Traveling Home

Recently, I have had the most amazing opportunity of my lifetime. I got to go to New Zealand. I titled this post "Traveling Home" because that is what it felt like; like I was coming home. Also, my father is from New Zealand so I have often joked that New Zealand is my homeland. 

Accompanying me on this trip was my uncle, my father, and my sister. The trip was very exciting and adventurous. Each day was something new, and I was not very aware of what the plan for the day was. This meant there was not much time to panic. Instead, I had to learn how to go with the flow and enjoy what I was given. And I was given the best trip of my life.

This is the first of many entries about my trip. 

Day One (or the days of traveling that all blurred into one day) :

5/9/2014

On May 9th Dad and I packed up my room, cleaned up my hall for hall check (since I was an RA), turned in my keys, got the okay to leave, and made our way out the door. We drove ten hours north to Maryland. We finally arrived at home around 3:00 a.m.. 

5/10/2014

I said hello to my mom and our fours dogs, and then I went to bed. I slept until around 11:00 a.m. and prepared myself for the day ahead of me. First, we packed up everything and got our things ready. Then we made our way over to my grandparents' house so they could say hello and goodbye to us before we left. Then we went to Saturday night dinner. Every Saturday my parents meet up with their friends for dinner at whatever restaurant they choose for the week. This week we went to a local restaurant, "Greenmount Station". Then we went home. I fell asleep for two hours. 

This is Max relaxing with me as I caught a couple Z's before we made our trip to the airport. 

5/11/2014

Then at 2:00 a.m. we made our way to the BWI Airport. Once there we met up with my aunt and uncle. We checked our bags in and then said our final goodbyes to my mom and aunt. 

My sister and I when we arrived at BWI

We went through security. That was an interesting experience. I was incredibly nervous. The last time I was on an airplane was the summer of 2001. A few months before 9/11. I was just afraid I was going to do something wrong. But we got through with no problem. Then at 5:00 a.m. we finally boarded our plane to San Francisco. We traveled back in time a few hours, and we were on the plane for six hours. 

Perry and I on the plane to San Francisco

Therefore, we arrived in San Francisco around 9:00 a.m.. We had a twelve hour lay over in San Francisco so we made our way into town to experience the city for ourselves.

Perrry and I when we arrived to San Francisco

It took us a little bit to figure out where we were in the airport. This is one of my Instagram pictures captioned, "Lost in San Francisco Airport"

We made our way down to Alcatraz and took a ferry out to see the prison. It was incredible. 

Once we found our way around the airport we went to the subway, or B.A.R.T. It took us a few blocks down from where we needed to be. 

This was a cool park on the way to Alcatraz.

 A tower in the distance on the way to Alcatraz.

 Dad taking pictures of the city.

 It felt like we were in a movie fantasy, and we weren't even in Hollywood.

Then we stood in line and waited for the ferry.

I was a little apprehensive about going on the ferry. But the ride over was actually quite relaxing. 

Then we arrived at Alcatraz.

The place was amazing and creepy all at the same time. To know that notorious criminals had once lived there, and a few had escaped sent chills down my back. But the view from the island was incredibly beautiful. We heard stories about how they felt tortured because everything they could ever want was in sight of the island, but they could never get there. That honestly made me feel a little sad for them. 

This was one of the many halls of cells for the prisoners. I felt like I was in a crime show or movie. It looked more like a set than reality. But once I looked into the cells I realized that for someone, a long time ago, it didn't get more real than this. 

Don't let your mind full you. The camera is not distorting anything. The cell really was that small. It was about two door frames wide, and four door frames long, if not smaller.

Then you had the cells of solitude on reserve for those who could not get along with the rules, or others. This cells were very dark. However, they were a little bigger. But I could not imagine what torment they must have gone through constantly living in the dark. Not even being able to see your own hands.

This was the wall of the isolation cells. I found ironic that they were the closest to the sunlight, but the darkest cells in the jailhouse.

This was the window where they could communicate with visitors, if they ever had any. I imagine it must have been hard to visit some of these criminals because they were being jailed out on an island.

There were birds everywhere. That's where Alcatraz got it's name. It means bird island.

