Why a Travel Blog?

Why did I choose a travel and adventure blog, you might ask? Well honestly, I don’t have one single reason why. Ever since I was little my parents have taken my older brother and I all over America and also into Canada some. Overall, we have traveled to more than half of the United States. When I say we have traveled somewhere that does not mean we just drove a car through it. We explore around the state to experience it fully. Our travels usually consist of everything outdoors and never staying in a hotel for more than one night. We like to go, see, and do everything we can in a couple states for one to two weeks. We have road tripped more times than I can count and have flown whenever we have saved enough frequent flier miles. Starting at a young age I caught the bug for adventure. I love to experience new things and places. I love to explore off the beaten path and ask the locals where their favorite places are. However, there was a time when I used to hate the hiking part of our adventures. The first time my parents took my brother and I to Manitou Island off of Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes Shoreline in Northern Michigan I was five. This island is not another Mackinac Island; it’s the exact opposite actually. Manitou is rural island with nothing on it. It has no grocery stores, no buildings except for a ranger house, and only one flush toilet near the boat dock. The first thing we had to do was take a little ferry from mainland to the island. Once we were on the island we each had to carry a big backpack to our campsite. Everything we were going to need for the next few days had to be in the backpacks. One of the three days we were spending there my parents told me we were going to hike around the whole island for the day. After hearing this news, being the strong-willed little girl I was, I refused to go. However, my parents remembered how I had begged for them to buy me a hat at a store on mainland the day before. This was not an ordinary hat; it was a straw-hat with little colorful embroidered flowers all along the edge. So being the wonderful parents that they are, they bribed me into hiking by promising me that they would buy the hat for me. As a little girl, that hat was a big deal, and I couldn’t give up the opportunity of my parents buying it. So, reluctantly I went along on the hike. This hike ended up being thirteen miles full of trails through the woods, steep sand dunes, and beach shoreline.  That is a long way for a little five year olds legs to carry her. Yet surprisingly, I enjoyed it more than I expected. Maybe that is because my Dad ended up giving me a piggyback ride for a majority of the hike and I didn’t actually have to walk the whole way. Or, it could be that I figured out that I actually enjoy spending the day hiking through nature with my family. Now I know what you are thinking, did my parents stick through with their promise and buy me the hat? The answer is yes. As my parents promised, they took me to the store with the straw-hat on the day we arrived back to mainland. I remember marching into the store very proud of what I had accomplished. I went straight to the back where I remembered the colorful flower hat hanging on a hook. My parents bought the hat for me and I had never been happier. The funny thing about this story is the fact that I never wore the hat after buying it. At least not out in public. It still baffles me why I never wore the hat. My mom suspects that it was because whenever someone would see me with it on I was so cute that I would get lots of attention. And because I have never been the kind of girl to want to draw attention to myself, I never wore it. I still have it up in my closet though, because I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. We have gone back to Manitou Island three more times since then. Every time we make the thirteen-mile hike around the island and laugh about the time I had to be bribed. I wouldn’t be who I am without my family’s love for adventure. Traveling together we have made some of my favorite memories. I would not love being outside as much as I do today if it wasn’t for them constantly encouraging me to do so. Maybe through this blog I can help you see how much not only our country, but also the state of Michigan there is to explore. I hope I can help you see how thrilling it is to get outside and go on adventures.