Railroad

"Okay, Sam, I've finished packing all of Jason's things," Freddie said, coming into his and Sam's bedroom, where Sam was playing with their three-year old son on their bed. "I called and confirmed our reservations at the hotel, filled up the car with gas for the trip, made sure that Carly had her spare key so she could bring in our mail while we're away. Did you pack all of your stuff?"

"Huh?" Sam asked, looking up. "Oh, no. I'll get to it tomorrow."

"We leave tomorrow, Sam!" Freddie exclaimed.

"Oh calm down," Sam said. "I'll do it…eventually."

"Tomorrow's vacation day!" Jason said excitedly, jumping up and down on the bed.

"That's right," Freddie nodded, scooping the toddler up in his arms. "But you know what? We can't go on vacation tomorrow if mommy doesn't pack."

Jason gasped and turned to Sam. "Mommy! Pack!"

Sam glared at Freddie. "That was a low blow, Benson."

"Hey, I didn't do anything," Freddie smirked triumphantly. "I'm not saying you have to pack right now. But if you want disappoint poor, excited little Jason, then-"

"Oh can it!" Sam snapped, getting up and heading to her closet to pull out her suitcase.

"Alrighty then," Freddie said happily. "Come on, Jason. Let's leave mommy alone so she can pack for tomorrow."

"Vacation!" Jason cheered excitedly. "Vacation! Vacation! Yay!"

"How much longer?"

"I told you," Freddie sighed, gripping the steering wheel. "At least another hour."

"An hour? That's forever!"

"Sam, you're acting worse than Jason," Freddie said, rolling his eyes.

"Well I'm bored," Sam moaned. "I knew you should've let me drive. We would've been there by now!"

"Yeah, and we would've probably had 500 dollars worth of speeding fines too," Freddie chuckled.

"Watch it, nub," Sam warned.

"Come on, baby, don't get all mad during our first family vacation with Jason," Freddie said.

Sam looked back at her sleeping son in the backseat of the car.

"Fine," she conceded. "I'll try not to get mad about your insanely slow driving."

"Thank you," Freddie said. "You know, this is our first vacation in awhile too. We haven't gone anywhere since the year before Jason was born."

"Oh yeah," Sam nodded. "We went to Italy."

"That was nice," Freddie smiled. "Real romantic."

"Yeah, well, I doubt we can spend this vacation laying in bed all day drinking fancy wine and watching movies," Sam pointed out.

"Probably wouldn't work out too well with a three-year old running around," Freddie chuckled. "But it's still gonna be fun."

"I know," Sam said. "Jason's really going to love the beach house we're staying at. And we can take him to that boardwalk with all the cool games and rides. Oh, and we've got to take him to that crab leg shack. They're supposed to have the best seafood on the planet. And I bet there's a lot of ice cream shops around there. And they probably have churros! And-"

"Sam, calm down, you'll get your food," Freddie said, amused. "But we should also check out the history of the place too."

"History?" Sam repeated in a disgusted tone.

"Yeah," Freddie said. "Those small little beach towns are filled with history. We can check out some of the rock formations, go to the ship museum, tour the lighthouse, learn about the tide pools. Oh, and there's supposed to be an old railroad just outside the town we can visit!"

"In case you didn't know, nub, vacations are supposed to be fun," Sam said. "Not educational."

"Education can be fun."

"Yeah, sure, and root canals can be painless," Sam mumbled.

"Look, let's just do everything, okay?" Freddie said. "We'll be here for the whole weekend. We can go to the boardwalk for you and we'll do the educational things for me."

"Fine," Sam conceded. "We'll compromise. You happy?"

"Thrilled," Freddie said, satisfied.

…..

"Isn't this a cool place, Jason?" Freddie asked the next morning, opening the blinds of the window in the beach house him and Sam had rented for the weekend. It had a perfect view of the white sand and crystal blue waves.

"Yeah!" Jason nodded, pressing his nose against the window. "Can I make a sandcastle?"

"Sure, we'll be at the beach for a couple hours, you'll have time," Freddie nodded. "And then we get to a fun museum before stopping at the boardwalk."

"My sandcastle's gonna be big," Jason said, ignoring his father. "And I'm gonna be the king of it."

"You guys ready?" Sam asked, coming into the room wearing a pair of shorts and a bright red bikini top.

