Waves, North Carolina

Waves, North Carolina is located in the Outer Banks. This area of the Outer Banks is extremely peaceful and relaxing. If one is looking for a quiet, calm vacation without too much action and people, Waves, NC is the place to go!

We rented a beautiful house a street away from the sand dunes which led to the beach. There is a surplus of houses to rent in all of the many towns of the Outer Banks. They are extremely clean and well-kept. I highly recommend renting a house rather than staying in a hotel in the Outer Banks. One neat thing about many of the houses in the Outer Banks is that they all have unique names. It is neat to drive around a look at the different, creative names people have come up with.

As for the beaches of Waves, NC, they were beautiful! They were extremely long and spacious. Beacause Waves, and most of the other beach towns of the Outer Banks, are so quiet, there were barely any people on the beach the entire day! There was a lot of room to play games and swim without feeling crowded. One down side to the Waves beaches were that there were no lifeguards. Everyone swam at their own risks.

Activities one can do in Waves, NC and the surrounding towns are not what one would normally do at any other beach. My family and I brought our kayak to the Outer Band took it out in the ocean. It was an extremely thrilling experience. We saw all kinds of fish as well as a few sharks! The sharks were a little bit scary but they were more than 100 ft away from the breaking waves. Also, we saw people kite surfing, surfing, bird watching, fishing and site seeing! It is such a relaxing place to take a vacation!

Restaurants in Waves and surrounding towns are scarce unless you travel to a larger town in the Outer Banks. One restaurant we ate at in Waves was called Top Dog. This restaurant had reasonable prices as well as extremely good food! I highly recommend this restaurant. We mainly cooked our own meals or went to a local restaurant for dinner. It was nice to cook our own meals. We cooked on the stove as well as on the grill. We ate under the stars a few times as well as on the beach.

Overall, Waves, NC in the Outer Banks was such a peaceful and relaxing vacation. If one is stressed with work or life in general, this is the place to bring your family, friends or to go by yourself!

Paradise Island, Bahamas

My family and I traveled to Paradise Island in the Bahamas a year or so ago. Of course I was excited to experience a different culture, enjoy the beautiful ocean water and stay for a week at the famous Atlantis resort! There were some amazing parts of our stay as well as some not-so-exciting aspects of it.

The Atlantis is an enormous, beautiful resort with many different things to do, if one has the money to do them. Many activities provided by the Atlantis resort cost a great deal of money. Some of the expensive activities one could try were the Dolphin Cay. This was a large area of the resort where people could swim with the dolphins. I'm positive it is an amazing experience; watching the people's expressions made me smile. Other activities which were a bit expensive were boats which would take people out to snorkel or scuba dive, para sailing and renting jet ski's.

The activities I highly recommend doing are snorkeling, jet skiing, glass boat tour, Nassau City tour and the Straw Market.

• My dad and I snorkeled right off of the private Atlantis beach. Even though there weren't many things to see, we did find a few interesting things and it didn't cost a penny! We brought our own snorkel and goggles and went out whenever we decided to. We found interesting fish which liked to swim around innocent people, barracuda's, crabs and other interesting fish. These creatures were swimming no farther than 10 feet from where the waves broke! It was extremely entertaining and neat!



• One of the last days of our trip, my brother and I spent a fair amount of money to rent jet ski's for a half an hour. It was a fun, interactive experience and we were able to have a beautiful view of the island. While riding around the ocean on the jet ski's we discovered a small island with stone steps carved into the rocks. We wondered if they were from centuries ago! Also, the water was so clear we could see straight to the bottom in fairly deep water. It was an amazing experience!



• The glass boat tour was not as expensive as most of the other activities on the island. Even though the tour was not expensive, it was a wonderful experience and we really enjoyed ourselves. I highly recommend this activity. We rode in a boat that had a glass bottom. This enabled us to see straight down to the bottom of the clear, aqua-colored water. We saw many fish and coral reefs. It was amazing!



