God Was Having A Good Day When He Made Alaska
Alaska is more a humbling experience than anything else. There’s something beautiful in every direction you look. My dad knew this when he planned our day in Juneau....
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The Boardwalk Where Footsteps Align
The way Coney Island is, you can never pinpoint how exactly it’s supposed to feel; it’s different every time. On the last day I visited it felt especially gritty, from the way the gray overcast...
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The Little Things Can Change a Lifetime
Winding cobblestone roads, with walls seemingly growing ever closer, until even the smallest Fiat can barely squeeze through. Frigid stream water, rushing down from the heights of the Alps. Old buildings,...
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Smaller Moments
I have never walked through Roman Catacombs, gazed from above Niagara Falls, or even seen the Grand Canyon. I cannot tell stories of how I trekked the Amazon, share how I navigated Tokyo, or preach...
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Love at First Animal Towel
Carnival cruises tend to be known for their exotic destinations, staff aiming to please, and a trip of a lifetime. Yet those weren’t what made my 4 day trip to Cozumel so memorable. That was all because...
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Playing the Right Hand
Flying across the country doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, but for a twelve-year-old who’s never gone past the east coast, traveling out west was bigger than life. Over the course of ten days,...
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Strata of Wonders
My sandaled feet splashed the fine grains of sand and trampled across patches of tumbleweed. After two excruciating days during a heat wave at Las Vegas, with its dazzling “around the world” displays...
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Blue Skies and Sunsets
Every summer or Christmas since my third birthday, we’ve left the comforts of town life - the 2am donut runs or running out of milk and needing 15 minutes to buy a new gallon - to visit my grandparents...
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I Got My LIFE at Junkanoo Beach!
My Grandmother is retired and travels extensively all the time. Typically, my younger brother and I are the beneficiaries of souvenirs that tell stories of cultures and civilizations all over the world....
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Timeless Nonetheless
The black, bead-like eyes of hundreds of startled crabs seemed to twinkle as they caught the yellow glow streaming from my flashlight. Gazing
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More Than a Memory
I have admired this city in countless stock photos and numerous travel blogs. I draw a deep breath as a futile attempt to calm myself. The van jumps around the cobblestone road and I clumsily juggle...
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The Locals Say “Nica”
People didn’t really get it when I said I was going to Nicaragua for spring break. “Isn’t that dangerous?” “Oh, is it for a mission trip?” and “Where even is that?” were only a few of...
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A Thousand Ones
The silence is so strong it hurts my ears. It’s as if the people around me are trying not to wake the souls that lie below our feet. The water around us seems shadowy, but I know what is there. It’s...
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A Grand Design
No one had to tell me to feel the way I did. I felt it all on my own. With depths as bottomless as the ocean, and craters so vast they seemed to spread across the world forever, the view was like nothing...
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More Than Just a Museum Visit
Every summer I visit family in Seattle. The weather is always a million degrees cooler than Houston, TX, where I live. I love the change in scenery and lifestyle. Since I live in the suburbs, I am unacquainted...
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The Balcony
The four hour and thirty minute drive to Kemah, Texas was enough to give me the audacity to jump out the window and join the bugs as they splat against the passing cars. I sleep half the time and...
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Among the Smoggies
The smoggies is what they were called. Or at least that’s what my grandparents, who on a humanitarian trip with a local church, had told me they were called. Made up largely of third and fourth generation...
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Yellow Flowers and Invisible Fear
Fear is the one, invisible deterrent that stops me from making the most of my life. Fear is not a person or a physical obstacle, but I too often live my life dominated by its unseen hand. But...
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Face to Face with the Top Predator of the Ocean
Orcinus Orca. The Killer Whale. They do justice to this nickname—a pod of orcas can defeat a Great White Shark. They are the top predator of the ocean. However, they are also curious,...
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How to Survive a Volcano Hike
It’s a tradition in my family that we take at least one cruise annually. Last summer, it was a seven day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We piled into the car, drove to the airport,...
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Foxes and Persimmons: Defining the Hoosier State
Our small group of teenagers huddled together as we followed our counselor into the clearing. Not three feet before us, the ground fell away into an earthen waterfall of rock and creeper vines. Thousands...
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Too Close for Comfort
As I looked out the car window, we passed a short concrete hut-like building. And then we passed another, and in the next village, another one. I asked my mom what these strange buildings were. I had never...
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St. Lucian Paradise
The Caribbean islands have long been considered the ideal travel destination for their beautiful beaches, sunny weather, and vibrant culture. The island of St. Lucia embodies all of these notions and so...
