Favorite American Vacation Destinations

Disneyland

I am fortunate to have visited Disneyland several times already and have just returned from a three-day trip there. I believe that Disneyland is still the “Happiest Place on Earth” where my “dreams really do come true.” I enjoyed watching this video and seeing how Disneyland has and has not changed. The atmosphere in the video is one of calmness; with everyone taking their time to make sure their visit is full of special memories. In the video the tourists are interacting with the band and having a great time. During my recent visit, I did see several bands performing around the park, but I did not see tourists dancing with them. I tried to enjoy my recent visit to the fullest, but it is hard to do when you have to stand in line for over an hour for a ride and you have people bumping into you as you are walking. I wonder if the lines for the rides were as long for the tourists in the video as they were for me. At times it is hard to believe that you are in the “Happiest Place on Earth,” but when you develop your pictures and see the smiles of those you went with, you forget the lines and the rude people.

The central layout of Disneyland has not changed but many rides are no longer there and new rides have been added. Main Street is still the central hub with bridges leading to each of five lands. Mickey’s Toontown is a new town in Disneyland, and California Adventure is a new addition to the vacation wonderland. Rides shown in the video such as The People Mover and the old Submarine Ride are no longer there. But rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, and the Tea Cups are still there in addition to many new ones. The rides at Disneyland have been given a face-lift and are continually being updated to make them current with the new Disney movies. For example, the old Submarine Ride is now Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage featuring the characters in the Finding Nemo movie.

Disneyland will always be the “Happiest Place on Earth” for me. I enjoy myself when I visit and I can’t wait to go again this summer with my cousins from England. It will be my cousin’s first visit, so I will get to enjoy this visit in a special way. I will see Disneyland through their eyes and let them lead me around the park.

The Roller Skate Craze

I found The Roller Skate Craze video to be short but funny. The well-dressed men, women, and the policeman were skating around doing various things. I laughed when I watched the people skating and then falling over each other. I wondered if this was suppose to happen for the film, or did they really fall. I have seen men and women skating, but never a policeman. I have been to the take out restaurant called Sonic where the people skate to your car to bring you your food. Fortunately, I never saw them fall over each other.

Babies Rolling Eggs

Since Easter is this Sunday, I chose to watch the Babies Rolling Eggs video. I thought it show an egg hunt and then babies, or young children pushing eggs with a spoon. Well, I was wrong. This video was of toddlers who were throwing, or rolling eggs down a small hill with a group of young boys ready to get them. I saw parents standing behind the babies and unfortunately the boys were pushing and shoving each other to get to the eggs. My parents have taken my sister and me to egg hunts before and they were not like this event. When I was a toddler, my parents would walk with me to find eggs and there was some pushing and shoving but not as much as in the video. As I got older, I went out on my own to find the eggs. Again, there was pushing and shoving but the parents would intervene and stop this behavior. When I watch the videos my parents have of my egg hunts, I think I had a better time than the babies in this video. I do not know of any rolling eggs events like this one in the video being held in Petaluma, California.

Why We Travel

Many of my travel experiences have been for gymnastics competitions. I have traveled to Florida, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Long Beach for gymnastics competitions. The competition was the main focus of these trips, but once I was finished with my gymnastics meet I was free to explore. Unfortunately, my Hawaii meet was held in February so I was only able to stay for five days because I had to return to school. The Florida meet was held in June so I stayed for ten days and had plenty of time to play. Now that I am finished with my competitive gymnastics career, I hope to travel more for pleasure. I have just returned from Disneyland where I went to have fun and act like a kid again. This trip was to be relaxing, but how relaxed can you be when you are standing among thousands of other people who are in such a rush. I made the best of this trip and enjoyed being with the friends I went with and making memories with them. I have family in England and my sister and I hope to go visit them soon. My family enjoys camping and on weekends we can be found sitting by a campfire at various local camping sites. I enjoy traveling and exploring new places. Having fun and experiencing new things is what makes traveling interesting for me. Pico Ayer said, “We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate,” this will now become my main focus when I travel.

