Trip Out West 2013

By Emma Murphy, Age 13

                This summer my family took a long two-week vacation to the western part of the U.S.A. We ventured to Mesa Verde National Park, Durango, Ft. Collins, Grand Canyon National Park, and ended at Cherokee Park Ranch. I was able to see so many neat places that were so different from other vacation spots. When most kids (and some adults) hear the word “vacation” they think of a beach. But there is so much more on this earth to see than palm trees! This was such a diverse trip, and I loved it!  Below you will find my western adventures.

                To start out our Murphy family vacation, we had a wonderful 18 hour drive to Aurora, Colorado. Yay. Driving through Kansas.  SO exciting. Anyway, we arrived in Aurora, spent the night there, and then drove to Durango. It’s such a cute little town! There were so many small shops and restaurants; it was just a charming, quaint place. We spent the night at the Double Tree hotel. I was very happy with this particular hotel. The service was good, there was a jogging path right behind the hotel, and a small river was floating by. Plus we got our signature Double Tree cookies: Yum! After our short stay in Durango, we headed to Mesa Verde National Park. It was amazing! When we arrived at the park, we decided that we would do the Balcony House Tour. This tour was so fun! It had such great views, our tour guide was phenomenal, and I learned a lot of really nifty stuff. I would not recommend this tour for small children because we did climb a few pretty tall ladders. I would also not suggest this tour if you are uncomfortable with heights; the tall ladders are on the edge of a canyon (it sounds crazy but it was really awesome and beautiful). We spent the night at the Fairview Lodge, which is inside the park. The rooms were extremely simple, but they weren’t dirty or disgusting. Just simple. There was also a restaurant and a lounge. The food was very good and the lounge was a great place to just hang out and listen to music. I was content with Fairview Lodge. We then made are our way to Grand Canyon National Park. I must say, this was the most breath-taking drive I think I have ever had. The scenery was gorgeous, with the magnificent plateaus all around. I had never seen anything like it, and it was just so unique. Once at Grand Canyon, I had the privilege to witness yet another wonder of nature. I swear it wasn’t real. It looks exactly like the photographs and it really could’ve been a painting. It was so scenic and gorgeous. Then I noticed the people. People everywhere. It was so crowded and kind of ruined the picture for me. I usually don’t mind big crowds, but this one really bothered me. Few people seemed to really appreciate how cool this whole thing was. The next day, we solved that problem. We hiked down into the Grand Canyon. There weren’t as many people, and the people we did see were kind, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. These were where the real outdoorsy people were, and they valued and respected nature. This was my image of the Grand Canyon before I arrived, and I am very pleased that I was able to leave with that picture in my mind.  I felt that two days in the Grand Canyon was plenty, and we soon left for Ft. Collins, Colorado. I had been to Ft. Collins before, and it continues to be my favorite city in Colorado. It’s so cute and charming, with all of its little shops and restaurants. After a quick stop for lunch and ice cream in Fort Collins, we headed toward the crux of our trip: Cherokee Park Ranch. We would be staying at the ranch for a week (which was so not enough!). Cherokee Park Ranch was amazing! We rode horses, swam, fished, hiked, ate really delicious food, met some wonderful people, and so much more. If you are thinking about going to a guest ranch, I would highly recommend Cherokee Park. There is so much to do for all ages and all skill levels of horseback riding, and there is such a variety of activities to participate in every day. Some of the activities include white water rafting, a van trip to Laramie Wyoming, cookouts, a visit to the neighbor’s art gallery, square dancing (one of my favorite parts) and rodeos. The staff members are wonderful; they really make the week so enjoyable and entertaining! I loved Cherokee Park, it easily was one of my favorite places I’d been to, and I really want to return back! As you can see, this was a pretty awesome trip. I encourage you to broaden your variety and try a Colorado vacation. All of the above places mentioned are wonderful and adventurous and I recommend that you spend some time in said places if you choose to vacation out west.

