My Spring Break Trip - Narrative Writing
My spring break trip with my family was a great way to take a step back from all the chaos in our everyday lives. We traveled by plane to Captiva, Florida on March 15, 2019. Flights out of Des Moines to Florida were really expensive, so we decided to fly out of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport instead.
We had a four hour drive to Minneapolis, Minnesota before the flight. Our car was jam-packed with suitcases, backpacks, a cooler, snacks, and other belongings. I felt so squished! There was very little legroom. My legs started to tremble, and they were shaking from pain. The drive felt so long. I couldn't wait to stretch my legs. About one hour outside of Minneapolis, we ran into a large unexpected traffic delay. All traffic had to move over to the left lane, and the lineup stretched several miles long. People were getting antsy. Some decided to drive quickly up the right lane, cutting off other drivers. The car in front of us didn’t want any cars to cut in front of her. She swerved from the left lane to the right lane, once almost driving a car off the side of the road. In the moment, my family was dying laughing. We could hear the lady yelling at the other cars. She made inappropriate hand gestures to at least four cars. My family started becoming a little nervous that her road rage might cause an accident. Finally, we reached the end of the delay. As it turned out, there was a huge amount of snow melting onto the highway. Our drive was delayed for twenty-five minutes. When we arrived at the airport, we dashed across the terminal. We thought we were going to be late. Luckily, our flight was delayed. We arrived in Fort Myers, Florida after a 3 hour flight. The wheels screeched to a halt, and we got out and picked up our rental car. On our drive to Captiva, we drove over two massive bridges. The scenery was amazing. We saw the ocean, the palm trees swaying in the air, and the seagulls dive bombing the water for their food. We drove a little over an hour, and we made it to the South Seas Resort after twenty minutes of twisty roads.
On Saturday and Sunday, the weather was great. The temperature was about 76 degrees, and it was very sunny. Although the temperature was cooler, the sun made it feel really warm. I didn't get sunburned, but my brother got very burnt. His skin was wrinkled, and it was shedding. I went for a run everyday, so I could log my miles for track. The humidity was awful for running though! I would come back after a four mile run, and I would be drenched in sweat. When I run with my track team in Iowa, we usually sweat way less than I did for that week in Florida. The weather during the next four days was rainy, cool, and windy. It was pretty annoying to have it rain a lot. We already had to deal with a bad winter in Iowa, and we got a taste of bad weather in Florida as well. We had to find things to do without going outside. My family really loves filling out March Madness brackets. My siblings changed their picks after the games happened, so they didn't fully understand the concept. When the weather didn’t cooperate, my family would stay inside and watch one of the games. We went shelling on the beach, and we swam in the pools located on the resort for the majority of the time. The sand was damp, compact, and cool to walk in, and the massive waves crashed, flying onto the beach. While shelling, we found many conch shells varying in size, big and small, and color, purple and tan.
On Thursday, March 21, we went on a cruise to Cayo Costa State Park. Cayo Costa was described as, “the best shelling place in Florida.” The island could only be reached by boat, and the sail there was very windy. The boat traveled at 26 miles per hour, and it was bouncing up and down crushing the water below. The gusting wind felt like a tornado was hitting me. I was scared and dizzy from the ride. After looking for over an hour and walking many miles, my mom found a sand dollar. My family was ecstatic. We had found many fragmented sand dollars, but this sand dollar wasn’t broken at all. It was perfect. There were a little over eight families on the tour, and we were the only family to find a sand dollar. It was my first time seeing a sand dollar in real life. We definitely don’t have sand dollars in Iowa! We put all of our shells into one black and yellow striped bag. I had checked to make sure that the sand dollar was intact multiple times. When we were on the boat, I looked in the bag again, but I couldn’t find the sand dollar. I started to panic, taking all the shells out to try and find it. Pulling out pieces of a sand dollar from the bag, I realized it was broken. Although we were very sad to no longer have that perfect sand dollar, we still had a fun time at the “secret” beach.
During the trip, I had time for a lot of reading. I read The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, which I really recommend to all. I also completed many word searches. I loved the time I spent with my family. We don’t usually get to spend much time together, because we have a very busy schedule. I needed the time off to relax. When we got back home at 1:30 AM on Saturday, March 23, I was so tired. I tried sleeping in the car, but we kept hitting bumps, and I couldn’t get comfortable. Our family vacation was really awesome, but it felt good to be home. It was time for me to get back to reality!
