Come to find out it is much safer, more fun, and easier if you go to the city with a large group of people.  If you go with a large group then you can all travel there together.  You wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost and not knowing where you are.  Usually in a large group at least one person knows how the city works and this comes in handy.  It is a lot easier to use the subway if you have someone with you who knows how the subway works and not to mention a lot cheaper.  “If we didn’t have Tracy with us when we went to New York City then we probably would have spent a lot of money on taxi,” exclaimed Angelisa Box.

Traveling to New York City with a large group is highly recommended because it is so much safer.  When you are with just a large group the people in the group feel a lot safer as well because there are so many of you.  However the down fall of having just a large group would be agreeing on places to go once you are in the city.  This when you could split up into smaller groups and just have a meeting point in a few hours.

 Once they all split up into smaller groups it is time to go shopping!  There are so many place to shop in the city that are the same store you know about and also stores you don’t know about.  This is a great time to explore all the new stores and see what else is out there.  Another example of a place like this would be a place called China Town.  In China Town you can bargain with the sales people and get items at a lower price.  Of course all the women were bargaining for purse’s which the men where in sports stores.  “China Town was something that i have never experienced before but I loved it and all the culture and uniqueness,” said Box.

One store that everyone knows about and that you have to at least go walk around in is Macy’s.  The Macy’s in New York City is at least five stories high.  “Macy’s was so beautifully decorated for the Holiday’s and was very interesting to look around even with people shoulder to shoulder as you walk around, said Box.

 Shopping isn’t the only thing to do in New York City, there is so much more.  In the winter time it is just fun to walk around the city and see all the decorates that they put up.  You can go look at the huge christmas tree that they put up every year or go ice skating in the middle of the city. ”You have to take a elevator to get down to the ice skating rink which I though was funny,” said Box.

 There is a crazy amount of Christmas lights put up all over as well.  There is even carriage rides that you can take through the Central park. There are other things you can go look at as well that are on a more serious note.  If you are there during the summer, it would be a good time to go look at the area that they have set up from 9/11.  “The 9/11 area that we visited was so overwhelming and unthinkable that something like this could happen. I mean all of a sudden when we arrived there you could hear a pen drop, that is how serious this spot is,” said Box.

It is nice and needed to take time out of the day and have a serious and thankful moment on your trip.  After you get done doing all the site seeing and shopping people tend to get hungry and want to eat somewhere.  “My favorite place to eat when we go to New York City is Bubba Gump,” said Box.  Bubba Gump is a restaurant made after the movie Forest Gump.  That means that this restaurant mainly services seafood but it does have some other chooses as well.  This restaurant is fun, great customer service, great food, and has a gift shop. At Bubba Gump you get big portions of food and above all the staff is very friendly and helpful.  This is a great place for large group and people of all ages.  After you are done eating, shopping, and site seeing; you then realize just how tried you are because you are siting down when you eat.

You can either get a hotel right in the city if you plan on staying for a couple of days or it is time to go find that parking garage and drive home.  However the recommention would be to take the train into the city if you don’t live that father away.  You should take the train in because it is cheaper and then you don’t have to worry about driving the city or worrying about where to park and if it is safe. 

It is time to take time off from the country life and go live the city life for a least one day!

A family of four decided that it would be a good idea if they went on a trip to another culture and learn something about it.  Since this family hasn’t really seen other culture’s or been around other culture’s they thought it was time to brandon their horizons.  “I know lets go visit the Amish land in Pennsylvania, its not to far from home and I don’t know anything about the Amish.  This would be a great place to learn about some culture.” exclaimed Kevin Overholt. 

So the family went to Lancester, PA to learn more about the Amish culture and have a short vacation.  This trip was perfect for the family because they only had the weekend and it was in driving distance.  They stayed at the Embassy Suites Hotel  right in the Amish community area.  This made it easy to get around and see everything that they had to offer.

The first thing the family decided to do was go on a buggy ride because that was the only thing that they knew about the Amish, that they use buggy’s. Buggy’s is a type of transportation that the Amish use to get around in like we use a car.  It is a carriage pulled by two horses.   ”I learned that they use buggy’s instead of cars because they don’t believe in using electricity,” said Overholt.  After going on this ride in the buggy the family realized how lucky they are to have cars and to not take the items that they have for gradient.  Even though it was a beautiful ride, it was long and bouncy.  “Now that we got our warm up done, lets go on a tour of the Amish,” exclaimed Overholt.

