Trip to Kalahari

On Friday, April 16, 2011, I went on a weekend trip to Kalahari with my youth group from Calvary Baptist Church. I had been looking forward to this trip since January. In getting ready for the trip I packed my CD player, as well as my toiletries, swimsuit and spending money.

I got picked up at my house at 4:30pm and went to the church. Where we loaded up three vans that would transport us to the water park.  The drive took about 45 minutes, during the trip I just listened to my CD player and before I knew it we were there.  When we arrived at Kalahari my roommates and I checked into our hotel, got unpacked and swam from 6pm until it closed at 10pm. In between that time we took an hour off to have dinner.  The restaurant was called Zulu Grille.  My friend Josh and I had pizza and coke.  Just before the park was to close two guys entered the hot tub where Josh and I were relaxing. They somehow got into an argument when the one guy called the other guy immature in front of his girlfriend. The one guy became extremely angry and started punching the other guy in the face and smashing his head against the railing. The fighting became very intense and as they got closer my friend Josh and I quickly jumped out to safety. It took ten police to stop the fight and another ten officers to restrain him and check for weapons. Exhausted and shaken I ran back to my hotel room.

The next day was Saturday and we got up early; around 8am, we met back as a group in the hotel and had doughnuts, muffins and juice, afterwards we broke up into groups; one for the girls and one for the boys. We discussed the passage from the bible and what they meant. Later we went down to the water park and took a group photo in front of the roller coaster and tree house.  Later my friend Josh and I went on this awesome ride called the Toilet Bowl. It’s called that because it spins and flushes you down like a real toilet. We continued swimming until noon and then had lunch in one of the conference rooms. Our lunch consisted of chicken fingers, Mac N Cheese and cookies.

After lunch we had our third prayer session on Decide. This session focused on God’s word and making the right decisions. The prayer session lasted about an hour and we had free time to go back to the water park until 6pm.

When the clock hit 6 it was time to go back to the hotel and pack up our things and go back home to Avon Lake.

We were all very sad that the weekend went by so fast and our trip was over. We had such a good time that we will be going back next April.

Trip to Canada.

On July 15, 2010 my family and I went on a vacation to Niagara Falls.  To start off we packed our gear, clothes, snacks, and passports into separate suitcases. I had the most stuff. Some of the extras I packed were my iPod and laptop.

The drive to Canada took about four hours. During the trip, so I wouldn’t get bored I listened to my iPod. Before I knew it we were there. We then checked into our bed and breakfast. Our bed and breakfast was like a suite. It had three bedrooms, two baths, and a living room. In the living room was a refrigerator and microwave. Every day for breakfast we had a homemade meal, we could get whatever we wanted. We then unpacked our things and went off to see the falls.

The falls were beautiful. Since it was evening we decided to have dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the falls. While we were there we were able to watch a fireworks display. It lasted about ten minutes and was a sight to behold.

The next day we had breakfast, afterwards mom, dad and I took a tour on the white water rapids. While we were on the tour we learned that the current in the Niagara river was moving at the speed of forty-five miles an hour. We were told that some people attempted to ride the current. That wasn’t a very good idea because when they came out the boat was destroyed.

The next day was Wednesday. On that day we took the aero cart tour of the whirl pool; we couldn’t get near it because it would suck you in. We learned that it was so dangerous that a cow got too close to the edge was drowned into the water and died.

Our next tour was the jet boat. On that tour we drove by the dangerous current and right past the whirl pool. We didn’t want to get into the whirl pool but we did see it up close. It was so powerful that I gasped with excitement. After we were done with the tours we went out to eat at an expensive Italian restaurant. The food was “ok” the best part was when we left and went to an awesome ice cream shop. I had grape ice cream. While we were eating, we all walked to the park and watched kids playing  in water fountains, I decided to swing on the swings.

For lunch we went to the Skylon. This restaurant was five hundred feet up and had a revolving dining room. The view was breath taking. After we finished eating we went to the IMAX Theatre. We got to see real videos of people who took barrels down the waterfalls. We saw a video of a young boy named Rodger who was with his uncle and older sister riding a row boat. The boat flipped over and the current sucked them to the falls. The uncle went down the falls and did not survive, Rodgers sister was two seconds away from dying but the tourists went over the railing and grabbed her with her feet dangling off the falls. Then Rodger went over the falls and survived and got rescued by the Maid of the Mists boat. It was amazing to watch. Now it was time to go home. I really enjoyed it and was glad I went. I hope we can go back in the future.