I talked about my childhood friends in an earlier post. At the time I was with them in Ohio. This time we visited them. They used to live in Chicago with us, but they moved all the way to Bowie, Maryland. My family and I took a road trip over Spring Break to get to see their new house.
It took a long time to get there and my ears popped when we were going driving through the mountains. The trip was so long ago that the images I remember are blended together. There was intense traffic and very bright sunlight. My siblings were actually awake for the trip. We were listening to Creed from one of my Dad's CDs. I was just excited that I was going to see my friends again.
When we made it to Bowie, Maryland, the hardest part was looking for the house. We had the address, but we got lost looking for it. The houses were so huge and all of them looked the similar to each other. There were only slight changes of color and design. Every house looked like mini-mansions. My dad eventually called them and asked for directions to their house and we finally made it.
I was really surprised with the inside of their house. The walls were painted with a mix of reds and browns and their kitchen was huge. They gave us a tour of the house and I got lost many times. I even made a full circle in the house when I was just trying to find the bathroom. The room I remember most was the basement. My siblings and I hung out a lot with the kids and my parents hung out with their parents. It was cool because all of us were around the same age. what we did most was play Zelda on their plasma TV and get frustrated when we got stuck on a certain level. We never beat that level even though we tried so many times, but it was still a whole lot of fun.
When we weren't playing video games, our friends showed us around the neighborhood. They agreed that all the houses practically looked the same so we were walking around saying how the window shutters are the same but a different color or that's the same house, but different address. We laughed a lot and made a game out of it. It was so many good times while I was over there. The last thing I did over there was make a chocolate chip cheesecake. Baking is one of my favorite things to do and I wanted to try out the recipe. I had so much cheesecake batter that I ended up making mini ones with the rest of it. What was funny was that when I was finished baking, everyone was impatient. They couldn't wait for everything to cool down so we were eating hot cheesecake. I have never done that before, but it wasn't that bad. Everyone was happy about it so it didn't really matter. I just find it a very happy memory.
It will be cool to go to Maryland again. I miss hanging out with them. They are such a fun family and I always have fun with them.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Just insane
I went to Florida again, but not in Orlando this time. My family and I went to Ft. Lauderdale for a week. I was a sophomore in high school at the time. It was a place for me where I would just explore. A crazy event happened when I was there so the story never gets old.
When the plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale, I didn’t know what to expect. The weather was beautiful. The sky was filled with white poofy clouds. The sun would peak out from time to time and my dad took advantage of it. He surprised us with the car he rented. It was a pale green mustang convertible. It was so cool to me. The only thing I had to deal with was having my hair whipped back and forth from the wind. As we drove, we looked at all the little shops scattered around. There was a mall we visited frequently because the little shops inside were cool. There were so many accessories and clothes that were being sold. Most of my time was spent finding souvenirs for my friends, but looking for gifts made me very happy. I kinda wish that was how my vacation ended, but no. We had to almost kill ourselves first.
My dad wanted to go snorkeling before we left Florida and I was excited. I thought it would be cool to look at all the fish underwater. All of us went to a snorkeling place and rented the equipment we needed. We got on a boat to take us out into the ocean. Everything seemed to be fine. The sun was shining. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, but my dad saw a huge mass of dark clouds coming our way. He asked the guy who was in control of the boat, “Should we really be doing this? It looks like a storm is coming.”
The guy dismissed it and said, “It’s just a squall. We’ll be fine. It will blow over.”
I had no clue what a squall meant, but I didn’t like the sound of that. All of us went into the water anyway. All I have to say is that was dumb. The mass of dark clouds loomed over us and the storm was intense. The current took me far away from the boat and my sister was drifting away helplessly. I tried to stop her from drifting, but that was in vain. The current was too strong and both of us we stuck trying not to drown. I eventually got the lifesaver that was thrown to me and my sister was saved by a girl that was also snorkeling. My whole family made it to the boat totally winded. My mom’s leg was bleeding because she fell off the ladder when she was getting on the boat. My dad and brother were the first to get back on the boat so they were okay. My sister and I were choking on saltwater. It was completely intense, but I was just glad that everyone was okay.
It was an unexpected way to end our vacation, but we got a completely insane story out of it so we didn’t leave empty handed from that snorkeling trip. I hope I actually go snorkeling one day.
