Personal Narrative: The Trip

The Trip after the plane

As I stepped down the stairs I noticed my father holding up his phone to capture to take pictures. He looked at us with a big smile on his face The cherished moment was quickly spent due to a tight schedule.

My father asked, “you guys should go into the building to go to the bathroom,”

I walked diligently, my three brothers also following, over to the building. As soon as I opened the door, I felt a quick breeze of cold AC rush across my face. I couple of my brother headed to the bathroom while I waited. I observed a small office entrance room where a lady sat working on a computer. A rather large window positioned towards the end of the runway stood from the floor to the ceiling around 8 feet. My dad

rushed in on a move asking us to get into the vehicles.

My brothers followed me in single file through a different door on the other side of the building. It lead under an overhang where two vehicles stood parked. The trunk of an SUV sat open with baggage neatly packed inside. Everyone climbed into the vehicles and quickly drove off. I didn't understand where our next destination but I sat quietly and patiently until we stopped. Then I realized we were just checking in to a hotel. We grabbed our suitcases and walked in to receive rooms for everyone. After that we split up into 5 rooms, my father and I sharing one. As I studied the building I notice that it was probably built in the 50s because it looked like a nursing home for old people. The inside was nowhere near rundown as it was neat, clean, and well taken car of but it did have that old fashion feel to the place. Inside our room was nice, a pair of french doors placed on the other side