The most unexpected event that happened to me while traveling was when I saw bears in Yosemite up close. Even though I know bears do live in Yosemite, I was quite surprised to see so many so close. The bears entered into our campsite every night even when we were sitting by a campfire. Before nightfall we would make sure our site did not have any food outside of our storage box, but a bear managed to find the one piece of bread that happened to get left on our barbeque. One night we left a single slice of bread on our barbeque and a bear knocked it over to get it. It was amazing that a bear could smell bread and knew how to get what he wanted. This experience was scary because I was asleep and was awaken up by the noise of our barbeque hitting the dirt. Yosemite belongs to the people during the day, but at night it belongs to the animals that come out at dark.

I do think that the idea of rescuing the humanity of places, and saving them from abstraction and ideology does apply to my own experience with the bears and the unbelievable sights in Yosemite. The fact that we accidentally left food out was not smart, but we caused no major harm to the bears or to people. This experience taught me that we may be able to view and partake with nature, but we do need to be very careful with our actions.

While we were camping in Yosemite, we made sure not to harm any wildlife or destroy any items of nature. We choose to take in the beauty around us and slow down time to truly appreciate what we saw. We traveled to this valley to help keep ourselves in tune with nature. My parents made sure to take us off the beaten path, the path that the tourists do not use. We explored and found areas not known by many people. We came away with such special memories that will preserve in our minds forever. I came away with a new respect for nature and how much we can learn if we slow down and relax.

I had to think if anonymity is an important part of the travel experience. If the travel experience is to meet family or spend time with family, then anonymity is not an important part. This type of travel experience is to meet people, spend time with them, and let them get to know who you are. You do not want to spend time by yourself, but you want to mingle with your family and make special memories. If the travel experience is for rest and relaxation, then anonymity is an important part. This type of travel experience is to be unknown to the world around you. You want to get away from the stress that surrounds you and pretend that you are the only one in the world. You want to hang out and enjoy yourself while doing whatever you want.

Travel Ads

Viewing these ads helped me see how advertisements have changed through the years. I have to admit that the “older” ads were boring and did not keep my interest. This might be because many of them were in black and white. From air travel to water travel all these ads help stress the fact that traveling should be fun and relaxing. They tell about all the unforgettable features of the destination they are trying to convince everyone to visit.

The photo of the ad for Exuma, an area in the Bahamas is quite peaceful and relaxing. The couple standing on the rocks, looking at the calm ocean brings about a feeling of calmness and isolation. The written words say, “You’ll never leave and always come back” and the whole colorful, descriptive ad makes you believe this. Is it possible that only two people are on the beach or is this a misleading ad? Will all the beaches in the Bahamas be this isolated and so unforgettable? The feeling of tranquility is one I would like to feel for myself as I am sitting on this clean beach or swimming in the calm water. I have never traveled to the Bahamas, but this ad is very persuasive and makes me yearn to go there on vacation.

The first slide with the couple in the airplane caught my eye. I have traveled by plane several times but have never had this comfortable of a flight. This couple is dressed well with the lady having a corsage pinned on her top and the man wearing a suit and tie. I travel in comfortable clothes like sweats and tee shirts. I wonder if this couple is traveling first class because the food looks like it is a catered event with fancy cheeses, fruit and wines. The stewardess, who is also well dressed, is serving the couple with a pleasurable smile on her face. She does not seem to be stressed or rushed to help others. I received a bag lunch once when I flew. It consisted of a pre-made sandwich, an orange, and crackers, but I picked the bag from a table as I entered the plane. The couple will be eating with silverware not the plastic utensils we use when we travel by air. This ad portrays how air travel is enjoyable, while today ads stress the cost of the flight. When we fly, my mother goes online and searches for the best price which not necessary delivers the most enjoyable flight.

This ad really portrays a luxurious way of traveling by air, a way I don’t believe I will ever experience. My grandmother once talked about her first airplane ride to London. She wore a fancy pantsuit and was served a lunch and a dinner by a stewardess. Her flight was at night and she slept most of the way because she was relaxed and well fed. When she arrived in London, she was a little tired but was not stressed out because of the flight. I have flown at night, but got very little sleep. My legs with squished, the person sitting next to me kept hitting me when she moved, and every time someone walked by me I was bumped into. When I walked off the plane, I was tired and could not wait to get some peaceful sleep at the hotel. I can only wish that air travel would once again become a pleasurable experience.

