cotton sunhats, 35 proof sunblock and kid travel games for an amazing trip to Disney World! This was probably the most fun I ever had on a family vacation for the sheer reason of feeling like “the lucky one.”  Lame, perhaps, but unforgettable.

When we returned home, everything was in tact except for our pale English skin which missed some proper sun-blocking.