Bicycles, Kayaks, and Showshoes: Reading and Writing about Travel 2018

      For my final essay I will write about my travel to Santa Barbara. It will be a story of the struggles my friend Lydia and I encountered throughout our trip. The first struggle will be how we had to walk all day on our first day because our room was not ready right away. The next struggle will be the seasickness we both experienced on our ride to Santa Cruz island. After each of these stories I will tell how we overcame them and the good things that came out of these struggles. Lydia and I will be the main focus of the essay, however, I will also include important people we encountered throughout the week. These people include our uber driver from the airport, the couple that helped us at the airbnb, and a tour guide on the island we visited.

For my final essay I plan to write about the trip my family took to the badlands. I want to write my story similarly to how "Ascension in the Moonlight". I want to give as many details as I can about this very special moment so people can get a good clear picture of what I saw and felt while there. I want to talk about the rain and rainbow I saw along with all the animals that came into sight right after the storm.

I think I am planning to write about a trip my family took to Yellowstone National Park. I am going to write it similarly to how Arriving in Turin was written, by comparing my expectations to the realities of the trip. I want to talk about how we hit a deer on the way there, how there were so many people in the park that it was hard to appreciate the scenery, the heat, etc. The characters will include me, my younger bother, my mom, and my dad. The theme may change by the time I am finished, but I want it to be something along the lines of "traveling is all what you make of it."

I think I am going to elaborate on the essay I wrote about my family going to Glacier National Park. The characters will be my mom, step dad, sisters and then a couple we met at one of our campsites that let us use their telescopes. Its going to be about all the troubles we had through out the trip, like the RV breaking, my sister and I getting sick and a thunderstorm that ruined our hike. I will add dialogue between my sisters and I, as well as the couple at our campsite.

For my final essay, I will build off of my "moment" essay and add in the other hikes that we completed on this trip before the angels landing trail and also mention some other details about my family, getting out to Arizona and Utah, and some foreshadowing of other trips that came after this one. I want to expand on these different hiking experiences because each one showed a different part of my families dynamic and by writing about all of the hikes I can create a better image of what my family is like. The characters in this will be my mom, my dad, my sister, and I. The theme will be the positives of going outside of your comfort zone and enjoying the nature that surrounds you.

For my final essay, I think I will write about my senior trip to Ireland last summer. The characters will just be myself and my mom, and the many people we met in our nearly two week adventure along the Irish coast and in Dublin. The theme will amount to how often one end can lead to a new beginning. For example, this was my mom and me's last big adventure just the two of us before I went to college, and her and my dad became empty nesters, but we grew closer than ever before.

I think for my final travel essay I am going to write about the time my family and I took a trip to see the Eclipse last summer. My mom, dad, and I were all in the car, chasing the weather to try to get to the clearest part in eclipse's path. It was really spontaneous and hectic. We had just gotten back from New York the day before and everyone was really tired. Once we made the decision to go though, we were all in. Hopefully, the story will convey a sense of living life in the moment and not stressing the details of an event in advance too much.