Traveling The World

Quarantine

Traveling In Lockdown

At the beginning of 2020 people’s lives across the world dramatically changed. The outbreak of the Coronavirus has caused a mass uproar forcing millions of people to stay home, wash their hands, and be 6 feet apart from each other. Now you could ask what does this has to do with traveling across the world? Traveling has changed dramatically! Everything has to be well sanitized and people are not allowed to be close to each other, in fact, airlines have reduced their prices immensely due to the fact of people not leaving their homes. This has not only affected airlines, businesses, and other companies it’s affected, everyone. In Wisconsin, our governor, Tony Evers, enacted the stay at home act which requires everybody to stay at home and be in quarantine. Simply traveling outside of the house has almost felt illegal like I can’t even go to the grocery store. Although essential needs are accepted, people are really not allowed to leave their houses, even though they do. My dad, being a business owner, I help him keep the business running with takeouts or deliveries. While working I see a lot of Minnesota travelers come to Wisconsin cabins completely going against a stay at home act. I wish these people could realize that they could potentially be spreading a virus, and as northern Wisconsin doesn’t have many cases we don’t really want any from Minnesota. Right now all we need to worry about is staying home staying safe and staying healthy. I think people need to realize this in order to keep themselves and others healthy. Personally I have been keeping busy with homework, work, and occasionally working with my horses!

Timon: Look, kid. Bad things happen, and you can’t do anything about it. Right?
Young Simba: Right.
Timon: Wrong. When the world turns its back on you, you turn you back on the world.
The Lion King

Exploring The Islands

Cozumel

Our last and final stop on the cruise was Cozumel, Mexico. When we arrived the skies were very cloudy, and the air was really windy. Once we got to our excursion stop the guys politely told us that we were not able to do half of our excursion due to the weather conditions. We were supposed to go side-by-side riding and speed boating on the ocean, but we weren’t able to do the water activities. So instead the guides took us to a chocolate factory on our side-by-sides. All I can say is that chocolate is the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life and miss it dearly. It was so creamy and rich it was like heaven in your mouth. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat a Hershey’s chocolate bar and truly enjoy it anymore… After the chocolate factory, we officially started our wild adventure on the side-by-sides. My dad drove first to the chocolate factory then he let me drive in the jungle area. We then made our last stop at the beach we were supposed to hang out at. This is where we had our included lunch. I won’t say it was amazing but the food was probably really good to someone who doesn’t like “Americanized foods.” After this, we hopped back onto the side-by-side and Elizabeth decided to drive. Before we left the guide wanted to look at her driver’s license just “one more time” because she looks 12… I thought that was hilarious considering she’s practically a year older than me. Our ride back was…umm eventful but, I overall had a good time. I really enjoyed the weather that day! Considering I was a red lobster I had to dress like it was 20 degrees and completely cover my body from the sun. I think the thing I hate the most about Mexico is that its such a “tourist trap” in the way you can never really catch a break from vendors. We would walk to one place look around walkout and the guy at the store next door would say “okay now it’s my turn!” Umm no sir it is not “your turn.” Once we were done being harassed we headed back to the boat to go back home.

“At the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides and follow the sun.”
Sandy Gingras

Exploring The Islands

Belize

The next two days we explored two more islands with the first being Belize. I only really have one word to describe Belize, at least the side we were on, disgusting (and I’ll explain that soon). On our way to our excursion, we had about a 45-minute drive to the area. Because of our group being odd-numbered I had to sit next to the rudest old lady ever, mostly because she was an extreme republican. I took the window seat while she had the aisle. At first, she was really nice asking me questions about school and whatnot. Then she asked me if I had a boyfriend, I smiled and said: “Yes I do, actually it was our four-year anniversary yesterday.” This old lady then paused and looked at me with disapproval, she commented: “Oh no dear, you can not have a boyfriend for that long! You need to go out and experience other people, you poor thing.” I swear when people tell me to “respect” my elders then they better respect me too. But this old lady, she would not stop. Her next comment to me was asking me my views of “all these immigrants coming into our county.” I tell her what she wants to hear and go on with my day, but I thought to myself ‘this is definitely not the time or place to be asking this question, IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY.’ Now besides the rude old lady, I got to enjoy looking out of the bus window where I would see the sides of the roads covered in litter, and I mean COVERED. I sadly even saw a dead dog on the side of the road… how sad. After 45 minutes of sitting next to this mean lady, we finally arrived to our stop. For this excursion, we were going to go horseback riding because I love riding. I got a pretty nice horse named Black Jack, he was a smaller horse meant for carrying a smaller jockey and I guess we were a perfect match. On our ride, we had three helpers, two guides (one in the front, and one in the back), and one person that handled the middle of the crowd. The guy in the middle (I can’t remember his name) took a liking to me specifically, he was 16 and honestly made half of my ride kinda awkward. He would ask me about my horses and if I raced with them, I say no and then he tells me more about himself. This guy then told me that he used to have a beautiful stud horse (a male horse used for breeding), but it didn’t survive because he was to busy in school. Yeah, I did not like this guy anymore. Once he had to help someone I kept my distance for the rest of the ride and completely avoided him. After this, we headed back to our ship where we would travel to Cozumel, Mexico.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
Anatole France

