Great vacation moments: wardrobe malfunction

Our family has just returned from Hawaii, where we spent a week dividing our days between the beach and the pool and spending the children's college funds on lunch at Burger King.

One day while my husband was working, the kids and I went to the beach by ourselves. The kids immediately got to work with their buckets and shovels down by the water. As I bent over to pick up the sunscreen, my bikini top came unsnapped.

This was not a topless beach, so while carefully avoiding eye contact with nearby sunbathers, I quickly grabbed the straps and tried to fasten it again. Unfortunately the plastic clasp had completely broken. (Note to self: never again buy a bikini top with a plastic clasp.)

Obviously, I needed a plan.

Plan A: Go back to the hotel room and change into my other suit. Still holding the pieces together behind my back, I walked down toward the water and told my oldest son I needed his help. "We have to go back to the room because my swimsuit broke!" I told him.

He shrugged and went back to working on his castle.

I contemplated trying to convince three kids to leave the beach one minute after arriving at the beach, all without using my hands.

On to the next plan.

Plan B: Tie the straps of my suit together. This turned out to be an impossible feat of dexterity.

Plan C: Ask someone else to tie the straps together. This finally solved my problem, although it was painfully tight. At least I knew it wasn't coming off again.

I can only hope that someone was snapping a nice family photo at the exact moment I was in the background leaning over, and it will soon be posted all over the Internet so that I can become scandalously famous.

Or at the very least, a few innocent bystanders will have a humorous vacation anecdote to share with family and friends.