Santa Fe: Spain in the Heart of America
Bright colors, festive music, and delicious smells greet me as I step into the plaza. An old man in a serape leans down and speaks in Spanish to a young boy, who is showcasing his wooden handicrafts...
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California Family Vacation
After spending a week visiting our relatives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, my family and I boarded a plane to California before going back to our home state of Alabama. Sight-seeing California was a much...
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The Power of the Pen
It is amazing what the power of the pen can do inclusively, it granted me the opportunity to go on an expense free trip to New York and Washington D.C
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My European Adventure
Our parents were saying goodbye and crying like we were being sent off to war. I could not stop smiling. THIS IS IT! The sophomore class Euro trip was finally commencing. It was almost unreal. Take...
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The Piece of Puzzle Found in Japan
Stepping into a room filled with nakedness, I wondered to myself just what I got myself into. Japanese ladies were walking in every direction, into steams of hot baths and scorching hot spring water....
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Traveling for Freedom from Ignorance
It’s no secret that America is the queen of affluence, if not the self-proclaimed queen of all she knows. Affluence is one sin, but far worse is ignorance, and narrow mindedness....
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The Great Wall and Beyond
It all started on June 10, 2009. I had just loaded my luggage onto the bus and said goodbye to my family. It was finally time to start on our voyage to a new and unknown world. The...
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Bella Italia
I have dreamed of traveling to Rome, the Eternal City, for years. I always longed to...
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My Northern Michigan Paintball Trip
In the final weeks before our senior year, my friends (Jon, Phil, Denton, CJ, and Jeffery) and I decided we needed to celebrate the close of summer...
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My Paradise
What do you think of when you hear the word paradise? Do you think of lying on a beach in Hawaii? What about taking a cruise to Jamaica? Before, when I heard it, that’s what I thought about,...
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HBCU Tour
The best trip I have ever taken was on a tour bus going up the southern east coast. I went on it when I was a sophomore in High School....
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Cabo-The Many Sides
This past summer my family and I decided to get away from town and vacation to Cabo San Lucas located at the tip of Baja California. When I arrived I expected it to be like any other happening vacation...
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A Trip For Someone Else: Puerto Peñasco
I knew what Mexico looked like. It was beautiful, rich with culture, and flowing with a language that made the soul dance. I also knew that a fun time could be developed by everyday accessories. I knew...
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My Trip To Australia
Going to Australia was a chance of a lifetime. I was there this past summer of 2009 for five weeks. I am really glad...
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Travel essay
My name is Michelle Norden and I love taking road trips. One of my favorite ones is when I was in volleyball and my team had to go up to Gillette for a tournament. We had to be...
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Guatemala Mission Trip
In the Bible, Philippines 4:13 says " I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." This verse has impacted my faith and my life in so many ways. During the summer...
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Trip to Turkey
I have always said that some families buy nice cars or some families buy big houses, but my family, we travel. I have been to more than half of the United States, Mexico,...
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Chicago Connections
As soon as I stepped out of the car the fumes and smog hit me. I was no longer in the suburbs of the mid-western state of Iowa, my hometown. Squinting through the sun and smog, the...
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The Other Side of the United States
Coming from Idaho and never traveling farther east than Utah, I could just feel in my bones, this was going to be a whole new experience. There were five of us all together and we were headed to see...
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My Coloradan Road Trip
When I arrived off the plane in Colorado I was greeted by hugs from my aunt and cousin. It was a happy Rooney Family Reunion. The time was 3:00pm MST, but my body was set to EST which would be 5:00pm...
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Liverpool/London trip!
For my dad’s 50th birthday, my family decided to surprise him with a gift that none of us would ever forget. We bought him a book about the Beatles. No, that wasn’t the surprise! The surprise was written...
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Girls Trip: Massanutten, VA
Girls Week Out. No dads allowed, no boys, just females in all our high-maitenance glory. One week at a ski resort in Virginia: five girls in four rooms, two stories, two kitchens,...
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Southern Africa
During months of anticipation, I knew Africa would be life-changing...
