My Traveling Adventures

I have had the opportunity to travel to many different places the over past few years. Family vacations are always entertaining, and this page describes some of the family vacations I've been on, as well as the exciting events that occurred while we were there.

             Mexico        The Bahamas               Las Vegas

             Alaska         Washington D.C.         Florida

Getting out of the country...
I haven't had the chance to leave the country very often, but I did manage to get off U.S. soil a couple of times.

Mexico
I visited Mexico for two weeks my junior year of high school with a group of students from school that were participating in the Spanish program. We got to stay in Mexico City for a week and travel around other points of interest, such as the pyramids. It was hot and humid and we thought it was going to rain everyday, but finally figured out the sky was gray because of smog. The second week we were in Mexico we stayed with a host family, which was interesting since I could barely speak Spanish. It was a good thing they knew English (that kind of defeated the learning purpose of the trip, but it made communicating easier).

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The
Bahamas
For each graduation that occurred in my family (I have four sisters) my mom took us on a trip. For my graduation we went on a Walt Disney cruise, which began in Florida, sailed to the Bahamas, and then headed back to Florida. We also got to stop at Disney's private island along the way. I think I enjoyed the time on the cruise ship more than the stop at the Bahamas though--all we go to there was shop. On the cruise ship we got to swim, go see movies and shows, and dine in amazing restaurants. We also went snorkeling in the ocean one day, which was amazing. I can't wait to have the chance to go on a cruise again.

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Traveling on U.S. soil...

Las Vegas

This summer my mom, my older sister, and I went to Las Vegas because my mom had meetings for work out there (my mom has a wonderful job that allows her to travel and sometimes we get lucky enough to get brought along). I love to gamble, so Vegas was the ideal trip for me--although I didn't really come out ahead. We spent a lot of time in the casinos, checked out different restaurants, shopped, and went to shows. We also took a plane trip to the Grand Canyon. The temperatures were over 100 degrees when we went there, but that won't stop me from going back again.
Viva Las Vegas!

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Alaska
My family and I visited Alaska my sophomore year of college. This was another work trip that my mom brought us on. We went in April, so it was about 40 degrees there, which wasn't too bad. While we were there we went to the zoo, shopping, and tried out different restaurants. The two highlights of our trip were going to see Mt. McKinley and going on an ocean cruise. We saw a lot of different animals and even managed to see a whale spout out some water. Alaska has beautiful scenery, but I wasn't too crazy about all the moose running around.

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Washington D.c.
The family went to Washington D.C. my sophomore year in high school. We toured the capitol and saw all of the usual historic sites. We had a wonderful tour guide (I think her name was Kitty or Cookie) who thought "walking was a waste of time," so we got to experience D.C. running. She did let us stop for a quick picture or two every once in a while. At least we got to see everything.

Florida
My family has been to Florida a couple of times, and we all love Walt Disney World. My personal favorite is the Magic Kingdom, with Animal Kingdom coming in at a close second. The food, the shopping, and the parks at Disney are all great, plus we've always had good weather when we went there. Florida is definitely a great escape from Wisconsin in the winter. I think my most memorable experience at Disney was getting hit in the head by Winnie the Pooh's ear at the character breakfast at the Crystal Palace. His ears are not made of fluff.

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Kelly Stevens, 3 December 2002