Sequoia National Park, California

There's always been something magical about awakening in Sequoia National Park, where it is mainly surrounded by groves of the world's largest living things. Why wouldn't it be cool to go to California to just see the largest trees in the world? There are also smaller living things there too, like the red-tail hawks and yellow-bellied marmots. Why don't you just start your day right in a neighborhood of natural wonders known as the Sequoia National Park!

The national forest is names after the giant sequoia tree and the giant sequoia got its name from the Latin name of its close relative, the coastal redwood tree: "Sequoiadendron giganteum." The name was given to the redwood species by a German botanist who chose the name to honor Sequoya, a Cherokee chief, who was famous for inventing a phonetic alphabet for the Cherokee language. Yeah I know it's a weird way to achieve a name but this national park goes back way into history about when the native american were still occupying North America.

California's Sequoia National Forest protects about a 500 mile stretch of wilderness comprising giant sequoia groves. The forest is less visited than its neighboring Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, however there are ample provisions for visitors, including marked trails and campgrounds, equipment rentals, and organized excursions. 

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/sequoia-national-forest-4576.html

California national park travelers who seek to find a mountain lodge experience will usually favor the prime location and guestrooms of Wuksachi Lodge along with their dining options, cocktail lounge, retail, and ski shops. Because in national park there's just so many thing you can do, but you never know which one to do first because the choices are just so numerous. Anyways about 12 miles in the Sequoia National Park's back country overlooks the Great Western Divide. LIKE THAT'S A PRETTY GOOD VIEW. In addition to Bearpaw, outdoor enthusiasts will discover more than a dozen Sequoia campgrounds. 

http://www.visitsequoia.com/sequoia-national-park.aspx

From a cozy mountain lodge to glowing tent cabins, or maybe just laying under the starlit Sierra summer sky, there's nothing like waking up in the Sequoia National Park. It's nothing like waking up in the morning where you can see the great tall trees just standing up taller that your normal trees at home and just looking majestic as they are. (415 words)

Smoky Mountains, Tennessee

You'll get an automatic magical feeling when traveling in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.You will be in the presence of something fresh and yet ancient. The Smoky Mountains is the oldest mountains in the world. It's a preserve of wildflowers, old forests, and an abundant amount of fresh rushing mountain streams. It's the Smokies you're looking for...like stop denying it, you know you want to travel there for a quick get away. In fact it is the ultimate getaway!
 
Prepare to bring home hundreds of pictures because you're going to take A LOT. The park is great for panoramic photos and it includes the rivers and forests in the scenery as well. There's just so many choices to choose from, even the cabins are on top of the mountains where you'll have a plethora of opportunities to go hiking and rafting! The place is a great area to just sit and enjoy the scenery and just study the natural habitat and listen to the animals in the background. 

How did the Great Smoky Mountains receive their name you may ask? They got their name from the blue-like smoky mist that surrounds them, these beautiful peaks make a mirage for Pigeon Forge. In the Smoky Mountain's you'll for sure find about 500,000 acres of Southern Applachian wilderness on one of the oldest lands on earth. The mountains make up about 95 percent forest and home to diverse wildlife. Here you can uncover breathtaking streams, waterfalls, and flowering plants. Throughout the year there are plenty of tourists who come to the area for sightseeing and the weather condition in the mountains tend to be at a moderate temperature making it a favorite vacation spot for couples and families to visit.

http://www.mypigeonforge.com/things-to-do/smoky-mountains/

Be sure to go hiking and camping while you're at it because you can't miss a fabulous chance to enjoy the natural life outside your busy city. This is a great chance to get away and isolate yourself from society. While you are receiving a great experience from the beautiful Smokies, the area welcomes you with a rich arts and craft tradition along with fantastic views and recreation in the great outdoors. Now this is a place where you would want to spend about a week or two of your summer break enjoying. Soak up the sun and take a hike! 

http://www.tnvacation.com/east/smoky-mountains/
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Grand Prismatic Spring, Wyoming

Maybe for once you would like to leave Iowa for the winter and experience a warm winter at least once in your life. Okay so I know that you can always travel to the west coast or the south east region of the states, but did you ever consider staying at a hot springs for once during a cold vacation? One of the largest hot springs are located in Yellowstone National Park. It's called the Grand Prismatic Spring in Wyoming. Yellowstone also consists of other great sights to see while you're there. What's a vacation when you're finally there and don't visit other areas. That's not a proper vacation at all! When you're at Yellowstone you should probably visit sights like the Morning Glory Pool, Old Faithful (one of my favorites and one of the more popular ones), and of course you can't pass up the opportunity of the Grand Canyon. The canyon has been theorized to have been formed by the Colorado River, continental drift, and variations in the earths orbit which in turn causes differences in seasons and climates. Well anyways back to the topic, why not visit the Grand Prismatic Spring in Wyoming? Like I'm being serious, you can't just not give me a reason. Currently in Iowa its almost in the 20s here and it's freezing for many of us. Why don't we all just take a trip to the Springs soon? You can't just pass up a chance to see the Grand Canyon either because scientists can't find out how the Grand Canyon was formed, so perhaps on your trip you can found more detailed facts and information about the Grand Canyon's formation!

