The day was April 4th. My dad, my brother, my sister and I were ready to start our trip to Florida. We had to wake up at like 3:00 in the morning. When we all got up in the morning my brother and sister asked, “Dad, is today the day we go to Florida?”
“Yes it is!” answered my dad in excitement.
“Yay!” shouted my brother and sister.

We ate breakfast and got into the van. We first had to drive to our cousin’s Bob and Stacey so we could leave our car there so that we didn’t have to pay for it to stay at the airport. Bob and Stacey live in Detroit, which is an hour and a half away from their house. Bob had to drive us to the airport, and it only took about an hour and a half. When we got there we unpacked our bags and said our goodbyes.

The first thing we had to do was put our bags through the detector that makes sure you don’t’ bring any weapons are anything else bad on the plane. After they said we were good to go, we had to bring our bags to the lady that puts the sticker on it and puts them on the plane. We had 5 bags that they put on the plane with all the other luggage and one that we brought with us on the plane. When we were done with the bags, we went to a store there and my dad bought a Detroit shot glass. Then after we paid for it we had to go to the security thing. We had to take off our shoes, belts, sweatshirts, wallets, change, and a bunch of other things. Then we had to take our laptop out and my dad’s camera and our portable DVD player and put them through the security device.

After all that we got our stuff and went to where our plane was going to be. It was going to be a few hours so we had to figure out a way to pass time. First my brother and I listened to our ipods while my dad and my sister watched Alvin and the Chipmunks on the portable DVD player. After we got bored doing that, my brother, my sister and ME played on the wheelchairs they had there. And my dad took pictures of the planes that came in, and of us. After my dad yelled at us for playing with the wheelchairs, I tried to read some of the book I was supposed to read, but I couldn’t read it because I would get distracted with everything at the airport.
Finally the plane got there. We had to wait for the people to get off the plane before we could start boarding. We were one of the first people to get on because my sister is four years old and 4 and younger get to get on first, other than the people in the wheel chairs. We got on the plane and we all sat together. My dad, my brother, and my sister sat in the three seats in front of me and I sat by the window seat behind them.
“When is the plane going to take off?” asked my brother.
“We are about to take off right now.” shouted my dad.

I quickly took out my gum as soon as I heard my dad say that we were about to take off because I didn’t want my ears to pop.
“Dad, it’s doing a wheelie,” yelled my brother and sister.

After the wheelie the plane was in the air. Lucky for me I got the window seat so I got to see all the cool stuff. Everything looks cool when you’re in the air; the people were real small, the houses and cars are real small, and the lakes look like real big pools. Then when you get above the clouds everything is sunny no matter what the weather is under the clouds. On our way down to Alabama to land there was a lot of turbulence. There was one real big one that made the whole plane drop real fast and my 7 year old brother screamed like a girl. Then my sister screamed, but after she told me that she loved the turbulence. We landed in Birmingham and we only had 30 minutes until we had our next flight which was to Tampa Bay. It was a 2 hour ride and it was fun because I had the window seat again and we flew over the water the whole time.

After we landed in Tampa we got our luggage and my grandpa took us back home. But on the way there we got lost and we ended up getting stuck on the other side of a bridge. It took us a long time to get back because it was bumper to bumper traffic. It took us about an hour to get to the house. The first day was boring because we unpacked our stuff and gave them hugs and told them how we had been.

The next day we went to a few stores and we went to this cool strawberry place and we ate there. My dad and I got strawberry sundaes and everyone else got strawberry shakes. But that night wasn’t fun because my brother got sick and was throwing up the whole night. And at like 10 at night they took him to the hospital and they didn’t get back until 4 in the morning. The doctor said that he had some stomach virus and he couldn’t go anywhere and he had to be calm for the next 2 days. The first day he stayed home just my grandma, my sister and I went to the pool and stayed there by ourselves. That was fun because we got to exercise on the equipment they had. We swam all day. The next day just my grandpa and I went to a place called “Fantasy of Flight.” It was a museum that had a bunch of old planes from World War I and II and a bunch of biplanes. It was real fun. That took up the whole day.