The family went on this tour which was taken on a bus because the Amish live in the country and so this means that you can’t just walk around to see everything.  On this bus ride the tour guide talked about all the different things that the Amish do which is pretty much everything.  They don’t just not use cars but they don’t use electricity for anything, well the traditional ones don’t anyways.  The tour guide said that some of the newer Amish people use some electricity now.  This mean’s that they have light by using candles, wash their clothes by hand,make their own clothes and they have a telephone but it is outside of the house in a separate building and is not used very often.  “I had no idea how different the culture of the Amish really were until we went on this tour,” said Overholt. 

 During the tour the family learned that there were some other things they could do.  After the tour the family decided to go into town because they learned that there was an Amish set up in town.  It was kind of like they had their own little town with shoppes and places to hang out.  On the way to the town you could see a lot of buggy’s traveling on the side of the road.  When they got to the little town it was set up like a little market place with  all the Amish food that the Amish make themselves.  The family said it was very neat to look around see what kind of things they like to shop for and what kinds of foods they like.  It was all pretty much fresh and homemade items sold in the store.  “It was a nice change to see that the Amish actually cared about what they make and how they sell their items,” said Overholt.

 ”This was one of my favorite vacations because we learned about another culture, and it was very relaxing, and fresh,”said Overholt. 

If you are interested in learning more about the Amish and don’t want to read about it but experience it; check out this website.

I know this because my family and I stayed at a resort last summer in Sanbornton, New Hampshire called the Steele Hill Resorts.  We decided to go on this trip because my parents wanted to get out of the house for a weekend and have family time.  Also my boyfriend lives in New Hampshire; so he was able to visit for the day while we were there.  Not only will you never have to leave the resort while you are staying there; it makes the trip a lot cheaper because you are only paying for the room you are staying in.  Also, you could save money by driving to the resort like we did. 

When we first got to the resort we checked out our room.  It was a very nice room with a kitchen, dinning room, living room, a bedroom with two full size beds, a pull out bed from the coach and of course a bathroom which was pretty big.  The room also had a deck outside the sliding glass doors with chairs out there as; “I feel like we are living in an apartment,” said Cullen Overholt. 

After the excitment of looking around the room we would be staying in for the weekend we decided to look around the place and see what it had to offer.  There was this huge building right next to where we were staying.  In this building there was some more rooms, ping pong tables, a weight room, and best part was the swimming pool.  This pool wasn’t just your ordinary hotel pool; it had a slide, a big hot tub, and a kiddie area as well.  Then we found out that there was another inside pool in a different building as well as two outside pools.  Of course we had to go check out what they looked like.  The other three were just regular swimming pools but it was great because now of them were too crowded. It was a good thing that they had two pools outside and two pools inside because one of the days there it rained. 

Even when it rained there was plenty to do.  For me this meant that I could sleep in while my dad went and worked out in the weight room.  Later on we went and played ping pong for awhile then went swimming after that.  After swimming we went back to the room and just hung around the room and played games and watched television.  There was a nice big HD flat screen television in the room which you don’t see in most hotels.  So, if you want a home away from home this is the place for you.  Even if you are looking for activity’s and events to do this is the place for you as well.

On the day that is wasn’t raining we walked around to see what there was to do.  By the way the whole place is in walking distance to everything.  Where we were staying was on top of a hill so we walked down to the bottom and found out that people have their weddings here because there was one going on.  As there is an eighteen hole golf course that you can play on.  Also there is a restaurant and right next to that is where they do the tours.   We did the tour only because if you went through the tour and let them talk about shares with you, they would give you a hundred dollars.  So, we were like why not what could it hurt.  We went on this tour and learned more about the place and where things where.  Also the tour guide showed us actual apartments that you could rent out with the time shares and possibly own. 

After the tour we found out that they had hiking trails.  There are different levels of trails but we such wanted to enjoy our self and have a nice walk so we did the medium level trail.  The trail was fun, it took us through the woods which was kind of muddy because it had just rained the day before.  The resort also has tennis courts, playgrounds, and grills.  The resort is made for all ages young and old. They also have special events that go on but there weren’t any at the time that we were there. 

If you are someone who prefers to get away in the winter time this is a great place to go for that as well because they have mountains for skiing and snowing as well.