All It Took Was a Little Faith, Trust, Pixie Dust…and eBay!
There it was! As I squinted into the sun, not only did I see the gates, but I saw my impossible dream coming true. I never before realized a 12 year old could pay for a vacation to Walt Disney World!
Read More 3 min read
A Walk Alone in America’s Most Unique City
Hard as I tried, I could not do it. As I closed my eyes and tried to imagine just how enormous the river really was, my brain failed to comprehend the sheer magnitude and raw size of the Mississippi....
Read More 3 min read
Learning Humility
During the summer of 2015, I was selected to participate in Loop Abroad, which is a program that enables students to work with endangered elephants and provide veterinary care for the elephants, Bengal...
Read More 3 min read
Accidentally Amazing: My Trip to Haiti
Sweat dripped down my temples as I sat perched on the off-balance wooden chair. The street behind me bustled with activity and the foreign language chattered in the background. I glanced around the...
Read More 2 min read
Azul Family All-Inclusives Offering Fall Sale
We’ve just learned that Azul Hotels and Generations by Karisma are having 30%-45% off fall specials and, because we found them great value during the summer, we want...
Read More 2 min read
The Language of Kindness
A gentle breeze blew through the vivid green rice fields and made the sea shell wind chimes above me sway. I was surrounded by the mountainous green hills of northern Thailand, but I wasn’t paying...
Read More 2 min read
Green Lessons in a Shell
Green. And slimy, too. All nestled in their shells. Anything that is green and slimy belongs...
Read More 2 min read
Climbing to Montana Glaciers
Something looks different about glacial runoff water. While the average lake has a banal navy blue or even brown color, one composed of glacial melt has a rich, aquamarine, slightly opaque look to it....
Read More 3 min read
New York. New Me.
I couldn’t stop smiling, my enormous grin was permanently chiseled onto my face; my heart wouldn’t cease its drumming in my chest, it was as if King Kong himself was pounding his huge fist throughout...
Read More 2 min read
Peace at Last
When my parents first proposed a twenty two day road trip from our native Arizona to Florida I was skeptical. We...
Read More 2 min read
Survival, Much Like Smiling, Is Universal
My time in Cambodia had brought me many challenges. I had a running fever with no access to trustworthy medical care, I was fumbling with cultural differences and customs, and we worked long days teaching...
Read More 3 min read
Finding Peace in Hiroshima
We stared with hands clasped over our open mouths and eyes glued to the figures before us. They were bathed in the red of their own blood, burned skin, and the flames that surrounded them. Their clothes...
Read More 2 min read
Old New World
Bullet holes still dot the walls outside the Pergamon Museum...
Read More 2 min read
Murder On The Prospect
Visiting the setting of a book you have recently read may be completely different from what you imagined. My imagined setting of Crime and Punishment, I discovered, was completely different...
Read More 3 min read
Building Hope in Mexico
Let me back up a little. I come from a family that travels. Sometimes we travel for fun, sometimes for adventure, and sometimes for cultural experiences. About every other year, we travel for missions...
Read More 2 min read
Barfing in the Light of the Stars
I come from a family of six very large boys, and the most frequent response I get after divulging that information is “Oh your poor mother!” I smile and nod, thinking back on the good times I’ve...
Read More 2 min read
I Know the World, But Have Never Left America
T?t c? b?t ??u v?i It all started with my dad, a war refugee from Vietnam. Ever since I was a little girl, I heard stories of “life back in Vietnam.” Stories that included...
Read More 3 min read
Grenada Family Fun
Grenada is known as "The Spice Island of the Caribbean" and produces one third of the world's best quality nutmeg plus an array of other fragrant spices. Then there's the fruit: bananas, mangoes, coconuts,...
Read More 6 min read
10 Reasons to Take the Family to the Dominican Republic this Summer
The Dominican Republic has a wide range of activities for people of all ages. It’s the perfect family vacation,...
Read More 2 min read
How to See
Before, I had never left my home. I’ve flown across the seas in my dreams, traversed the highest mountains between classes, but one day, I promised myself that I would travel. Across the nation......