"Well don't you look good," Freddie smirked, walking over to his wife and giving her a kiss.

"Try not to drool, Fredwad," Sam grinned, grabbing a tank top from her beach bag on the counter and pulling it on. "So how about this? We stay at the beach for two hours, grab lunch at the crab shack before going to your stupid museum. Then we can stop at the boardwalk afterwards so I can go on the giant roller costar there, and then we'll drive by that railroad on our way back here."

"Sounds good to me," Freddie nodded.

"Beach time?" Jason asked, looking up at his parents.

"Yes, Jason," Sam laughed, taking the three-year olds hand. "It's beach time."

Freddie opened the sliding glass door in the living room and him, Sam and Jason stepped out onto the beach.

The family found a spot where the sun was shining down and laid out their towels.

"You want to go into the ocean, Jason?" Freddie asked.

"No," Jason said, pulling out his bucket and shovel Sam had packed for him. "I want to build a sandcastle."

"Okay," Sam nodded, sitting down on her towel so she could keep an eye on her son. "You need any help?"

"No," Jason shook his head. "I want to build it all on my own."

"If you insist," Sam said.

"Look at this cool brochure I printed off from the Internet about that ship museum," Freddie said, sitting down next to Sam and Jason began to build. "It's supposed to have four flours, forty-six show rooms and a gift shop where you can buy your own captain's hat."

"What would you do with a captain's hat?" Sam asked.

"You know, wear it when I race remote control boats with Gibby and Spencer," Freddie shrugged.

"Well I can't wait for the board walk tonight," Sam said. "That roller costar, the Skull Bruiser, is supposed to have the steepest drops in the country! Plus they say you're upside down for almost the entire ride!"

"Wow…I think I'll definitely sit that one out then," Freddie said.

"Wimp," Sam smirked.

…..

Two hours later, Sam and Freddie were quite ready to leave the beach. True, they both enjoyed being out in the sea air, but they were both excited to move onto their respective activities.

"Okay Jason, time to go," Sam said, getting up off her towel.

"No," Jason frowned. "I'm still building my sandcastle!"

"Jason, you've been building for two hours," Freddie said. "Don't you want to go to a nice museum now?"

"No," Jason said firmly. "My castle has to be bigger!"

"See, even he knows that museum was a lame idea," Sam said. "Jason wants to go to the boardwalk, don't you sweetie?"

"No, I want to stay at the beach!" Jason said. "I love the beach!"

Sam and Freddie looked at each other.

"Okay," Sam told him. "We'll stay."

"Just for one more hour," Freddie said. "And then you have to say bye-bye to the beach."

"Hey!" Carly grinned Sunday evening, as Sam, Freddie and Jason walked back into their home. "How was the vacation?"

"I built the biggest sandcastle ever, Aunt Carly!" Jason said excitedly. "Show her, mommy!"

"Yup, he built a pretty big one," Sam said, pulling out her Pearphone and showing Carly the picture she took of it.

"Whoa, this is even better than the sandcastle Uncle Spencer made that won first place in his big sandcastle building contest," Carly said.

"Jason, why don't you bring your bag upstairs and start unpacking your souvenirs," Freddie said.

"Okay!" Jason said, hurrying up to his bedroom.

"Did you guys have fun?" Carly asked.

"Yeah," Sam nodded.

"Well what'd you do?" Carly asked. "I bet you rode that Skull Bruiser ride at the boardwalk a million times, Sam."

"Actually, we never even made it to the boardwalk," Sam sighed.

"Or my ship museum," Freddie added.

"Why not?" Carly frowned. "You were gone for a whole weekend; didn't you have time?"

"Oh we had time," Sam said. "But we also had a three-year old who was very set on staying at the beach until he finished building his masterpiece of a sandcastle."

"We couldn't get him to leave," Freddie said. "Thank God the place we were staying at was on the beach or we probably would've had to sleep out on the sand."

"Aw," Carly chuckled. "That's kind of cute."

"Yeah, tell that to my sunburned back," Freddie winced.

"Yeah, and my neck is scorched," Sam said. "But besides from that…hanging out at the beach this whole weekend wasn't too horrible."

"I did get a lot of pictures for the Benson Family Album I'm starting," Freddie agreed.

"Oh God," Sam mumbled, rolling her eyes.