When the plane landed in Ft. Lauderdale, I didn’t know what to expect. The weather was beautiful. The sky was filled with white poofy clouds. The sun would peak out from time to time and my dad took advantage of it. He surprised us with the car he rented. It was a pale green mustang convertible. It was so cool to me. The only thing I had to deal with was having my hair whipped back and forth from the wind. As we drove, we looked at all the little shops scattered around. There was a mall we visited frequently because the little shops inside were cool. There were so many accessories and clothes that were being sold. Most of my time was spent finding souvenirs for my friends, but looking for gifts made me very happy. I kinda wish that was how my vacation ended, but no. We had to almost kill ourselves first.
My dad wanted to go snorkeling before we left Florida and I was excited. I thought it would be cool to look at all the fish underwater. All of us went to a snorkeling place and rented the equipment we needed. We got on a boat to take us out into the ocean. Everything seemed to be fine. The sun was shining. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, but my dad saw a huge mass of dark clouds coming our way. He asked the guy who was in control of the boat, “Should we really be doing this? It looks like a storm is coming.”
The guy dismissed it and said, “It’s just a squall. We’ll be fine. It will blow over.”
I had no clue what a squall meant, but I didn’t like the sound of that. All of us went into the water anyway. All I have to say is that was dumb. The mass of dark clouds loomed over us and the storm was intense. The current took me far away from the boat and my sister was drifting away helplessly. I tried to stop her from drifting, but that was in vain. The current was too strong and both of us we stuck trying not to drown. I eventually got the lifesaver that was thrown to me and my sister was saved by a girl that was also snorkeling. My whole family made it to the boat totally winded. My mom’s leg was bleeding because she fell off the ladder when she was getting on the boat. My dad and brother were the first to get back on the boat so they were okay. My sister and I were choking on saltwater. It was completely intense, but I was just glad that everyone was okay.
It was an unexpected way to end our vacation, but we got a completely insane story out of it so we didn’t leave empty handed from that snorkeling trip. I hope I actually go snorkeling one day.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Ah, to be lazy
When I was a junior in high school, I wasn’t excited at all that we were going on vacation to Galveston, Texas for spring break. It was one of those times when I just wanted to stay home. I had so much school work to worry about and work on that a vacation was the last thing on my mind. I didn’t know it then, but it made me realize just how much I like to travel.
I left all my school things at home because I knew I wasn’t going to get it done in Texas. It would have been extra baggage. I was really happy that I left all my homework at home. Galveston really did turn out to be a very relaxing break from the insane schedule that I made for myself at home.
Seeing Galveston for the first time…I didn’t expect to see what I saw. The houses were…on stilts? It reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. There were so many random bright colors. One house would be a burnt orange color and the next would be turquoise or purple. It didn’t fit my sense of house styles at all. I knew the houses were raised so they wouldn’t get washed away by the tide, but it was completely different to me. I took so many pictures of these houses, but I seem to have misplaced my camera…
When I wasn’t sightseeing, I was with my family doing nothing. It really felt good to relax and let time go by. At the hotel we were staying, there was a ping pong table and most of my time was spent there. I didn’t play by the rules. It was just fun to hit it back and forth to my family. There were a lot of laughs when the ball would go completely off course and hit off the ceiling or someone would miss it entirely. Not worrying about anything was a nice change and the weather made me even happier. On all the days I was there, the sun was so bright and the sky a brilliant blue. There would be an occasional cloud crossing paths with the sun. It was just nice to be lazy. Being in Galveston made it feel like I was in a whole new world and I would love to visit that world again sometime.
I left all my school things at home because I knew I wasn’t going to get it done in Texas. It would have been extra baggage. I was really happy that I left all my homework at home. Galveston really did turn out to be a very relaxing break from the insane schedule that I made for myself at home.
Seeing Galveston for the first time…I didn’t expect to see what I saw. The houses were…on stilts? It reminded me of a Tim Burton movie. There were so many random bright colors. One house would be a burnt orange color and the next would be turquoise or purple. It didn’t fit my sense of house styles at all. I knew the houses were raised so they wouldn’t get washed away by the tide, but it was completely different to me. I took so many pictures of these houses, but I seem to have misplaced my camera…
When I wasn’t sightseeing, I was with my family doing nothing. It really felt good to relax and let time go by. At the hotel we were staying, there was a ping pong table and most of my time was spent there. I didn’t play by the rules. It was just fun to hit it back and forth to my family. There were a lot of laughs when the ball would go completely off course and hit off the ceiling or someone would miss it entirely. Not worrying about anything was a nice change and the weather made me even happier. On all the days I was there, the sun was so bright and the sky a brilliant blue. There would be an occasional cloud crossing paths with the sun. It was just nice to be lazy. Being in Galveston made it feel like I was in a whole new world and I would love to visit that world again sometime.
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