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One Love
I ease my water shoes into the chilly water, trusting our leader to guide us safely through the Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Our excursion group stayed together as directed: holding hands...
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Mortality and Sea Lions
I am standing on a cliff staring out at the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Below me sea lions wail to each other as they crowd the rocky crags of the cliffs, and I am in complete awe of just how...
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A Rainbow of Silver and Grey
My white knuckles were frozen as I clutched the metal railing. Its silvery color glistened in the light. It was actually quite beautiful: The rainbow of greys...
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My Unique New York Trip
Glimpsing out our train's family room window I watched as, complete with the new World Trade building's opening that morning, the New York City skyline slowly became swallowed in a hazy mist of shrinking...
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The Mountains Are Calling and I Must Go
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” These are the insightful words of John Muir, famed outdoorsman and conservationist....
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See America First: Bringing Back the Great American Road Trip
When most people think of a relaxing family vacation, a cross-country adventure through nine western states plus a Canadian province doesn’t automatically come to mind. However, my parents weren’t...
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The Palouse Sea and Everything In Between
In 10 hours, my view changed from a sea of blue to a sea of green, yellow, and gold. Green hills of potato plants, gold fields of wheat, and touches of bright yellow mustard in between surrounded me...
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Don’t Rock the Boat
An hour and a half north of Seattle, in a town called Anacortes, lies a tourist trap that comprises of a gift shop full of whale memorabilia and a dock along which are a slew of...
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Cruising through the Mediterranean
The imagination of a child can go to great extremes. I always imagined myself exploring castles and going out on adventures while riding on a unicorn, going through streets...
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Cliff Jumping and Conversations
Have you ever been on vacation abroad and become frustrated because you can’t find a Starbucks or a fast food joint? So have I. But through my travels with my family I have realized that sticking...
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It’s a Long Way From the Cook Islands
Sprint Canoeing might not sound like the most engaging Olympic sport to spectate, but every event has some element that captivates the audience. For example, water polo is possibly the only sport played...
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A Metropolis at Your Fingertips
I suppose it begins 8 hours into our first day there. Stumbling out onto the streets of New York City with only five hours of sleep, we certainly looked the part of clueless tourists—my camera was...
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Wildfire
There is a strange, painful beauty in watching the forests burn. This must be why so many others have pulled over to the side of the highway, entire families leaning against their dusty cars, staring...
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Arizona is a Long Ways Away
I have always wanted to visit the Grand Canyon. I imagine it would be beautiful to hike part of its 227-miles of length or to camp in the valley and stare up at the mile deep walls of rock. Instead,...
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Eau de Grasse
As a perfume fanatic and aspiring perfumer, I have wanted to visit Grasse ever since I learned it was the perfume capital of the world. I have had wild dreams featuring colorful meadows with rows and...
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Musings on My Father While in Moscow
My Dad always loved Russian literature. Every once in a while he’d plop down one of his books on my bed for me to read, but I never would pick it up. The books’ slow,...
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Lies of Pond Painters
When I heaved myself onto the dock, I was tinted yellow. I was also slightly oily, with subtle odors of mud and sulfur. I grinned at my reflection and breathed deeply, inebriated by the scent of crisp...
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Peculiar Friends: The Tale of A Goat And His Boy
The heat of the Saharan sun beat down on our minivan full of sweaty, tired tourists. The convection oven with wheels intensified my hunger and my deep craving for salty, deep-fried Americanism:...
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On Wings Like Eagles
I must admit, when my mother first pitched the idea of zip lining through the trees in the beautiful forests of Alaska, I was nervous, my mind instantly filled with questions and concerns. What if I...
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Assisi: St. Francis’ Fertile Fields
The golden glow of the pastoral Tuscan countryside had lulled us into a stupor from which our tour guide had so rudely awakened us. He announced that we were taking a stop outside Assisi for lunch, claiming...
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Above the Clouds
I yawned for what felt like the twentieth time to clear my ears. The sign out my window said 5,000 feet. The road...
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The Flip on the Fourth
On mile 17.1 of the Colorado River is House Rock rapid, a class 4. This rapid has two holes, a small one left of center at the top, and a much larger one directly center at the bottom after a bend....
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Tumbleweeds and Little Seeds
When you think of any national park, you probably think about a place with bright green foliage and craggy waterfalls scattered over a few acres of land. In Joshua Tree National...
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Embrace Your Culture to Fit Into This Maniacal Society
The minuscule island located just the beneath India is like a speck of dust to the human eye. This island is so small, no one...
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