My Magical Visit
I remember the visit like it was yesterday. The year was 1990, and it was the month of June. I hadn’t been off for more than two weeks, and I was bored out of my mind. It really takes a lot to keep a seven year old busy. That’s when it happened. My dad told me that tomorrow we would be going to visit somewhere special. He told me that he also visited this place when he was a kid. I remember the night before we left, I couldn’t sleep at all.
That somewhere special was his family’s summer home, which was located in Attica, New York. He said it was a real treat to go there, because he had lived in the city. His mother, who is my grandma, used to take the children there for weeks on end during the summer months. Now it was my turn. I finally got the opportunity to see why going out there was so special.
To this day, I can still picture the car ride up there quite well. At that time my dad was driving in a white Ford Taurus. We were staying the weekend, so we each packed a bag with a couple of changes of clothes. We also packed some good food, because my dad and I love to eat. I can still remember my dad cranking up the radio, which was blasting out the tunes on Oldies 104. I also remember the warm summer breeze that was hitting my face as we rolled down the long country roads.
Although it only took forty-five minutes to get there, I must have asked, “Are we there yet?” about five times. Finally my dad said that we would be there in a little less than five minutes. We turned right on Nesbit, which is the road where the house is located. The road was made of stones. I can still hear the stones shooting up against the wheel wells as the car roared down the road. Finally, we arrived at the summer home and pulled into the driveway.
The white house with red shutters that was set back about five acres. The house included two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room. There were also two giant pole barns that were located to the left of the house. Pine trees outlined the massive plot of land.
When we left the hotel, my parents had a tough time finding the theme park. There were so many overpasses and lanes, my dad missed the exit a few times. Luckily, my dad finally got off at the right exit. When we first arrived, I was so excited. I had never seen so many seen so many people in one place, and the climate was very different compared to El Paso. I remember listening to the roars of the roller coasters and the screams of the people on them. We finally got into the park. As we entered, I remember it being very humid and moist. There were so many different smells coming from the restaurants.
As my brother, sister, dad, and I pull up to the house, I look at it with uncertainty, not knowing what to expect. It was a small blue house and had flowers planted around it. We walked up to the house with me in the lead. That didn't last long though. I was too nervous, so I stood still and turned around, waiting for my dad to get ahead of me.
We started our travels down in Columbus Ohio. The week leading up to the big move we spent at Deer Creek State park, for a family reunion, where my dad and step mom, had the chance to see everyone again, before the journey began. Over all we had taken nine days to get to our destination. First stop, Saint Louis, Missouri, we stopped to see the Gateway Arch. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be, so of course I was pretty amazed. The first few days were our longest driving days, but sense we broke up the days, our longest day was eight hours. The second day was the worst, Oklahoma is so boring to drive through, and nothing but flat crop farms, and wind turbines everywhere you look. We drove till we got about seventy five miles from the boarder of New Mexico, And Oklahoma. We got up early and began a shorter dive to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we went to Petroglyph National Monument, yeah it was interesting, but after you see a few hundred, they all start to look the same. The next morning we took a beautiful hike and took many pictures to capture the moment. Other than getting there, my favorite part of the trip, was Arizona, where we stayed four days in Flagstaff, one day in Holbrook, and one day in Phoenix. I wouldn’t mind if I lived in Arizona, it’s a very beautiful state. My family and I stopped by the Petrified Forest National Park, and I
Langston Hughes uses poetic elements to express the reader his feelings towards America. Langston Hughes is very upset that America is not what it promised to be. Living in America, he never saw America to be the land of the free, what it promised to be. Instead, he saw America to be cruel to him and now wants to change America to be the country of the free he thought it was. He expresses all his emotion about America, in his poem, Let America Be America Again, by using connotative diction, repetition, narrative tone and organization; poetic elements.
...grade basketball team which reminds me of fascinating and stimulating memories I had with my team. The basketball team helped me adapt better to Great Neck North and it even landed me my dream girl because I was noticed by being on the team and having the game winning shot against Manhasset. When I go to visit Great Neck North, I always go straight to the gym to see our banner that says, “Division champions- 2005.” Even though the banner is not in my possession, it still reminds me of our historic achievement. It allows me to relive the success our basketball team achieved that year and laid a foundation for me to follow in high School. Likewise, Aciman comprehends that he does not want to leave Manhattan and live in Rome or Italy, because Straus Park allows him to remember Alexandria and better adjust to his new life, hence enforcing that New York was his home.
At about 11:00 we had gotten out of the car after a long ride. The fresh air smelled rich compared to the air that we were breathing in the car. The first glimpse that I saw of the waterpark was astounding. It was massive, huge, humongous, and larger than any water park that I have ever seen. Once we came my mom
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The first nothing happened all we did was sleep because South Dakota is a hour behind Iowa so we slept in all day. The second day we finally went to Mount Rushmore and he went in the afternoon my mom took like a million picture of everything. We took about 8 hours there. When we came back the night we only had three hours there cause we took the bus there. We spent three hours inside because it was mosquito paradise. So we only watched the light up and took a ton of pictures. The last day we spent all day packing up. It still was another 8 - 10 hour drive back to Iowa I fell asleep for 4 hours. When we finally made it to Iowa it was 10:30 PM. I fell asleep right after we made it back to Iowa. So it wasn’t that bad. The trip to South Dakota it was the best thing of my summer.
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I remember it as clear as day. It had been a fairly normal week, and a routine average day. It was a Friday and I was driving home from school in my trusty Toyota Tercel. I was getting into the dreaded mental set of the game that I would be playing in that night. I had to play in the band at halftime and it was the first performance of the season. The whole ride to my house I thought about the game and hoped and prayed that we wouldn't make huge fools of ourselves. Before I knew it, I was already home. I remember thinking that it felt like the shortest drive ever, getting to beautiful Rolling Oaks. When I got home, little did I know, that there would be a huge surprise waiting for me that would change my life forever.
When I think back to the days when I was a child, I think about all of my wonderful childhood memories. Often I wish to go back, back to that point in life when everything seemed simpler. Sometimes I think about it too much, knowing I cannot return. Yet there is still one place I can count on to take me back to that state of mind, my grandparent’s house and the land I love so much.
It was finally fall break. I was visiting my grandma for a few days. Well past dinnertime, I pulled up to the white stately home in northern rural Iowa. I parked my car, unloaded my bag and pillow, and crunched through the leaves to the front porch. The porch was just how I had seen it last; to the right, a small iron table and chairs, along with an old antique brass pole lamp, and on the left, a flowered glider that I have spent many a summer afternoon on, swaying back and forth, just thinking.
When I was a young child I would love to hear my parents tell me that we were going on a trip. I would be full of excitement, because I knew that we would be going to a place that I had never seen before. My parents, my brother, and I would pack our luggage and venture out in our small gray minivan. Three of my most cherished memories in our minivan are when we went to Disney World, the beach, and the mountains.
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