The next day my brother was allowed to play around so we went to Sea World. They had one rollercoaster and one water ride. I went on both and they were real fun. My brother went on the water ride with my dad and me, but he was afraid of it so we didn’t go on it anymore. We did a lot of other things that we could all do together. We went and watched a lot of shows that they had there. The first show that we went to had otters, walrus’ and a ferret in it. We were going to see Shamu after that but the show was already full. We went to a place that had a bunch of penguins and other arctic animals in it. We went to a shark place that had a bunch of sharks that you could get close enough to that you touch them. After that we went to an aquarium that you would ride an escalator thing through, and the aquarium was on both sides and above us. The last thing we did there was watch a dolphin show. It had dolphins and a real big walrus. The people rode the dolphins and jumped off them and the dolphins would jump real high in the air and do flips.

The next day we swam and swam and swam. That’s all we did because my grandma wanted us to have a break from all the theme parks. But the next day we went to Busch Gardens. They had a whole bunch of roller coasters and my dad and I rode all of them each day we went there. My favorite one we rode there was called the Sheikra. It had 2 hills that dropped you 90 degrees straight down. W went on the other roller coasters a lot too, but we went on that one the most. We went on a ride called “Congo River Rapids.” It’s a ride where you sit in a big tube that 8 people fit in and it brings you down these rapids and, depending on how it turns and bounces off the rocks and walls, you could get drenched or you could stay perfectly dry. The first time we went on it my dad, my sister, my brother and me went on and my sister and my dad got soaked.

“Hey Gage,” shouted my brother, “Lily and dad are going to get soaked!” he screamed

And as soon as he said that they hit a wave and all the water went right over my sister and got her all wet. She was so wet that it looked like she went swimming with all her clothes on.
“Oh Dad, I’m all soaked and I’m wearing all my clothes,” cried my sister.

“It will be ok!” sighed my dad.

The next three days we went to Busch Gardens and we had so much fun. We went on all the rides again and we saw alligators, lions and tigers, and real big tortoises. We went on a ride called “Rhino Rally.” You got to ride on an off-road jeep that took you all through the park that we weren’t suppose to walk through. We got to see rhinos, giraffes, birds and ostriches, and a bunch of other cool animals. And they had a sky ride which was a basket-type thing that was on a long electric line that took you all over the park so you could see everything from the air.

The next time we went there was without my grandma and grandpa because they had to stay home because my grandma went to the hospital the day before and had to lie low the whole day. It was kind of fun, but we couldn’t go on any of the rides because no one could watch my brother and sister, so we just watched some shows and played at the kid areas all day.

The next day we stayed home because my grandma wanted us to take family pictures. It wasn’t very fun because we had to dress up very nice and we all pretty much had to look the same. All the guys had to wear a white dress-up shirt and nice pants and the girls had to wear a dress and a bow. They ended up taking over 50 pictures. Some were in front of their house and the others were on a long walkway out in the woods behind their house.

The last day before we went home we decided to go to Busch Gardens. That day my dad and I rode all the roller coasters while my brother and sister stayed with my grandma and grandpa at the kid areas. I played a game called 3 point shootout and I scored 6 points the first time and 5 the next and I won 2 stuffed animals. That day was real fun. The next day we had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning so we could leave to go to the airport. None of us wanted to leave, but we knew we had to. When we got to the airport we said our goodbyes and we headed towards the security device. We had to do the same thing on the way home just like on the way there. After all that we got breakfast at Quiznos. We had to get our plane after that and we all got to get on with the A people, which are the people that get on first. Our plane was going to Nashville and they said it would be around 2 and a half hour flight so I read some of my book and listened to my Ipod. I also talked to my dad a lot because my brother and sister fell asleep on the plane ride home. When we got to Nashville we found out that our flight back to Detroit was delayed another 2 hours so we had to stay at that airport for another three hours. We ate at Burger King for lunch and my dad bought another shot glass.


Our plane finally got there and we left to Detroit. When we got there we had to go to my cousin’s house to get my dad’s van. Then we left and had McDonalds for dinner. Then my dad had to take me back to my mom’s and I had to go to bed because I had school the next morning.