Day 8: a place I've traveled

When I was a kid we didn't go on vacations. My parents went to Myrtle Beach once, but they didn't take us. We went to Colorado a couple times, but only because that's where my dad's siblings and parents lived. We didn't do anything fun, like go skiing or anything. Then, once my grandparents moved back to Michigan we started visiting them there, but it was the same thing... Nothing fun.

But when I was 14, the high school choir and band program decided to take a trip to New York City. I was really excited when I first heard about it, but it was a little over a year after 9/11, and I got scared and decided I didn't want to go. Finally, about two months before the trip, I changed my mind again and decided to go. And I'm really really glad I did. It was only a three day trip, so everything was a whirlwind. We went to all the main tourist attractions -- the Empire State Building, Times Square, Statue of Liberty. We went to Juliard (remember, it was a choir/band trip), Hard Rock Cafe, Greenwich Village. It was ridiculously fun, and at 14 all those tourist-y places were perfect.

Then, when I was 19, my roommate Monique and I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to San Antonio to see Mizzou play in the Big 12 Championship game. We bought tickets from a guy I used to work with, and then she and I, and David, took off for Texas. The 14 hour drive turned into a 17 hour drive because we kept getting lost and it rained a lot of the way there. We didn't get to my uncle's house in San Antonio until 6AM. It was miserable... Then, we woke up at noon because we wanted to go see the Alamo, and after my aunt made us breakfast we headed out to sight-see a bit before the game at 7. But once we got downtown, we realized that there was going to be NO parking at all, so we ended up having to park and go to the game early so we didn't have to walk a million miles. Mizzou ended up losing the game, and then we had to turn around at midnight and start the drive back to Columbia because Monique had a choir concert at 6PM the next day. It was a miserable drive home, because it rained the whole way, but I would still say it was one of my favorite experiences. Despite Mizzou losing, and despite sleeping six hours the whole weekend, it was fun to do something so spontaneous.

A third place I've traveled that was amazing was Myrtle Beach, SC. In the summer of 2008, my parents took my sister, David, and me, and it was so much fun. We went to Hard Rock Park, which was a theme park that has closed down since then. We went to a smaller amusement park that was right by our hotel, we went to the beach a TON, we went to the Ripley's museum, we went to the Ripley's aquarium. One of the days, my sister and I just walked around the town shopping and stuff. It was the only vacation that my family has ever taken together, and it was so much fun to spend time with them all. I wish we could do things like that more often... =(

Last year, in August, David and I went to Sandusky, Ohio to go to Cedar Point. I was beyond excited for this trip, because I LOVE roller coasters, and Cedar Point has like, 17 of them or something. We planned on going to the park two days in a row, because we knew we wouldn't fit it all into one day. The first day was so much fun. We rode as much as we could, and then went back to the hotel exhausted, but excited for the next day. But when I woke up the next morning something wasn't right. I had a POUNDING headache, but I just figured I was still tired. But when we got to the park, I was overcome with intense dizziness and nausea, and we ended up leaving the park early and not riding anything at all that day. Aside from the $75 wasted for the tickets, I was really upset that we didn't get to ride everything that we wanted to. I felt really bad, and I felt like I ruined the trip for David... But as it turns out, this was the beginning of my ordeal with POTS, so I don't feel as bad about getting so sick, since it was something serious. Eventually I hope that I look back on that trip without the negative feelings associated with it, like I have now, but for now, thinking about that trip makes me sad...

I have to get back to studying now, but once my organic chemistry test is over I will find some pictures of each of these trips and add them.