Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What does America look like?

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been blogging or commenting on blogs much,
 but I'm hoping to get back into action here this week and next.
However, rather than share all the millions of photos that I've taken since summer began,
I saw that I heart faces was doing a "My story in photos" challenge with the topic being America.

I thought it would be fun, but it was HARD to dig through all of the archives to find these pics.
I'm going to have to come up with a better archiving system!
But here they are (in no particular order) along with my little story...
When I was fifteen my aunt took me on a trip to England. It was the first time that I'd ever been outside of the country, in fact, I'd hardly been outside of the Northeastern States before, so it was quite a big deal.

While on that trip, we visited one of my aunts friends who happened to be a school teacher. We visited her school and spent some time with her class.



This class of second graders had lots of questions, but the one that I remember best and the one that truly stumped me was "What does America look like?"

How exactly does one answer that question?



     Especially someone who hadn't really seen America yet.




I tried to answer as best as I could.

I believe I said that some places looked somewhat like England.

  But then I added that there are also deserts

and mountains

and tropical places.


Now, more than twenty years later, I've had the opportunity to move about the country. 


 We've made the trek across country three times


by car no less!


           As much as we might dislike sitting in a car for hours on end, we wouldn't do it any other way.

How else would we find views like these?






8 comments:

Dan said...

Those were some great photos of a lot of great times. We have many more to come. The great thing about America is that it looks different every time.

koreen (aka: winn) said...

That's a lot of cross-country travelling. There's nothing like it for the memories!
Trying to describe a country to someone who's never seen it is hard... there's a feel to the country that you have to experience for yourself. I'll never be able to adequately describe driving through the deserts of Utah in the early morning... or seeing--from a train--herds/groups/gangs of kangaroos bounding across a field... or trying to communicate without words with a group of kids in rural Mexico, singing Feliz Navidad around a campfire and busting open the pinata at Christmas.... these are just burned into my mind, and I'll never have the words to relay those experiences as I felt them.

Brooke said...

WOW - I think you covered most of America in this post! You guys have done some serious traveling :D
Love all the shots. Nicely done!

Alyssa S. said...

Wow, I don't think anyone else could have summed it up so beautifully, using a camera! Devils Tower and El Capitan...stunning. I only wish I'd been to half of those places. I've maybe been to a third of them!

lsquare said...

What a wonderful bunch of memories you have there---and yes, traveling by car is the best way to create them---especially if you don't have a specific or tight time limit...Enjoyed your story, as well.

Hollie said...

Great photos! Looks like you've been a TON of places... I wish I could travel more!!

Grammie/Mom said...

I have great memories still of my cross country trip 42 years ago!! Across the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge into Canada, back to the states, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, Las Vegas and finally Disney Land. Stories for each stop too. Glad you're back blogging.

Unknown said...

The only places I've been other than the US is Canada and Mexico. It must have been great seeing England! We travel all over the US, also by car and I wouldn't have it any other way either. :0) Loved seeing all your photos! Especially love the silver blob and car in tree, lol.