Last summer, my family took a trip out to the western United States from our small town in Central Indiana. The trip was to California and back, and it took about two weeks to complete. We stayed in various towns along the way, and it was a bonding experience of sorts for our entire family.
My favorite place that I traveled to was San Francisco, California. I liked the city as a whole, and I thought it was educational as well as beautiful, even though we went on a rather overcast day. We saw Alcatraz, China Town, and the Fisherman's Wharf.
One place I was rather disappointed in was Los Angeles. I found the city to be rather dirty and surprisingly, nothing was even open until around noon, when the smog finally lifted from the area. We did the touristy things like walking along the Hollywood Walk of Fame and visiting the Chinese Theater, but overall the area seemed really gross and just not well kept.
We took Route 66 on the way out west which proved to be very informative and historical. We passed through small towns that were decked out in Route 66 things, and we stopped by a Native American trading post in Oklahoma.
We stopped at several landmarks on the way there and back, like the Grand Canyon, which we dedicated an entire day to. It was beautiful, although, having a fear of heights, I was too hestitant to go anywhere near the edge of the massive basin. We also stopped by Mount Rushmore and the Devil’s Tower on the drive back home.
Another favorite place of mine was Las Vegas. The city was gorgeous at night, with all the flashing neon lights and people dressed up as various celebrities – from Marilyn Monroe to the band Kiss to Johnny Depp to Storm Troopers from Star Wars. Even though I got a blister from walking the strip in flip flops, the city was still one of my favorites. And the hotel we stayed in, Circus Circus, had an arcade in the lobby, which was pretty awesome.
One of the drawbacks of the trip was spending literally every minute of every day for two weeks with my family, which consists of my dad, my mom, and my brother. As a teenager, I need my space, and my brother and I tended to fight about trivial things and that in turn would drive our mother crazy. Eventually we would just pop in our headphones and block each other out, which proved to be the most effective way of dealing with our arguments.
I learned about the beauty of the country we lived in through this trip. I saw a storm in Oklahoma, and the land was so flat we could literally see where it ended. I stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and saw the shadows of the clouds as they sailed overhead. I stood on Santa Monica peer and watched the waves crash against the shore. I sat outside our hotel in New Mexico and watched fireworks on the Fourth of July.
This trip brought me many life experiences that I will be eternally grateful for, and I wouldn’t change any of it.
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