New York City

New York City

By: Emma Murphy, Age 12

I am a typical almost teenage girl. Therefore, when deciding where my thirteenth birthday vacation would be, the obvious choice was, of course, New York City. I couldn't be happier with this choice. Sure, we did all of the touristy attractions (which you will hear all about later in this blog), but honestly, the overall experience made this vacation so special. I mean really, Girls Trip to NYC for your 13th birthday with all the shopping and craziness: BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER!!! Below you will find my amazing experience in the Big Apple.

We arrived in NYC with no problem and a driver from Six Star Car Service was waiting for us (We also used this car service when leaving; I would recommend it.) We drove to the Renaissance Hotel on Times Square, and that was when it hit me. I AM IN NEW YORK CITY! With all the bright lights, crowds of people, street venders, and taxi cabs, I felt like I was in a movie. The Renaissance Hotel was wonderful! The service was perfect, the hotel itself was gorgeous, there was a modern lounge/ restaurant/ bar that over looked Times Square, and I felt like a princess! We unpacked, and started our search for lunch. Our stomachs lead us to John's Pizzeria, where we stuffed ourselves with delicious pizza and garlic rolls. It was delicious and the inside of the restaurant had a very cool mural on the wall. After eating, we decided to go find discounted tickets for a Broadway show. The concierge at the hotel was most helpful! My mom asked about getting tickets and she handed us her business card and a piece of paper with two names written on it. She told us to take it to the discount tickets place on Times Square and ask for the two people on the slip of paper. So we did! We walked are way over to a massive line for the Broadway tickets. It was huge! My aunt asked for the names, just like we had been told, and the man took us to guy, who took us to another guy, who took us to the front of the line, where we got our tickets in less than ten minutes. Crazy right? We never did find out if guys with the names on the paper actually existed or if it was some sort of code name, but I felt like a princess for the second time in the first hour of being in New York. After buying tickets in a super-spy fashion, we found our way to Magnolia Bakery, were there were delicious cupcakes, brownies, pies, cakes, and ice cream. I enjoyed some yummy peanut butter brownie. All were satisfied with our little treat. We also went to NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center to buy tour tickets for later in our trip.  We went back to the hotel, got all dolled up and headed to enjoy Mama Mia!  It did not disappoint!  There was lots of dancing, singing, and humor. It was hilarious and fun-filled; the whole audience was singing and dancing by the end of the show! I definitely recommend it, but the story line is a little mature, so make sure you know what you're getting into before taking younger kids to it.

To start off our second day in the Big Apple, we headed to the Evergreen Cafe, on recommendation from the concierge. I would not go back this cafe. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great. Maybe we ordered the wrong meals, but I was not impressed with the Evergreen Cafe. After eating breakfast, we went back to Times Square to buy double decker bus tour tickets. We bought the two-day tickets, so we were able to tour the city on both our second and third day in New York. I felt that the hop on/ hop off bus tour was a great way to see the city. It was not my absolute favorite part of the whole trip, but I think it would be a great fit for anyone who wants to be able to see a lot of places in a short amount of time. On the first day of the bus tour, we took the downtown loop. We ended up hopping off at the 9/11 Memorial. It was the quietest part of the city, and the memorial was very touching. We didn't do the whole shebang; we just saw Freedom Tower and walked around the area. After hanging around the Memorial, we took a cab to the Staten Island Ferry. It was really neat to see the Statue of Liberty! I thought it would be so much bigger, but it looked tiny compared to all of the ginormous skyscrapers! From the Ferry, we took a cab into Chinatown. Chinatown was probably my least favorite part of the whole trip. If you want knockoff name brands for low prices though, I would recommend visiting. I say it was my least favorite part because it was kinda gross in my opinion. Everything just seemed dirty, and there were way too many people packed in a small area (and this is coming from me: I LOVE HUGE CROWDS!) So if I think there are too many people, you know that there are a massive amount of bodies around! We ate an authentic Chinese meal at Big Wong King. It was decent. Nothing to get super excited about.  After a very late lunch, we got back on the bus tour and went to Times Square, did a little bit of shopping at the M&Ms World (a must do), and went to see if there were any more discounted Broadway Shows. All of the ones we wanted to see were sold out or not discounted, except for Cinderella. So we were like, "Sure, let’s go to it. Why not?" And it completely blew our socks off! Cinderella was amazing! The sets and costumes were phenomenal, it was funny, and the acting and singing was great! Best. Musical. Ever. I highly encourage you to see Cinderella if you go to NYC. I was shocked at how wonderful it was! And the night just got better from there. After Cinderella, we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner. All of the waiters and waitresses want to eventually make it to Broadway, and while they are serving you, they sing! All of the waiting staff take turns serenading you... can it get any better than that? Ellen's was a princess moment! It was so fun and entertaining, and the people had really good voices. And also, to add to the amazingness of this restaurant, the food is delicious too! Double bonus! You have got to go to Ellen's Stardust Diner when visiting New York.