The Tourist

A tourist is a person who enjoys a sense of adventure and seeks out every opportunity to get to know a new place. Tourists to the Bay Area should walk the Golden Gate Bridge, stroll through Chinatown, and take in all the different sights in Fisherman’s Wharf. These “tourist attractions” are well known and have become the places to see while in San Francisco. Most tourists have preconceived notions as what these attractions will look like and what they should see, but occasionally a tourist might venture off the beaten track and explore on their own. These tourists who do this will return home with of feeling of connection between them and San Francisco. They will not let commercialization ruin their experiences and will want to return for more adventure.

Yosemite is a tourist attraction which my family and I enjoy visiting and is a great example of a place which has undergone the stages of “sight sacralization.” Even though Yosemite does have a famous hotel available, we enjoy packing up our trailer and head off on a relaxing family adventure. Yes, Yosemite has become commercialized in many ways but if you are one of the smart campers you will not let this get in your way. Post cards, tee shirts, paintings, and even several web sites all help form preconceived notions of this majestic valley. Once in the valley, you will face numerous gift shops and guided tours of the valley floor and the numerous mountain faces to climb. The first time my family and I visited Yosemite we did the usual tourist events. We took the valley floor guided tour, and we did climb several of the small mountain trails to the waterfalls. I have to admit that I felt like I was being pushed and shoved by all the other tourists fighting to do the same. Every night when we arrived back at our campsite, we were tired of fighting the crowds. We did see the sights, but as we talked by the campfire we realized that we had enough. We decided to just ride our bikes and let the roads take us where they wanted. We stopped along the way to eat our picnic lunches by the river and just let our adventure tell us what we should see. Now when we visit Yosemite, we are happy to sit at our campsite and watch the beautiful nature taking place all around us. We do not rush to the tourist spots, but we continue to take our vacation easy and truly enjoy being a family in a very beautiful and unique place.

I do believe that tourists do get tired of the intense corporate control. People realize that the beauty of nature is only special when you get to view it yourself and see what you want to see. Post cards or web sites only show one point of view. Personal experiences are what make the most memories. Corporate control needs to take a step back and let people learn to appreciate and read the landscape for themselves. Viewing nature for myself is what builds the special times I hold as my most precious memories. Nothing can replace interacting with nature, so we all need to venture off the assigned path and create our own.

"Loss Of Creature"

Walker Percy’s main point in talking about the Grand Canyon is that it is almost impossible for a person to see it for what it really is. This happens because others have formulated a person’s idea of what it should be even before they go see it for themselves. The books, the postcards, the tourist folders, and just the name help paint a picture in one’s mind as to what they should see. Their preconceived notions about what they have been told they will see will stop them from appreciating and questioning what they see with their own eyes. I guess no one will ever see and appreciate the Grand Canyon as much as García López de Cárdenas did when he discovered it, but we need to stop and take in all the beauty the Grand Canyon has to offer. Don’t just say it looks like the postcard you saw, or it looks like your friend said, but open your eyes and look at the color and the shadows that are before you. Learn to form your own opinions and don’t be afraid if others see the Grand Canyon differently. Everyone should create their own experience when they view the Grand Canyon, so enjoy yours.

Percy says that people only see what they expect to see. They have been programmed by others and do not allow themselves to experience a new place or culture in the present. We need to leave the beaten track, seek out and enjoy what you see in the present. Experience a new place or new culture with your eyes wide open and ready to take in the beauty just waiting to be seen.

I have not allowed a “preformed symbolic complex” to get in the way of own experiences while traveling. I have not traveled often and many of my experiences have occurred when I was traveling for gymnastics competitions. Once the competition is over, I am free to explore. While in Hawaii I did go off the beaten track and explored the scenery. Before my family went to Hawaii, I did talk to friends about where to go and where not to go, but they did not describe what I would see in great detail. I did read brochures about the places I wanted to go see, but I did not allow myself to get a preconceived notion about what I was to see. I enjoyed the scenery before me and when I returned home I had pictures to help remind me of the beauty I saw. Maybe my parents had a “preformed symbolic complex” when we went to Hawaii because they had to plan the trip. They had to read a lot of brochures, maps, and talk to the travel agents. My parents wanted to make our trip enjoyable for the whole family, but all the planning must have hurt their experience.