I personally haven't been to the Grand Prismatic Spring before but by the looks of it this natural pool of rainbow-like colors is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest how spring in the world. Like I said it's located in Yellowstone National Park. Many tourists would visit the Grand Prismatic Spring because of its scenery and the heat. It's basically just known for its striking coloration. It consists of colors that match the rainbow dispersion of white light by an optical prism. 


It's just really fascinating to just travel to Wyoming on a vacation and stop by to see Old Faithful. It's greatly know to erupt more than multiple of time during the day. It is to be heard that after every 90 minutes it erupts once. SO if you wait patiently you'll see Old Faithful erupt!






The Grand Canyon is also a natural beauty because you get to see miles and miles of just pure rock and how it was formed a long time ago just because of the Colorado River. When I went in 2010 it was raining when we were on tour so we waited in the bus for about a total of 20 minutes and after it finally stopped raining we walked to the edge of the canyon and if we looked close enough we could see a rainbow peering behind the dark clouds! (512 words)

Yosemite Valley, California

Yosemite Valley is a beautiful place located in Mariposa County, California. It's a great attraction to many tourists who love to take scenic photo shots and also a great place for hiking lovers. Otherwise people have plans of camping in the area because not only is there an amazing view all around the weather and temperature during the day is pretty moderate to the point where you won't mind that it's too cold or too hot. Not to mention it doesn't matter when you decide to come to Yosemite National Park it's gorgeous all year round and you don't have to care about whether or not it's crowded or not. JUST COME AND CHECK IT OUT CAUSE IT'S VERY BEAUTIFUL! If camping were to be a possible goal to visit Yosemite Falls, you would have thirteen different choices of campgrounds. But I probably should warn you ahead of time that only seven of the thirteen campgrounds can be reserved. While many of the campgrounds have tap water and flush toilets, only Curry Village and Housekeeping Camp have actual decent showers that you'll feel comfortable showering in.


Here's a little history and a few fun facts you might find interesting to know and will persuade you  more to go before you decide to plan your short vacation over to California. The Ahwaneechee Native Americans lived in Yosemite Valley for about 4000 years then in the early 19th century non-native trappers arrived and the California Gold Rush then brought in thousands of people into the area. Since Yosemite's beauty spread throughout the country about nine years later President Lincoln named Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove as the country's first public preserve.

http://www.livescience.com/39515-yosemite-national-park-facts-information-lodging.html

 John Muir, a famed naturalist fell in love with Yosemite and later became the chief voice in its preservation. He helped draw up the boundaries and wrote papers on how its beauty and importance may change tourists points of view about visiting this great place filled with fresh water, blue skies, and green grass. One of the more important articles about Yosemite Valley was said to be like this, "No temple made with human hands can compare with Yosemite." I can believe that, do you know why though? It's because the park presents spectacular granite crystal formations with majestic waterfalls, ancient sequoias, and the Merced River and the Tuolumne River and so many more. It's almost like a paradise if you ask me my opinion. Like I know that there's also Niagara Falls but this waterfall is located  on the other side of the continent, so it would give you a new taste of waterfalls in the United States. (438 words)

Exotic Vacation Foods

When you've finally decided to take a trip outside of the U.S, one of your main goals would be to go out and sight-see all the architecture and scenery of different counties. But some tourists main goals when they leave the country is to experience and try out the different culture's new foods. Many tourists have responses like they really like the food, but may not know what the foods they are trying. For example one time my relatives went to visit Vietnam and they went to a restaurant and ordered an exotic meal and it looked very delicious but little did they know what it actually was when they tried it. It kind of looks like little sausages from some peoples point of view but it turned out to be fried silkworm pupa, which tasted good, but after actually eating it it ruined some of their appetites. But as long as it was good, it really didn't matter.

Another very appetizing food is
people who are very into eating seafood or not. This dish is called Carlucci Seafood (Barcelona Shrimp)! It's introduced in Spain so if you traveled to Barcelona, this would be a definite dish you should ask for at a restaurant. It gives you a creamy seafood taste.When going on trip trying new foods can be a challenge to some people, but the goal is to try new things when you're on vacation anyways so #yolo.

