My first traveling experience, by plane, was when I was around 4 months old. I went to the great, lively city of Los Angeles. My entire family, especially my dad, has always loved traveling. We’ve been to places in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and of course more places in the United States. I’ve always wanted to travel the world and explore all the different cultures and experiences of Earth’s beautiful countries. Recently, a trip my family and I have been itching to go to is a cruise from Seattle, Washington to Anchorage, Alaska. Because of COVID-19 and me currently being a junior in high school, it has been difficult to book the cruise. However, it turns out we never needed to book an expensive cruise to see snow, ice, and glaciers. February of 2021 marks the first time I, my family, and millions of other Texans have experienced such things. Bright white, fluffy snow covered our normally green grass in a nice soft blanket. Thick, slippery ice all over the ground and even frozen in our pool and hot tub, creating our own personal ice skating rink in our own backyard. Water dripping from faucets, burst pipes, and filled tubs resemble Texas’ own (sort of natural) glaciers. At the beginning, it was absolutely amazing. Texas getting snow is a miracle and it was finally happening. We all played in the snow by making snowmen, snow angels, and having snow ball fights. All the classic “It’s snowing!” activities. Slowly it all started going downhill. The ice started to become more slippery and I slipped plenty more times than I would’ve preferred. The water pressure began to slowly decline and we got the dreaded Amber Alerts informing us to only drink boiled water. Then, worst of all the power went out; leaving us in below freezing temperatures with no heater and Texan cold resilience, or lack thereof.
Though the power outage is not what we had hoped would happen at all, we made the best of it. We all read books near the fireplace that took much effort and multiple hands to get started. We told each other stories of what has been going on in our lives and truly caught up
with one another. There were times where we could not stand to be near each other, reminding me of early quarantine for COVID in 2020. One night we all sat by the fire cuddled up in our blankets and sang our hearts out. Personally, I love singing and singing with my family was so much fun and we seemingly sang our worries away. After our throats started to become sore from singing and our cheeks started to ache from smiling, we played a question game. Even though we were freezing and definitely not in ideal circumstances, we still managed to have a great time.
My family and I were eager to visit Alaska, its beautiful glaciers, wildlife, and more. But never in our wildest dreams did we think that the beautiful state of Alaska would visit us, here in Houston Texas.