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A Bunch of Really Old and Really Tall Trees: Sequoia National Park
When my parents first informed my brothers and me that our summer vacation was going to be spent at Sequoia National Park in southern California, I was disappointed. We were going...
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College Collage
One summer. 10 colleges. The summer before my senior year of high school was an ongoing trip, visiting colleges all over New England and upstate New York. From sweltering campus tours, to the same speech...
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The Magic of Morocco
This past summer, my dad and I took our second trip to Morocco to see more of the wonderful country, drawn back to the North African paradise. Morocco has a magic about it, stemming from its architecture,...
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Discovering the Real Mexico
'The diversity of Mexico will appeal to your sense of discovery,' reads the Apple Vacations website and I have to agree. The Mexico I visited three years ago was indeed diverse. Of course, as my mother,...
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It’s a Different World After All
Each year my father, mother and I go on vacation. Sometimes it is to the beach, sometimes it is to visit my oldest brother in Arizona, but this family vacation was dedicated to visiting the colleges I...
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Riding Away from Cairo
At the end of every 'Indiana Jones's' movie, Jones and his team ride off into the sunset. If chance has ever taken you on an adventure, you would know how Jones's feels, speeding home towards the sunlight....
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Florida Trip
The summer of 2006 was the most memorable one of my life. My mom, younger brother, and I took a weeklong trip down to the quaint little town of Wesley Chapel, Florida, which lies...
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A Trip Back In Time; An Experience to Remember
What a spring break it was! Fifty students and adults from my high school toured Greece and Italy from March 25th through April 14th. Our journey back in time began in the city of Florence where we...
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What My Trip to the Middle East Taught Me About Life
I dreaded the sixteen hour plane ride and when it was over I was actually happy, which I never thought I would be on this vacation. The man at the desk asks me something and I can't understand him,...
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Scorpions
As our ship pulls up on the shores of Tel-Aviv, the New York City of Israel, residents have their arms outstretched in welcome. I bend down and kiss the scorching ground of a land I have only read about...
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Baila Conmigo
Forty-eight hours by train to San Diego and a two-hour drive across the border to our campsite. We opened the doors to our vans and stepped onto a windy, dusty, desert plateau in Tijuana, Mexico: our...
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Study Abroad to Germany
It is a rare occurrence that a person is able to time a dramatic shift in life. It is a truly unexplainable feeling to be so certain that the comfort and routine of everyday life will be taken away...
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Pink and Gold: Life and Little Italian Dollar Stores
When a person goes to Italy, the expectation is that she will rave of the vitality and meaning accompanying seeing the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum or any other famed attraction. I meant (and hoped)...
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Going to Italy
As I was waiting for the plane to take off I kept thinking to myself about what it was going to be like in Italy, till I got there. During my trip in Italy, I learned a lot about the country's culture...
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Mexico Trip
My Family flew to Cancun, Mexico on vacation last year. Cancun is a busy city full of life. Everywhere you looked there were faces buying, selling, relaxing and experiencing all that the city had to...
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Lessons Learned in Morocco.
Traveling has always been a dream of mine, to mingle with the people of distant lands, and explore far away jungles and ruins. This might be attributed to my childhood days spent reading National Geographics...
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The Magical Grand Canyon
Comprising one-seventh of the world's greatest wonders, the Grand Canyon offers tourists grandiose views, blistering temperatures, and precipitous drops. For years, my mother's desire was to visit this...
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Nigeria – My Home
"Welcome aboard KLM airlines, flight number 226 direct from Amsterdam to Nigeria. Total flight time is nine hours and 45 minutes. Please refer to your pamphlets in the seat pockets in front of you as...
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A Journey to Africa
My expedition to South Africa in the fall of 2005 with my mother was so amazing. It was no ordinary trip. It was more like an adventure and an experience that I would love to share with anyone who would...
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How World Travel Has Changed Me
June 1995. A little girl steps out of an airplane. The woman and man on either side of her swallow her small hands in theirs. As they exit the aircraft, she...
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