Okay so though Guangzhou is my parents hometown I've never expected to see this specific dish anywhere at a restaurant. I don't exactly now why many people in China are obsessed with cannibalism and I personally think that's totally disgusting but I guess because of different cultures we should all try out new things even though it may look weird, but what if it ends up tasty amazing. Then you would've missed out on a whole lot of new foods. This dish is called "Boiled Rats," which are composed of fresh field mice runny around in the fields. *shiver shiver *gag gag (389 words)

Middle East Experience

Wouldn't it be fascinating to take a trip to the Middle East? To explore the pyramids, float on the dead sea, and eat authentic Middle Eastern foods. Or how about just sightseeing and exploring inside the Pyramids of Giza for a whole day so that you can come back and bring news to your friends and family that you've actually been to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

To begin this blog, I will introduce to you authentic foods you would eat in Cairo. Some of the famous foods you would see on the streets at night would be Koshary, Shawerma, and Sahlab.
Koshary is very easy and cheap to make and it includes a mix of rice, noodles, pasta and chickpeas. The next common food is called Shawerma. It's made with lamb or chicken meat, pepper and lots of different spices. and then for a dessert there is a thing called Sahlab, which is milk cream served with fruits, chocolate, or coconut.

Now you're probably asking why else would you come to Cairo. Cairo is the home of the Giza Pyramids and most tourists come here to get the real Middle Eastern experience. In Cairo you see one thing and its opposite. Luxury vs. poverty, culture vs. illiteracy, beauty vs. ugliness, the most nicest people vs. the most dishonest people etc.
http://www.ytravelblog.com/cairo-egypt/

How about a step back in time to the days of ancient Egypt and the Great Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx. You can definitely expect that the Giza plateau is on a 30 minute walk from Cairo. If you decide to visit those specific places tour guides will also give you an introduction to each of the three other pyramids: Cheops, Khafre and Menakaure. After visiting the pyramids, you'll journey across the plateau for a photo opportunity with the pyramids and the Cairo skyline in the background.

So then what about that most well known floating on the dead sea you may ask. Well that's a different package but do you wanna know how people can float on the dead sea?
1. The Dead sea has a 33.7 salinity and that makes it one of the world's saltiest bodies of water.
2. The Dead Sea’s  high salt concentration means that people can easily float in the Dead Sea due to natural buoyancy.
3. There's an unusual feature of the Dead Sea  and that's is its discharge of asphalt. From deep seeps, the Dead Sea constantly spits up small pebbles and blocks of the black substance.  Egyptian mummification processes used asphalt imported from the Dead Sea region. (431 words)
http://twistedsifter.com/2012/06/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-dead-sea/

A Gigantic Hole in the Ocean

If Marvel is an interest to you, then maybe Thor is your bias! LIKE OMG IT'S THOR!!! But to be serious and back on topic we actually have an area that's part of the country that relates to this topic. It's pretty amazing that we live in a country that has hidden places such as this. Thor's Well is one of these fantastic areas in the United States where you can explore and with places like Thor's Well hidden in plain sight, you'll never run out of things to look at. What exactly is Thor's Well though? It's an gigantic incredible hole in the ocean which looks like it came out of a comic book...which can also be interpreted as a fake place. But believe it or not it's actually a place you can find in Oregon. Ok so I know what you're thinking, most people say there's nothing to see in Oregon, but now I've proved you wrong right? LIKE there's a freakin' whole in Oregon which is popular!!


This picture is just so fascinating to stare at because this deep hole in the rock off a rough stretch off the Oregon coastline in the US. When the waves crash in and fills up the area, it sprouts at least 20 feet in the air and then overflows before it sucks the water back and out to sea! LIKE IT'S DRAMATIC! It's a remote place located in Cape Perpetua and reached from a winding road in what feels like a middle of nowhere.

There are also huge aggressive waves just by the looks of the picture and the tides are probably pretty high as well. Thor's Well is around 6-8 feet from the edge. The surface's surge rock is very unique and it makes a great photo because of the water that rushes towards the center of the hole. I feel that it would make a great surfing trip but you might not make it back up to shore. It's a very dangerous place to visit because of the roaring waves and tides, but we have to thank the photographers for taking pictures of these fascinating places. No wonder people say this is like a trip to the under world.

Thor's Well can be visited from the north side of Cook's Chasm, but there are sharp rocks in the surrounding area and the danger of a strong surge sweeping in brave visitors are very possible. When photographers go to shoot pictures during the sunset, many people don't know about the place and don't dare to stay long. But photographers and tourists who do come to Thor's Well are risk takers and actually have the guts to come and see the amazing sight!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/17/thors-well-oregon_n_5146466.html
https://roadtrippers.com/us/or/nature/thors-well-cape-perpetua
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