of the room lead occupants to a small but beautiful swimming pool surrounded by plants and palm trees. Two white queen size beds stood side by side with a lamp and desk between them. The interior was modernized but kept that classic feel. My brothers couldn't wait to go swimming, I didn't so much because I preferred to relax after a long day.
About an hour later of exploring the hotel and pool, the adults decided to eat at a restaurant. The sun had just set so night was rolling in and our appetites were ready for a satisfying meal. As we pulled in I new right away this place was a sea food restaurant. Walking inside the restaurant was so lively because waitresses urgently maneuvering themselves to attend and help guests. Our group didn't have to wait at all to find a seat. Several waitresses assembled two tables and chairs for our big group. Dishes, utensils, saltines, salt, pepper, pristine white napkin clothes, and cups were laid evenly for each individual. Everybody comfortably sat down hungry and eager. Pictures representing the ocean, fish and other sea creatures that live locally. It didn't take long for appetizers to start piling in the center of the table. Not being a picky eater, I was certainly ready to try new and different foods. I wanted express to friends back at home what kind of food I ate. I first spot several plates of octopus legs. They were coated in bread batter deep fried and served hot with cocktail sauce. Suddenly several waitresses carried in special trays to contain each oyster. Like a muffin tray but instead of bread there were live oysters. My father mention to hold the shell, dumped cocktail sauce on top, and lastly slurp down without chewing. As I slurped the oyster, I felt the cold soft flesh run down my throat with a sweet tang from the sauce. Next I decided to chew the next one and tasted nothing, but the texture was most fascinating. Chewing one got me thinking about how gruesome and bitter it would be like if you were consumed live like the oysters. Next, to my surprise the waitresses set down several plates of frog legs. They were a white meat with a dab of orange spicing coated on top. I reached over grabbed a pare legs and ripped of piece of meat with my teeth. It was chewy but other than that it was just like eating any other meat so far tonight. There was a bowel of very small shrimp and very large shrimp. Being a shrimp fan of course I poured a bunch on my plate and soaked again in cocktail sauce. I then realized these were only appetizers. Four trays of a pound of craw fish each some how was fitted on top of the table along with everything else. They were a deep dark red probably from spices. Craw fish remind of baby lobsters because you break the tail shell and then eat the muscle. My uncle, who had ordered most of the meal, asked me to help attempt to eat all the craw fish. So I got my fingers dirty and dug into the sea creatures breaking shells and tearing meat with my teeth. I noticed my cousins taking pictures of each other posing a menacing face and holding crab claws as if it was a weapon. At this point my pristine white napkin cloth was soaked from wiping my face so many times. I ate as much as I could before I was simply stuffed like a bear. Patiently waiting as the adults finished I paced around the table when suddenly I noticed a few of my cousins hanging around the entrance of the restaurant looking somewhat suspicious. I silently walked straight over to see what exactly they were up to. They looked at me smirking a slight smile with hands in there pockets fat with candy. I reached my hand in the gigantic bowl of peppermint candies and filled my pockets because everyone else doing so. Once the adults were finished my brothers and cousins headed outside talking about setting up a gambling match on the next jet home. The night was so warm and humid, palm trees laid everywhere along side the road. I wouldn’t miss winters living down here We then all climbed into the cars, stuffed with see food, and were ready to drive back to the hotel.
The last thing I expected waking up was nothing, all of the adults were gone somewhere leaving me and my brothers not knowing what to do. I didn't understand what the schedule was so I dressed into some shorts and a t-shirt, combed, and brush my teeth. Next deciding that the worst thing to do is nothing I asked my older cousin how we should prepare. She said that we must be ready to walk in the cars when they come. I didn't want to upset my father for not helping out so I assembled and repacked mine and his stuff back into our suitcases. I decided to notify my brothers of our sense of urgency in when they come. But as usual they were messing around not being productive and there was nothing I could do to manage them. So I quickly rushed back to my room to clean and have our suitcases near the door to. I tried to fit my fathers clothes into his suitcase as neatly as possible. After that I assembled our stuff near the door to take out. To update myself when the adults would be here exactly, I checked the hallway to find that my cousins were carrying there cases towards the lobby meeting the adults. I ran over to dad to tell him that we were almost ready, but to my surprise we were in no rush. Father walked to our room making me show him what I did. He seemed annoyed that bagged everything. He re pulled out everything put together.
While pulling out clothes, he asked me, “don't you have any nicer clothes than that to where?”
I replied, “no not really, what do you want me to where?”
Instead of saying something he picked through his clothing to find a nice shirt.
He then said, “you can use the jeans you wore yesterday. Here is a shirt you can were with it.”
He tossed it over to me and then I changed into them. It was a short sleeved brown dress shirt with diamond pattering. It was definitely more presentable compared to my last outfit.
Once we set off to our trip I couldn't recall what exactly happened until we merged off the exit towards a nice neighborhood. It didn't take long before I noticed a tall ten foot bushed fence running along the entire perimeter of the street block. Driving around we pulled to a gate on the side of the road. My uncle rolled down the window but I couldn't hear him because I was in the car behind. After a minute or two the gate immediately lifted upwards revealing a stunning entrance of the property. Cleanly cut bushes ran alongside a gravel road splitting and joining back together creating intricate road patterns that lead all the way to the building. The mansion it itself was a cement colored piece of architecture. We slowly maneuvered around the paths to a car port, probably for guests, and parked near an entrance to the side of a walkway wide enough for a car leading to a pool. On the right side of the pool lead to the main house but the left side stood a building called the man cave. Inside the man cave laded a fifteen by fifteen square foot three inch thick black granite table in the dining, with similar colored granite floor, a full kitchen, living room and an extremely large flat screen TV. The table was so large you couldn't utilize most of the surface area, only the edges around around the perimeter in arms reach. We sat down at the table with dishes and utensils set for each individual. A large plate around 12 inches in diameter was set under a smaller one and were also thick, heavy and very decorative. Immediately servants came in assembling the meal prepared for us. Next we were asked to dish up and eat. They served freshly picked grape fruit juice from the owners property. Along with prime cuts of steak, mash potatoes and plenty of sides. One glass cup was used for grape fruit and a different was for water.
As me and my brothers fetched for food, I whispered, “make sure you guys don't drop anything!”
I didn't want to know how the owner of the estate would react if we dropped his expensive dishes. The servants lined several different meals along a bar counter and one by one everyone dished themselves. I tried to eat quietly and made sure I didn't make any mess. Servants orbited the table offering additional food. The first few servants I polity accepted there offering, but as more food stacked on my plate I knew that I couldn't eat it all if I kept taking food. As soon as I told one of the servants I was finished he took my plate and I sat down on a couch.
My father asked, “do you guys want to go swimming!”
Not surprisingly my younger brothers quickly changed into swimsuits and jumped in. I wasn't so hurried to go swimming because the servants showed us some trained dogs and and tennis balls to play fetch. We played, swam, ate ice cream, but eventually it was time to leave. My father asked me to change my clothes back so I went to the bathroom. I walked in already illuminated with lights but I also found a immense shower area and several towels placed in holding bins on shelves. There were stalls which we used to change clothes. I also noticed the sink area had mouthwash, clone, and hand soap which I partook. The clone had a masculine smell since we were in the boys bathroom and the girls had perfume. As soon as everyone was ready I we loaded into the car to set off.
The adults quickly decided to head to South Padre Island. It would be around a few hours so there wasn't much to do in the meantime. Later I noticed a shipping port out in the horizon signifying that we were close to the ocean. After that, more driving took us to a long bridge with tall hotels in the background. The air was misty, thick, and condensed being so close to the ocean. Once on the island the rest of the horizon was curved blue ocean. We checked into the hotel getting a see side view with balcony. At this point with the night coming along so as soon as possible we threw on our swimming suits and literally ran to the sea. The water was very salty and somewhat abrasive when it dried on your skin so it wasn't long before we just played in the sand. As the darkness quickly fell I noticed the sea weed beached all over the shore and when you shook it, the movement caused it to flutter speckles of light around the plant. This was very fascinating to us Utah kids who had never seen this before. We used the sea weed to establish our fort hoping that it might survive the night from the tides. There was a party or celebration a few hundred feet down the side of the beach but unexpectedly they released fire works right above us. We lied down on the sand to enjoy the spectacle. I relaxed knowing that this was the perfect way to top off the long day.