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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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....
Read More 2 min read
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....
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
Bella Italia
I have dreamed of traveling to Rome, the Eternal City, for years. I always longed to...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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,...
Read More 3 min read
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....
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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,...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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,...
Read More 2 min read
Southern Africa
During months of anticipation, I knew Africa would be life-changing...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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,...
Read More 3 min read
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,...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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....
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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,...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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)...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
Portugal
Finally, after six hours on the airplane, we are now landing. My family and I take our first footsteps in another country! Unfortunately, there is still another five to six hour drive to get...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 1 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 2 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
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...
Read More 3 min read