• The Nassau City tour was full of rich Bahamian culture. It was extremely informative of the history, current government and culture of the Bahamas! I highly recommend going on this tour.



• The Straw Market was a very interesting place. It was an enormous building with home-made, hand-crafted items. Native Bahamian people were selling these items they made on their own. They also sold many knock-off expensive brand purses and other accessories. They would try to negotiate a price with you just to make a sale. It was quiet interesting and a little intimidating! But, nevertheless, it is a site to definintely check out!
  

There are many aquariums, water slides and other beautiful architecture of the Atlanits to check out! Along with these sites, the casino attracts many visitors! The casino is beautiful and extremely large. One could spend many hours as well as a lot of money in the casino!

As for restaurants, there are very few to choose from if you don't want to spend too much money. This was one of the more disappointing aspects of our trip to the Atlantis in the Bahamas. Most of the restaurants were extremely over priced, but my family and I found one reasonably-priced, excellent restaurant called Bimini Road. This restaurant had unique, ethnic food which tasted amazing! The employee's of the restaurant were extremely friendly and displayed their culture very well. This is a must visit when staying at the Atlantis!

I would recommend this trip to families and people who have a lot of money. Many restaurants, activities and places to stay in the Bahamas are extremely expensive. Other than the expenses, the islands were beautiful and are a must see!

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina is a beautiful area filled with a large amount of United States history. I traveled to Charleston, SC about two years ago; it is an unforgettable area of the country. There is a surplus of things to do and see while visiting this city.

When my family and I vacationed in South Carolina, we stayed in a little town called the Isle of Palms, SC. The Isle of Palms was extremely peaceful and scenic. The beaches of this little town were unusually large and spacious. This caused for an extremely relaxed feeling while spending a day on the beach under the warm sun. Along with the warm sun, the ocean temperature was in the upper 70's and above! There was no question about going in the water or not. One could simply run directly in the water without experiencing the shock of a freezing cold ocean!

Another wonderful aspect of the beaches located in the Isle of Palms was that one could rent umbrellas and chairs from a shed. Since my family and I flew to this area of the United States, we unfortunately could not bring beach chairs and umbrellas along with us. It was a delight to stumble upon the fact that we could rent these items which had to be left at home.

The Isle of Palms, SC is home to many locals who live there year round or own a house for the summer. It was a nice, relaxing atmosphere without all of the summer hype. There were only a few stores and restaurants on the island. This caused for less travelers to choose this island for their vacation spot.

Even though the Isle of Palms, SC was extremely quiet and uneventful, Charleston, SC was only 20 minutes away! Almost every day of our vacation we drove in our rental car to Charleston. There was a surplus to see and do in this city; it was simply amazing. The week my family and I spent in South Carolina was not enough time to see all of the different areas of the city.

While we visited Charleston we were able to take a tour of a house which was built in the 1800's, climb aboard the World War II Aircraft Carrier, visit Fort Sumter, take a historic tour of the entire city and explore the city on our own time and money. Along with these amazing tours and sites there are many other sites to see and things to do in Charleston, SC:

• City Public Market
• A few different slave plantations
• Historic homes
• Historic churches and other buildings
• College of Charleston
• Historic Museums
• Civil War Walk
• and many, many more things one could find simply walking around the city.

Along with these amazing sites and tours, there are countless restaruants to choose from. My favorite restaurant in Chraleston would have to be Sticky Fingers. This restaurant had a Forrest Gump theme and played the movie constantly as long as they were open! It was a fun, family-centered restaurant and had excellent food! Other restaurants I would recommend trying in Charleston would be:

• Magnolia's
• TBonz Gill & Grill
• Peninsula Grill
• Carolina's
• Boathouse on Easy Bay
• and many, many others to choose from.

Charleston, SC as well as the Isle of Palms, SC are excellent vacation spots for anyone looking for a historic, relaxing or adventure-filled time! There are many different activities one could find to suit their best interests in this city! I highly recommend this area as a vacation spot for people of all ages.