Trapped in an Elevator During Vacation: A Maine Family’s Nightmarish Adventure

Let me preface this by saying, everybody is fine. We're all okay.

However, here's the story: one of those fears you never want to face actually happened to me and my family. We got trapped in an elevator...on vacation.

Vacations are meant to be those times of relaxation and rejuvenation, where you escape from your usual routine and take in the beauty of life. But in our case, things took an unexpected turn. It wasn't beautiful.

You're supposed to stop and smell the roses or whatever, and their were zero roses in that moment. At least we had our vacation party shirts on.

So it all started with a storm.

Let me tell you, Pennsylvania lightning storms are not to be taken lightly. When thunder rolls in, it really rolls in with force. Even more then Adele when she's rolling in the deep. The wind howls, and inevitably, the power goes out.

We were just coming from my Aunt Barb and Uncle Johns house when the storm hit hard. The rain was drenching us and we ran from the car to the hotel as quickly as we could. When we walked into our hotel we were dripping wet and shuffling to get into the elevator so we could get up to the room and dry ourselves off.

That didn't happen.

Fate had other plans. It's a good thing that I've accumulated such an impressive collection of traumas and calamities that I practically have a PhD in dealing with things going sideways. Call me Dr. Lizzy.

Bentley, my son loves to push the buttons on the elevator so he always takes care of that. Once we entered the elevator, he pushed #2 for our floor and BOOM. Lights out. Elevator roared to a stop. No emergency lights. No back up generator. Just the sound of our clothes dripping on the floor. It was pitch black.

As a mother, you immediately go into emergency mode. So I instinctually grabbed  Bentley close and told him that everything was okay. Then, in a moment of panic (or brilliance, depending on how you see it), I screamed like a mad woman, at the top of my lungs, for help. My wife Janelle thought it was a terrible idea, but I went ahead anyway.

Thankfully the elevator did not move before we lost power so we were still on the first floor.

We then heard the sound of the panicked young woman who had been working at the front desk. She apologized a billion times and told us she called 911.

So I told Bentley to dig in, hunker down, and get comfortable because after all, if movies taught me anything, is that once you get trapped an elevator, it's going to take a lot of time.

Do I have a comedic prodigy for a kid or what? Our motto is basically turning lemons into absurdly good lemonade.

Yes sir, we found ourselves in the classic predicament of elevator captivity. But fear not, in the words of Missy Elliot "breath, stretch, shake and let it go" and that's exactly what we did.

And then.. we were rescued.

When they finally got us out, we witnessed at least 20 Pennsylvania rescue crew members in front of us. It was glorious, they were glorious and strong and sweaty and.. okay, I'll stop.

A standing ovation goes out to the management of The Holiday Inn Express in Easton, PA, and of course, the Easton Police and Fire crews for saving the day and rescuing us all heroically and stuff.

It was a vacation we will never forget.