Exploring The Sea

Sea Dayz

From February 2nd to the 10th I went on a long vacation with my Dad and friend, Elizabeth Howard. The cruise was a week-long and consisted of three different stops such as Roatan, Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. Our first two and a half days were sadly at sea, which then means long boring days on the boat with hundreds of scary strangers. The “half a day” was honestly really crappy and cold (considering we were on a cruise to be warm) the temperature in Louisiana was 61 and very VERY windy, so cold. That day I remember doing almost nothing besides going in the hot tub with Josh Minnema and Elizabeth to watch the Super Bowl. The second day I remember getting burnt to a crisp. I completely forgot how fast you burn on a cruise ship and was in incredible pain for the next couple of days. Day two on the sea, I spent most of my time indoors considering I felt like I had pins and needles stuck on my skin. I mostly sat in my room and dreadfully did homework on my vacation. Day three we finally hit land! Which was Roatan, Honduras (home, sweet, island!). My Dad and I are obsessed with going to the Bananarama to hang out, so we adventured over there. For the day we caught up with friends, swam around, walked the beach, and went parasailing. When I went to the island I was extremely sad because I usually go scuba diving and I expected to do so throughout my trip. It has been about two months since my ACL reconstructive surgery so the doctors really limited me, sadly. Although I had a great time I have learned that I am most definitely an island person than a cruiser, as it was sad to leave to go back to the ship…

“It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.”
Sir Francis Drake, Sea Captain

Pic-A-Nic Basket

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park was one of my yearly camping trips with my father. Somehow I managed to spend two weeks with the man without going insane. But I did survive. At the beginning of this trip, we decided to go through Minnesota, to South Dakota, to Wyoming. I think my favorite part is stopping in South Dakota. Wall drug is, of course, the best store ever. They have the most amazing maple donuts and the store is huge. It is filled with random knickknacks that I really don’t need, but the whole store just amazes me because it’s so old. On the way to Wall Drug my dad and I always have a competition, we yell out “WALL DRUG” every time we see a sign. The one who finds the most wins. After our stop in South Dakota, the trip is pretty boring after that once we hit Yellowstone National Park we got to see a lot of amazing things like geysers, and weird colored ponds. Overall the view was fantastic but the smell was absolutely terrible. I swear I would rather smell anything else over the smell of rotten eggs any day. My next secret mission was to NOT stay in Yellowstone National Park. My reason was the park did not have any cell service, and being a teenager I NEED cell service especially when you have Snapchat streaks to take care of, and a boyfriend that freaks out if you don’t let him know you are still breathing. Things started working out accordingly, Yellowstone’s camping sites were all taken because it was the busy season. We ended up driving to Montana and staying at a campsite there WITH cell service AND internet so life was pretty great then. The trip home was slightly brutal, when my dad and I spend too much time together we tend to get with each other snappy. I was really glad to be home to sleep in my own warm comfy bed, without the smell of rotten eggs in the morning.

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination with reality, and instead of thinking of how things may be, see them as they are.”
Samuel Jackson

Sabrina and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day(s)

New York

I know the first thing you want me to explain is the title and I’m going to get there. This trip to New York and Pennsylvania was a trip without my parents and it was a school-organized trip with people that wanted to go. So on this lovely trip, I got to go with two of my friends Margaret and Elizabeth Howard. The morning that I woke up to leave for my flight I looked in the mirror and both of my eyes were pink, and I’m thinking to myself “I still have to go on this trip even if I have pinkeye,” so I went. The first two days were honestly terrible; I had friends telling me that I look like I was high and I was taking just regular eyedrops trying to get rid of this pinkeye. On this trip, I shared a bed with my friend Elizabeth and later on, she too had gotten pinkeye about a day after mine finally finished off. See Elizabeth had gotten very mad at me, and let’s just say she scared me…,but she was tough and still put her contacts in and put makeup on. This later led to her having a staph infection, which was an absolute mess. I felt so bad because in all it really was my fault. About a day later my throat started to hurt, and I am notorious for strep throat and I get it at least three times a year so I’m assuming I have strep. The weird thing about my strep is that I can treat it like a normal sore throat and it will just go away. So I bought myself some day quill and night quill and made it somehow go away. My doctors think I’m a carrier of the disease so that’s great. Anywho, the day we got back from our trip Elizabeth was rushed to the hospital and 6 in the morning and I went to the hospital the next day for my strep throat. To this day we are still best friends, and we now look back at that trip and laugh about how crazy it really was. In all, it was pretty amazing.

“TRAVELING – IT LEAVES YOU SPEECHLESS, THEN TURNS YOU INTO A STORYTELLER.”
Ibn Battuta

Beach Bum

Roatan, Hondouras

Roatan, Honduras has become a second home to me. The island holds many great stories and great memories that I will forever cherish. The first time I ever heard of this beautiful island my dad told me that the first time he ever went there he instantly fell in love with the place. Of course, he wanted to revisit so he brought me along during deer hunting season. As soon as I stepped off the plane we stood in baggage claim for what felt like three years, but once we got to the Bananarama resort it didn’t take me long to throw on my swimsuit and head to the ocean. As a child, I had always loved swimming in the water, so as soon as my dad brought up getting certified in scuba diving I instantly took the offer. Once I was exposed to scuba diving I fell in love with the ocean even more. I found myself enjoying and appreciating what it has to offer more than I did before. Seeing what life is like underneath the waters is truly spectacular, the amount of creatures that you see in a different area is amazing. When I was in the process of getting certified my instructor showed me a couple of seahorses in a group together, and that sight is really rare to see. Although you are not allowed to bring a camera with you while you are in training, sadly, I am still happy that I got the opportunity. Not have I only seen seahorses, I have also seen sea turtles, lionfish, barracudas, and I have even dived with sharks. The coolest thing I ever got out of that dive was a shark tooth, which I still have, but I still need to get it made into a necklace. In all honesty that will probably never happen, knowing me.

“You’re 30 feet underwater, the ocean is brisk, the slight current is stirring the sand, the colorful fish are swarming, the bright red lobsters are playfully harassing the neon eels — everything seems surreal, especially the fact that you’re breathing underwater.”
Natalie Lavery