Importance of Punctuation

As I was perusing stories on the Chicago Tribune's Web site, I came across a story - a sentence really - that demonstrated the importance of punctuation and editing.  The story, titled AAA: Gas prices, wicked weather, cash shortages could cut into Labor Day holiday travel" is obviously about Labor Day traveling this year.  About the seventh paragraph in, the reporter, Kelli Kennedy, wrote, "A strip along Panama City Beach was lined with traffic and vacationers enjoyed parasailing, and shopped idly at gift shops and sipped colorful drinks at tiki bars."  

The number of "ands" in the sentence made it really confusing.  If I was editing the story, I would ask Kennedy how the sentence is supposed to read because changing punctuation in this sentence could alter the meaning.  

To me, the sentence looks like it should read, "A strip along Panama City Beach was lined with traffic, and vacationers enjoyed parasailing, shopped idly at gift shops and sipped colorful drinks at tiki bars."  Again, I would ask the reporter because that could be a lot different from what Kennedy was trying to get across.  

The story can be found at

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-labor-day-travel,0,1728564.story