On our third day, we just went to Starbuck's for breakfast. After eating, we got back on the bus and took a tour of the Uptown loop. It was a lot nicer than Downtown (except for Harlem). We did the whole loop on the bus, and then we hopped off at Central Park, which is very close to Dylan's Candy Bar. So naturally, we stopped there. It was three stories of sugar heaven! There were chocolate bars, lollipops, fudge, cupcakes, and basically any other sweet you could think of. It was so fun! After Dylan's, we walked around and found a little outdoor cafe called Burger Heaven. I'm sure the burgers were delicious, but we all just got salads and loved it. I would go here if you are looking for a cute, casual place to eat. There were a lot of choices to choose from, and it was good, healthy food (at least the salads were). Following lunch, we walked back to Central Park. On our way there, we passed by the Puerto Rico Parade, which is one of NYC's largest parades. It was crazy how many Puerto Rican people there were in one place! I'm very glad that I had a chance to witness this different culture. Once in Central Park, we took a carriage ride through the park. It was yet another princess moment for me! Right across from Central Park is the famous F.A.O. Schwarz. That place was nuts! We saw everything from puzzles to tic-tac-toe toss to $2000 stuffed animal hippopotamuses. My mom bought a cool puzzle of Times Square.  We then went to NBC Studios for our tour. It was such a neat experience to see where shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and SNL were taking place. The tour guides were wonderful and I would definitely do it again! When walking back to our hotel from NBC, we walked right by Radio City Music Hall. We were lucky enough to be passing it the night of the Tony Awards! The red carpet and all the TV anchors were so cool to see, and I had another princess moment! (I mean really, a red carpet! So awesome!) Once we got back to the hotel, we were struggling finding a good place to eat. My mom was using the app Yelp (very helpful when traveling, check it out if you don't already have it) and she saw that the small little lounge at our hotel had four and a half stars. This was the restaurant/bar/ lounge that overlooked Times Square that I spoke of earlier in the blog. We decided to try it out and I'm so glad we did! The view was beautiful and the Tony's were playing on the big screen, so we could watch it all from the lounge. We just split a few appetizers and the food was delicious! When we finished eating, we saw a man right outside our hotel, doing Caricatures. My cousin and I got one done of ourselves, it was adorable! After getting our faces drawn, we took a taxi to the Empire State Building. I was in heaven! We went up to the observation deck, which is on the 86th floor. The view was just like the pictures that are on the internet and in movies. Princess moment! I took a ton of pictures and it was just really gorgeous seeing the city all lit up at night. We then went back to the hotel with plans of getting up early to go to the Today Show.