This is a hole in the wall designed to show the space between the two walls where a few prisoners escaped from.

These were a few names etched into the trays outside the lunch windows in the cafeteria. I couldn't decide if there were prisoners or visitors. Unfortunately, my guess is the latter.

This was the play yard. The most lively place on the campus.

The stairs to it were pretty steep. Later on my trip I would find that at this point I didn't even know what stairs were.

This was the ball field. This had a special place in my heart because I had spent many years of my life playing on many different fields. Part of me wishes I had some gloves, bats, balls, and friends at that moment. Because that field would have been so humbling to play on because of how simple it is. My biggest worry though would be that you better hope you don't hit a foul ball because you would not get the ball back.

And the stairs got longer and steeper. These were stairs from the recreational yard to a garden out back that was created by the prisoners.

There was a seagull chilling in the grass near by. Behind him were a few of the many, many birds.

The drop down form the edge was long and terrifying. I imagine there are a very very sharp rocks down there. I could not imagine jumping off of that with hopes of finding freedom.

This is interesting because my sister and I were so fascinated by them. We had never seen cacti that looked like roses. But then when we were in New Zealand, we found many.

The way back on the ferry was just as relaxing.

And what better way to depart the island, than to have a bird send us out on our way.

after all, it was the island of the birds.

We made our way back to the airport and sat for a few hours, waiting for our plane to depart. I wanted to draw a little so I attempted to draw the scene outside the window.

I think I was close...

I was excited for a break from walking, but my nerves were beginning to build at the thought of being on a plane for 13 hours. It didn't help that people kept joking with me that we were being sent on a giant tube with no way out. In my opinion that is exactly what you tell someone who struggles with anxiety before they face one of their many fears. In case you can't tell, that was sarcasm. 

But then I saw this begin to roll in.

Our ride across the ocean.

A double-decker, Air New Zealand plane of pure comfort.

It was huge, and partially terrifying. But it comforted me to know that we would not be smushed together for the whole time over.

We got on the plane and I sat down in my assigned seat. I was getting a little anxious because the seat to my right was assigned to someone outside of our family. And they would be the thing blocking me from the easiest way out. As people began to flood in I wondered if they were the person assigned to the seat beside me. Our section was big. On the outsides were rows of three. Then an isle. Then there was the middle, where we were. Each row in the middle consisted of four seats. 

For those who are more visual... I'm also very glad that we did not fly the plane I drew because we would have crashed since one wing is WAY larger than the other. And apparently there is void and chaos in the cockpit. 

One of the coolest features of the flight was you could see where the plane was during any part of the trip. In this shot you could see all of my friends and family back home were a day behind us.

The flight over was an interesting experience for me. All the nervousness from not knowing who would sit beside me, and thirteen hours on a plane, started to build up a panic attack within my chest. In fear of breaking down in front of a plane full of people I took one of the medications my doctor prescribed to me for situations like this. And boy did it work. I don't even remember taking off. My sister said that's because I was passed out long before we took off. I barely ate dinner because when they woke me up I was too groggy to know what was going on. I remember telling my sister that I couldn't eat because I would choke on it. I was legitimately afraid of choking on it because I could see that I was barely getting the food safely to my mouth. I was afraid I would fall asleep mid bite. However, my sister later informed me that I never said a thing to her. Nothing that made sense that is. She said I just mumbled at her, sometimes in frustration, and then fell back asleep. Ten hours later I was awake and ready to go. I found that no one was sitting next to me on my right.

In fact, all of the blue in this picture represents the areas that were free when we boarded. Later, people claimed the free rows for themselves, and used them as beds. For the last three hours I chilled out for a while, and then decided to watch Saving Mr. Banks. 

Before I knew it we were descending. So Saving Mr. Banks shut off. That was unfortunate because the movie was just getting really interesting. I would tell you why, but I don't want to ruin it for those of you who haven't seen the movie. GO SEE IT! I loved it.

 Then we arrived in Auckland around 6 a.m. on May 13th, and that was the end of day one. Or day four. But as I mentioned previously the days all blurred into one because of all the traveling.