Personal Narrative: The Beach

This year, during Spring break my family and I ventured to California, the land of Starbucks and In-N-Out Burger. Our trip started out at Sea World, and my younger brother insisted we go to the Shark Encounter exhibit. Once we arrived my parents let my brother

We finally docked to our first destination, Catalina Island. Stepping on the island was so surreal, the air was so fresh, the island scenery covered in green, and the houses were unbelievably beautiful. A group of decided we wanted to go parasailing so we all chipped in and got tickets to go. Four of us, girls, and other passengers got on this speed boat and sped off far enough to catch good air for the parachute. A couple of people were ahead of us so we got to see what we were going to expect and hear the people's opinion on how it went when it was finally our turn to go up. Gisselle, my roommate, paired up to go together and we were very anxious. We both got geared up and the boat started going to get some wind. We got shot off the boat,

I had arrived for a two-week stay at the transit barracks of Camp Pendleton in California. We would stay here temporarily until we flew to our overseas base destination. They had told us that we were not allowed to leave the base prior to our flight. They probably believed that some of the newer soldiers might get themselves into trouble in Oceanside, or head for home with cold feet rather than leaving the United States for the next year.

Our refreshing day at the lake was now a day of oppressing heat. Despite the more than warm weather, I had not exercised at all that day. In an attempt to get in a little of the daily exercise recommended by my soccer coach, I swam to the neighboring buoy. The buoy was about 50 feet away from the boat dock. The swim was not far, but it was far enough to make me breathe hard. It also made Katrina, Madison, Lauren, and Olivia, who had followed, breathe hard. Behind them, closing in on the buoy, were my mom and two younger brothers slowly paddling on their floats. About 6 feet from our destination we drifted upon a shoal. The shoal was rocky, muddy, and algae-ridden. When the filthy red and green mixture of algae and mud squished between my toes I cringed and refused to lower my legs

It was around christmas time and my dad had decide he wanted to take a vacation, so we decided on florida and he wanted to got to Miami and I wanted to go to Sarasota. We invited my sister her boyfriend and they brought my nephew along. We all piled into my sister's car which was on a Nissan maxima so it was a very tight fit. Everyone would drive in three hour intervals and on the second day around noon we would see where we were.

It had been one scorching hot summer when the temperatures were record breaking. Everyone was dying for water and air conditioning, people were having heart strokes, getting over heated and being rushed to the hospital. This place was Nashville, Tennessee, where country music is all you hear and they all wear jeans, button down shirts with boots and act the heat is no big deal.

A few years back on a perfect summer day, my friends and I decided to go out on my boat, the Floating Irishman. My dad, the captain, began to sail off out of the marina into the nice calm water; it seemed like a perfect day to go out. We went out about ten miles away from the marina and decided it was a terrific spot to throw out the anchor. Once we were securely into the ground below, we threw out some floats attached to the boat and started swimming. My dad had given us a few safety precautions; the most important was “Do not go past the blue float.” That was the furthest float away from the boat which went out about 25 feet back. Everyone was having a great time pushing each other off of the float and swimming around in the river; definitely a day to remember.

It was a dark night, the fog was like cotton, along the sea any misstep could bring your death, my tripulation and i were going to burma, one of the most poor countries, to bring food, supplies and medicines, we sailed from hawaii and went west, at that moment we were in the middle of the north pacific ocean, almost all my crew was asleep, except me and a couple that was cleaning the ship,in the dead of night.

We catch tiny cutthroat and rainbow trout but they're a lot of work for the meat they provide. We won't be eating like the kings I'd imagined. I was really looking forward to showing off some of those Kamloops and repeating Frank's cool lie. "Worms."

There was a time I remember being at a friends to swim. We had just put our sunscreen on and did not decide to wait until it had dried to our skin. Within a few hours we all had burns on every inch of our body. For the next few weeks my back was bright red and soon I began to peel. It was like taking paint of a wall when it came of my back. That was a time I realized that reading the instructions can get you a long way away from torment. For a week I had realy bad sunburns on my shoulders and for some odd reason on my legs.

Years ago, my Uncle Robert and My Aunt Liz had decided they wanted to sell their house and buy a 56’ yacht. Living aboard the vessel they often sailed for days, visiting different places up and down the Atlantic Ocean. One summer when I was about twelve my parents had to make plans to fly down to Florida for a few weeks for my father’s work. At the same time my uncle and aunt were planning a trip to Bermuda and they invited me to spend my summer vacation with them. I was absolutely thrilled at the idea because I had never been on a boat before and sailing the ocean for a week sounded like an exciting adventure. After the adults ironed out all the details I took a plane from my hometown of Chicago all the way to Charleston International Airport, where my uncle picked me up.

As my family and I drive down the gravel road and pull up to the backside of our cabin all 5 of us are relieved that the 7 ½ car ride across 447 miles of Illinois and Missouri is over. We have arrived at 598 Zack Wheat Drive, Sunrise Beach, Missouri where my cabin stands with many others as a part of Sunset Inn Resort. The cabin sits right on the lake at mile marker 33 of the 93 mile long lake which includes 1,150 miles of shoreline. The lake itself, in this area, is 60-70 feet deep and 1,300 feet wide. I get out of the car and walk around the side of the cabin to the front porch where my grandma is sitting on the porch waiting for us to arrive. She is sitting in 1 of 8 white, plastic chairs on the deck and my Uncle Rick is sitting at the picnic table drinking a beer. The other 11 members of my family come from various places to greet us and catch up.

I got on my skateboard and rode it to the Kiama beach, everything was great and it was only 10:46. I placed my bag on the sand, grabbed my surfboard and went to the ocean again. It was a great day

At 5:30 a.m. My alarm clock buzzed. It was Wednesday. I thought to myself, school doesn't start for another two and a half hours. I suddenly remembered it's one of the most exciting days that I will experience. Both my parents were sleeping. I turned off my alarm and got out of my warm bed. Immediately I put on swimming shorts with no shirt, to top it off a flat brim hat sitting backwards on my head. I walked into the hallway making sure not to wake anyone. I creeped down the stairs and walked into my kitchen. I saw a note on top of my wetsuit that read “I washed and dried it, I will call the school and say you have an appointment, have fun and don't get hurt, love mom.”

As we layed on the beach I could taste the salty air on my tongue. Our very first stop was Maui. We walked off the cruise ship down to the sand. It was like walking on heaven because the sand was so soft. I walked down to the aqua water with my head held high, and in my brand new bright blue bikini. The water was so magical. The waves flowed over, the water was clear, and there was no sharp cutting shells at my feet. I looked around at all of the smiling faces of the people floating over the waves with me and my sisters. For instance, there were the people that don’t wanna get wet, there are the people that will splash the people that don't want to get wet, there are the hooligans that float over the waves with a blow up mattress, there are the rich people with a big tube with a drink