Read More 3 min read
Goat Milk and Gratitude
The plane landed in Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport on June 24th at 2:37 P.M. I looked around and saw cacti and emptiness. I was slightly disappointed, to say the least. Vast stretches...
Read More 3 min read
The City of Lost Souls
Although my story is not considerably phenomenal, it is unique. Because unlike most, I will not tell you a memory of greatness, but rather one of realization. When asked about your...
Read More 3 min read
My Trip to Stirling Castle, Scotland
I could hardly contain my excitement as I drove up the tiny, winding road. Up I went, up, up, up. When would I ever get to the top?
Read More 2 min read
Home of the Soul-less
The 18 hour drive from Virginia to Florida was exhausting but all the while worth it. I was on my way to go to Cuba. As I walked onto the plane, my heart filled with excitement. I haven’t been there...
Read More 3 min read
Cammino di Assisi: The Characters and Challenges that Made It So Much More than an Italian Pilgrimage
Read More 2 min read
A Friend 2,790 Miles Away
My eyes pop open as the cooing of roosters awakens my slumber. I roll over on my paper-thin mattress, careful not to hit my head on the bunk above me. Stepping onto the filthy cement floor, I look around...
Read More 2 min read
TRAVELING THOUGH TIME TO DISCOVER – AND UNCOVER – DINOSAURS, FISH AND TRILOBITES IN THE WILD WEST
This summer I got to travel through time with my family. We started our journey by heading back 50 million years to a spot near Kemmerer, Wyoming. After riding up a mountainside, we stepped into a barren...
Read More 2 min read
.JPG)
Camping By the Seat of Our Pants
A lot of families, when choosing to travel, often already have booked which hotels they will stay at on specific nights of the trip, days or weeks in advance.
Read More 3 min read
A Day in the Life of Japan
This past June I flew to Japan. I was deliriously underprepared for the experience that awaited me. I had crossed the Pacific Ocean to attend Tokyo’s...
Read More 3 min read
Helping Others, Or Getting Helped?
Dancing with children on the dirty streets with the rain pouring over our heads, playing soccer on the dusty roads, and...
Read More 2 min read
The Trip That Changed My Life
As a human being, I am often guilty of becoming far too comfortable with my circumstances in life. I become comfortable with the house that I live in, the clothes that I wear, and even necessities such...
Read More 3 min read
My Voyage to Living History that Inspires Within
One world blends into another as a formation older than anything else I've ever seen appears in front of me. Sidewalks transform into cobblestone roads, and townhouses become...
Read More 3 min read
Dirty Water and Inspiration
I was a travel virgin. Until, that is, my grandparents invited me on a trip to New York to see Niagara Falls.
Read More 2 min read
The 3 Years That Changed My Life
After living in the United States for 5 years my parents could no longer renew our Business Visa. We had to go back to Europe, but this was also the perfect opportunity for my parents to finally accomplish...
Read More 2 min read
Journey Back to Darwin
“Stepping out of an airplane into the balmy, pleasant air of Baltra Island is definitely not the way Charles Darwin made it to the Galápagos Islands,” I thought to myself, as I walked toward the...
Read More 3 min read
The Silk of Uncertainty—My Tentative Journey Underground the Guatemalan Jungle
My eyes are bleary, eyelashes split by Guatemalan sun. My hair is damp and tangled in hot, wet air. I tug a tee-shirt over the damp swimsuit that I must have fallen asleep in. I hope there aren’t...
Read More 2 min read
I Found My Spot
“Every American citizen should stand in this spot before they die,” I proclaim to my fellow students and our chaperones. Despite my tendency to speak my mind before I think,...
Read More 3 min read
Alive and Coarse and Strong and Cunning (Or, How I Learned to Be Independent by Getting Lost in Downtown Chicago)
(Title taken from Chicago by Carl Sandberg) The thing about going to Chicago is that you have to realize the city will inevitably steal your heart. With skyscrapers stretching to the crowds,...
Read More 2 min read
