When I woke up last Friday, I knew we had a problem on our hands. The morning of our last full day at the beach brought a whole lot of rain.

We had already weathered the storm – literally. The rain came the day before as well, but we filled the time with crafts, Bingo and a group viewing of “Sharknado.”

I didn’t know what another rainy day would bring, however. We got very lucky with some incredible weather to start the week, and, in reality, we have had great weather for a number of years straight.

But what’s a group of close to 50 family members to do when the weather turns sour – really sour – on vacation?

Kayak in the street, that’s what.

The whole thing started, at least in my mind, as a joke. The road in front of the side-by-side houses two of my sisters rented started to flood. This brought back memories of family members putting a rubber raft in a flooded culvert on a trip many years ago.

One of the houses near the flooding this year happened to have a half-dozen kayaks available to renters. At some point in the mid-morning, Facebook messages started flying about whether the road had enough water to make kayaking possible.

I decided to hop into the shower and see what the rest of the day would hold. After I got dressed, I discovered an urgent voice mail from one of my sisters. My house was just a block from the flooding.

“You have to come out of your house and see what’s going on down the street.”

I grabbed my umbrella, realizing within just a few seconds that trying to stay dry would never succeed, and smiled when I saw the scene.

We didn’t just have one intrepid family member testing the kayaking theory. Several folks paddled up and down the flooded street while many others passed on umbrellas and hats, splashing around in their bathing suits.

Suffice to say, we had started to create one of the all-time best memories in my family’s 25-plus years of going to Bethany Beach.

There were kayak races and “rescues” of folks who lost control and ended up in the bushes. An enterprising group even used tin foil to dress up on of my nephews as the “Sharknado.”

Cars passing on the nearby main streets stopped to take photos or video of this crazy crew (ranging from 3 to 60) making the best of a rainy day at the beach. Some even drove by, threw the car in reverse to make sure they saw what they thought they saw, then captured the scene on their phone.

Some of my nephews spent the bulk of the afternoon in the kayaks, just chilling out and creating their own memory. The rest of us brought food from our individual houses for a potluck sort of lunch, then enjoyed a few cocktails, took a nap or did both.

Two nights before this, my daughter and I walked back from the downtown area (where 30 of us huddled on the covered bandstand to escape the rain and broke into an impromptu version of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”) and said, “our family is kinda awesome, huh?”

All we needed was a downpour and some kayaks to show that to everyone.