Will I Get A Signal If I Climb A Big Tree?
It was mid-April, when school was entering its final throes and summer was tickling at the edge of our fancies. Determined to keep my siblings and me from staring at screens for all of our week-long...
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Endangered Island Life
"The big fish come in and swallow up the little fish." That is what Captain Crosby said to my family and me as we sailed out to Stingray City in Grand Cayman.
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Traveling to Make History
As the school bell rang on the last day, I could not control my extreme feeling of excitement. I opened the classroom’s door and ran insanely fast to the bus. I did not mind the burning sun. I just...
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Tulum Ruins: Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
I was extremely thrilled knowing that I would be seeing one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayans....
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Just My Dad’s Luck
Did you know that its possible to travel internationally...
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The Big Blue
SEMI-FINALIST 2015 FTF TEEN TRAVEL WRITING SCHOLARSHIP
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Splash Mountain’s Fatal Attraction
The orange light that is typical of sunsets highlighted the horrors of the streets. It gleamed across a shopping cart that carried all the belongings of a man whose beard reflected his lifestyle. It...
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Determined to Dream
I look around and see a place outside my comfort zone. Instead of the crisp, modern structures of buildings and casinos in Nevada, I see deteriorating slabs of concrete and weatherworn brick. In place...
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The Beauty in Our Own Backyard
Majestic mountains, luscious forests, towering rock formations, a brilliant yellow sun, a magnificent thunder storm; the diversity astounded me. With every passing mile, a new scene erupted into view,...
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You Trippin’?
Leather seats with oversized pillows, hostess serving chicken and apple juice, 39,000 feet above civilization, clouds overshadowing the wings, front-row views of sunsets. That...
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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!
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Green Lessons in a Shell
Green. And slimy, too. All nestled in their shells. Anything that is green and slimy belongs...
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Peace at Last
When my parents first proposed a twenty two day road trip from our native Arizona to Florida I was skeptical. We...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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?
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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.
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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,...
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Ode to the Ocean
It was my first day in Little Bay (Philipsburg, St. Martin, Dutch Antilles); my first day in paradise. Clear water,...
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Popped Tire
I do not believe the sky that hangs over Wyoming is the same one I can currently see out my window. There is something magical about it, something completely unreal--it’s as if the sky was not above...
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Smiles Across The Miles
Falmouth, Jamaica, marked the third port of call on the cruise my family had...
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Elephants in the Shadows
We were more or less protected from the heat of the sun by the tall trees surrounding the narrow dirt road. The van jolted along over potholes and speedbumps...
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To Fathom the Unfathomable
“2015 will be a big year for launchin’ rockets”The...
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The Girl in Stripes
About two weeks ago, I had the privilege of going on my first, actual vacation. We were going on a road trip all the way to the Gulf of Mexico so my grandmother could see the ocean before she died....
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Tai-Shan: The Waterslide of Sacred Mountains
Have you ever wanted to: start...
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There’s Nothing Chicken Soup Can’t Fix: An Adventure in Urubamba, Peru
Beads of sweat coated my forehead as I took a deep breath and stared at what was in front of me, eyes narrowed and concentrated. A million thoughts ran through my mind, and I glanced back and forth...
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Mission Beach, San Diego, California
Home: the place where a person lives. Sorry Webster's Dictionary but I have to...
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To Honduras With Love
The bus rocked furiously. The wheels on our bus weren’t only going ‘round and ‘round. They sprung up and down and swayed side to side. The roads weren’t even roads at all, just tracks paved...
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New York: a SENSE-ational Place to Be!
Behind the bustling streets of the “Big Apple”, New York holds within its borders a place like no other: A tranquil escape from rush hour and the daily lives of hard-workers. The Adirondacks will...
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Finding Tranquility
We drove through the night and I gazed at the towering skyscrapers through the rain-spattered windows, amazed by the myriads of cars around us, feeling the Mexican metropolis envelop...
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A Danish State of Mind
On one random drive to the library in November, my friend Maya asked me if I would be interested in going to Denmark this summer with her. My first thought was “OF COURSE!”...
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Driving Into a Hole Can be Monumental
The early August sun beat down on the prolonging stretch of road. A “Welcome to Utah” sign had long since passed, and our rented black Ford Explorer was filled with...
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Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Good Food
I wake up to the rich, reedy sound of an accordion-not something you would normally hear in the streets of America, but then, I’m not in America.I’m in the home of my Aunt Lidia and Uncle...
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