Remember, I said PLANS of going to the Today Show. That didn't actually happen. The alarm went off at 6:00am and everyone was too tired and thought it was too early. So we rolled over and went back to sleep. My point in telling you this is so you know: if you plan on going to the Today Show, you need to A) be a morning person or B) really, really want to go so the thought of not going is completely out of your mind. It is a VERY early morning if you want to get in the front and actually have a chance of getting on TV. Once we slept in a little, we were hungry and needed breakfast. I really wanted to go back to Ellen's Stardust Diner, because I enjoyed it so much the 1st time we went. The others agreed. I had a totally unhealthy, delicious breakfast of some marshmallow fluff and banana stuffed French toast. It was heaven on a plate I tell you! Sadly, our last day the big city was pouring rain. We finished up buying souvenirs and went to the Museum of Natural History. I personally just wanted to go so I could see all of the stuff from the movie Night at the Museum, but there were so much more cool things to see! Sure we saw the Easter Island Statue (more well known as "Dum Dum"), yet the old Indian artifacts were really interesting and exotic too. And yeah, we saw "Rexy" but all of the animal skeletons were neat also. I highly recommend the Museum of Natural History to all ages, adult or kid, especially if it's gross out and you want to be inside. After the museum, we sadly had to go back to the Renaissance Hotel and pack up. We left New York City with happy hearts and we had a great time. NYC is a wonderful vacation spot, even if it isn't a beach, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to travel there for my 13th birthday!

Spring Break 2013

For Spring Break this year, I took the kids to Florida and on a cruise.  My husband couldn't join us because of a new job.  So, it was a mom/child vacation that brought many amazing new experiences.  We started and ended in Fort Lauderdale with a  cruise in between.  The below is submitted by my kids to get their perspective.

The Norwegian Sky

Submitted by: Emma Murphy (age 12)

            The Norwegian Sky Cruise Ship was a wonderful experience! There was definitely something for everyone on this particular ship. Whether you are a college student looking for a reasonably priced, quick get-away, or a parent looking for a fun cruise for your family, this ship would be a great option. From swimming to Ping-Pong, with plenty of restaurants, the Norwegian Sky has much to offer. The service was very good; I was pleased with how smoothly everything went. This particular cruise was short but sweet; a nice three-day trip to the Bahamas. Below, you will find my experience aboard the Norwegian Sky.

            The process of boarding the ship went extremely smoothly. Once we boarded, we couldn’t get into our rooms right away, so remember to pack swimsuits and any other items you might want in a backpack. Then you can join in on the fun right away! There were two pools, four hot tubs, Ping-Pong tables, lounge chairs, and a basketball court. A library, a few large rooms where parties and games were held at night, a photo gallery, and a theater could also be found on the ship. Many fun activities were available to participate in during our stay. Some examples included: Deal or No Deal, Music Trivia, Family Feud, $5,000 Bingo, comedy shows, and many more. There were also parties every night for young adults and adults, and many art and jewelry shows.

            We stayed in a balcony cabin on the Norwegian Sky. I really enjoyed having that fresh air. Being able to just sit, relax, and watch the ocean without a ton of people around you was a really nice escape. It was very peaceful, and I would definitely recommend a balcony cabin if you like to have some quiet time!  

Quite a few restaurants were scattered around the ship. One thing that I really liked about this cruise was that there was freestyle dining, so we could eat whenever we wanted. They had two buffets, the main dining room, and a few bars that served food at dinner, a steakhouse, and an Italian restaurant. Both the steakhouse and the Italian restaurant were ‘specialty dining’ which means that you had to pay extra (the Italian restaurant was only specialty at dinner). Our first and only lunch on board was at the Italian restaurant. They didn’t have a wide variety of options for lunch (only pizza and pasta) but it was yummy. We ate in the main dining room the first night. The food was really good. For breakfast every morning, we just got food from one of the two buffets, so nothing spectacular there. I think the highlight of all the meals, had to be the steak house. The food was fantastic! Sure, it cost more, but it was well worth it! I was very pleased with the dining options on this ship.

This cruise, as I said before, is good for any age. But, there are more things for younger kids than the tween-early teen age. Since I am twelve, not quite a teen yet, they grouped me with the younger kids. I didn’t participate in the kids program because I would be hanging out with eight year olds. My point is, there is not a ton of organized activity for kids my age to do. This was fine by me. My ten-year-old brother felt the same way. Since it was such a short cruise, and we were barely on the ship during the day anyway, this didn’t bug us. There is still plenty to do, just not necessarily ‘organized activity’.

