A Trip to remember!

My favorite place to be in the summer is undeniably the beach. It is the most romantic and relaxing place to be especially if you go at night. A few years back when I went to Tawas State Park with my family, I had the most exciting experience of my life. When I was down there I met one of my lifelong friends Travis, he was one the most laid back guys I know. HE had the Idea for us to go out to the beach at around midnight. At the time I was petrified of the dark, and was very hesitant to go along with him. With some major persuasion, he finally convinced me to go. We first met up at my camp site, because there was no way I was walking alone to his. From there we started the mile walk to the beach. It was around midnight, but the moon was shining so bright it didn’t feel like it was that late. We walked straight down the cement path way following it until we could see the lighthouse.

 

It was quiet, no one was around to make a sound, and all you could here was the wind rustling through the leaves on the trees. It was peaceful, when we finally reached the beach we walked down the shore line until we found a spot that was secluded with brush and trees, so we could build a fire without being too visible. We set up our spot with a big tan comforter, and laid four medium sized rocks on the four corners of the blanket to insure that they didn’t get moved around by the wind. After getting set up Travis decided to go for a swim, he asked me to join but I was not for it. I have seen to many movies about people either getting attacked by something in the water or people drowning because they don’t have anyone on shore who can help them.

 

Yes I know Michigan is a fresh water state and there are not and sharks and monsters do not exist but I wasn’t up to chance my luck! After he go back we just sat for an hour or two listening to the waves hit the shore, and gazing at the stars. In the Bay City/Saginaw area you can see stars but in Tawas the stars seem to glow even brighter in the sky, almost allowing you to reach up and touch them. I could have stayed out there forever, it was amazing to be able to see all of the natural beauty of traveling up North. Since that night whenever my family plans a trip up to Tawas I always look forward to either being able to take a friend with me or be able to meet someone new in the park.             

Shopping trip

I absolutely love it when people try to tell me that going on a shopping trip isn’t travel. In a matter of fact it is, and in my opinion it’s the best place to travel! When I go shopping in the Great Lakes Crossing Mall, it always excites me. Compared to the malls that we have in our local area, this mall, if you haven’t been there, is huge! This mall holds many of my favorite stores and as a bonus over eighty-five percent of the stores are outlets! Some of my favorite stores include, Forever 21, Coach, H & M, Victoria’s Secret, Bed Bath and Beyond, and much more. Now I have been to the Great Lakes Crossing Mall around ten or more times so I have a pretty good grasp on navigating my way around.

My junior year is a different story though, once my friend Emma and I were crazy enough to go down to Detroit in her tiny Chevrolet Metro, buy a hotel room right on the mall property, and stay the night even though we were only seventeen. The drive down was unpleasant because her car is the size of a shoebox. The fact that we didn’t have to get up early in the morning to battle traffic for over two hours was the best idea ever though! Unfortunately the only down side was spending my own money. My parents didn’t love me enough to financially support my shopping addition. So I was forced to save up as much money as I could to be able to get a few new outfits. It was a struggle but I made it out with cash to spare.

That night we decided that we wanted to experience an I-Max movie for the first time, and Emma decided we were going to see the collector.  That was a terrible idea, she made me leave the movie with her because it was to bloody and gory. We were not about to waist ten dollars on a movie we had only seen the first five minute of so we asked to see a different one and that lead to us seeing the rise of the guardians. It was the best, way to end the trip!

I love just taking random trips to the great lakes crossing mall. Yes I know it is a drive, but it gives you a chance to go out with friends and relax, allowing a whole day of nothing but shopping. It is worth the gas you spend and the time you take out of your day! What more could you ask for!

Traveling is worth every Penny

I love it when people try to tell me that traveling somewhere new is way out of their budget. I mean some places that I have been to have been on the higher priced side, but there are plenty of enjoyable places to go were you don’t need to worry about breaking the bank. My parents have always known how to bargain shop when it came to finding a five star hotel at a two star price. It doesn’t take much to learn how to have a good time and save as much money as you can. Even though we all know that when you travel, one will buy no matter how hard they try to not. Some of my most exciting trips included shelling out a little extra cash, but it was all worth it in the end! Nothing is cheap, in order to have “vacation fun” as my family and I call it, one must try to not worry about prices! Only try to enjoy the things that they might not get to do each day. When I went to the Bahamas, like I have talked about in my previous blog, I got to swim with the dolphins, walk on the pure white sandy beaches, and spend my four days three night on a luxurious Disney Dream Cruise ship! Yes this was a bit costly but it was worth every penny, because as we know Bay City isn’t the most tropical get away. Now I know that most people can’t do things like that to the extreme. It is crazily and ridiculously priced but Disney is of course the happiest place on earth! But there are ways to save such as; driving instead of flying, not splurging on food products or useless souvenirs, and most importantly attempting to not stay at the official resorts. Key steps like that can prevent an unhappy checkbook balance.

     

Now if a Disney Cruise to the beautiful islands of the Bahamas isn’t your thing you have an abundance of other fun and exciting locations! I consider myself to be well traveled, but I haven’t been all over the world just yet (even though I plan to in the near future). Unfortunately when I travel I generally find myself at the same area.  In 2012, my family and I got the chance to go to Washington DC to go the Girl Scout rock the Mall, this was cool even though I have already been to DC twice before. While we were there we also had the opportunity to spend some time at Virginia Beach, trust me when I say there is no other perfect way to relax then to spend a weekend at Virginia Beach. Now these vacations were much better in prices, and more educational and relaxing. But it was the most interesting to be able to see all of the natural and manmade sites. So I understand that traveling can become costly, making it seem like it wouldn’t be worth all the money and time, but it truly is. Growing up for me would have been completely different if my family wasn’t always consistently traveling.

DONT KNOCK IT UNTIL YOU TRY IT!