Both full days on the Norwegian Sky were spent in port. Our first day we spent lounging in the sun, snorkeling, and parasailing on Great Stirrup Cay (the cruise line’s private island). There was a ton to do! Snorkeling had to be one of the coolest parts of the island. You rented your gear for the day, and you could use it as much, or as little as you wanted. There was a ton of really neat fish to see! It was such a cool experience, and unlike anything that I had ever done before. Another exotic thing that I had the privilege to do was parasailing. It was amazing! My mom was surprised that I wanted to do it, considering I don’t like heights. But I would’ve regretted it if I had never tried. I highly suggest going parasailing. It is so relaxing and peaceful, unless you have a little brother, like me, yelling, “We’re gonna die!!!!” J Snorkeling and parasailing were just a few of the many options at Great Stirrup Cay. You could go jet skiing, rent rafts, play beach volleyball, and so much more! All in all, our day was incredible!

         The second day of our adventure was spent at the Atlantis Resort in Nassau. We hung out at the famous water park the entire day. It was amazing! We went on so many cool slides, including the well-known ‘Serpent’, which sends you through an aquarium with sharks! There was a lazy river that flows all around the park and through a few rapids, and there were plenty of pools. Also, we didn’t swim with dolphins, but I did get to watch other guests play with them for a little bit. It looked super fun and it is definitely something that I would want to try. The Atlantis was huge! I felt like we walked a mile just to get inside of the water park! Something that really stuck out to me was how detailed everything was. The resort was just so pretty! I only had one thing to complain about the entire day: the guest service. This kind of surprised me because I know a few people that have stayed at the Atlantis and they all say how wonderful the service is and how nice the people are. I disagreed. Some of the employees that we encountered were just rude to us. That is my only complaint and it definitely didn’t stop me from having fun! We had a great time at the Atlantis, and if you decide to take this cruise, I recommend spending at least part of your day at the Atlantis Resort.
*One thing that you should remember if you choose to spend a day at the Atlantis: bring your credit card. They don’t take cash (we found this out the hard way)

            As you can tell, we had so much fun aboard the Norwegian Sky. I would recommend this trip to anyone who needed a quick, tropical get-away. I had an amazing time and this was such a great vacation! The Norwegian Sky was a great choice and I would be very happy cruising with the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) again!

 

The Lago Mar Resort, Fort Lauderdale

By: Liam Murphy(age 10)

The Lago Mar Resort was a great experience for my family. They had great service, and were very nice. At the resort they have two pools, a Ping-Pong table, a playground, two hammocks, a giant chess board (like in Harry Potter), and two beach volleyball courts, tennis courts, shuffleboard, and the ocean next to it all. It is a great place for kids; my sister and I really enjoyed it. Here’s how our days usually went: take a walk on the beach (it was beautiful!), swim, play ping pong, play chess, eat lunch, swim, walk some more on the beach, go up to our room and relax, and walk some more.

The Lago Mar Resort also has many restaurants. Our favorite was the Soda Shop. The Soda Shop was divided into three parts. One part was like a gas station. They had bottled water, soda, chip bags, candy, and things like that. The other part had the cash register and ice cream, which was delicious! The third part was the counter, where you could order food. The food tasted great, and we ate there for almost all of our meals! All in all, the soda shop was pretty sweet.

We also went to Mai Kai, which was a Polynesian restaurant. The food and drinks were delicious!  They had a wide variety of cool drinks for kids and adults. For dinner we had teriyaki beef, chicken, and shrimp. After dinner there was a show. In the show there were different Polynesian dances. They also did one fire dance where they threw up the sticks (which were on fire) and caught them. It was very cool!

We went to Luigi’s Coal Oven Pizza one night, too. It was a quiet, little place, but the food was great. For an appetizer we had the Caesar salad. We also had the pepperoni pizza which was delicious. We left Luigi’s happy, that’s for sure!

All in all, it was a great trip!