My Mom’s Traveling Experience and Why I’m Jealous of Her stories
Note: This post was produced in 2022 by a participant in DNDA’s Summer Youth Program writing workshop led by Beverly Aarons.
Author: Dimples D.
I always wanted to travel to so many places in the future. Hearing about my mom’s travel stories was exciting. She has traveled to the states of Hawaii and California. She has also visited Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Hawaii
My most favorite place to hear about was Hawaii. She took a plane to Oahu, Hawaii in the spring of 2000. She talked about how beautiful and blue Waikiki beach was. She said that there were a lot of ABC stores in the city of Waikiki. I’m not sure why they’re called that, but my mom says it’s like a Hawaiian version of a Dollar Tree. They have miscellaneous stuff like food, clothes, toys, souvenirs and so much more. Basically, it’s like a gift shop of some sort.
She attended a Germain Luau with music, flame throwing and hula dancers. My mom even got to participate on the stage and performed with other participants. After that, she had roasted pig for dinner. To prep the pig, they start by digging a hole underground called an Imu. Once that’s done, you place a whole pig inside the hole and then you fill it up with rocks or coal and cover it with banana shoots called Pulu. You can use other leaves too. It takes 4-5 hours to fully cook. Once it’s done, they take off all the leaves before they take out the rock that’s underground.
California
It took my mom about a week to get down to Los Angeles County in Southern California from Washington State. The drive consisted of sightseeing and resting. She took a picture of Paul Bunyan and his ox. There’s different statues of him located across the country. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a 7ft tall (or even taller) American folklore hero in the 1800s. Some people debate if he was real or not. People say he was made up by the lumberjacks.
The myth mainly consisted of him and his ox, named Babe, and how they made various American landmarks. There were different variations of the folklore, one for example, says that their footsteps made the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. In another variation of the myth, Paul was so powerful, he made the Grand Canyon just by dragging his ax during a snow storm.
Once in LA county, she had visited a couple of their local beaches. One was Venice beach and the other one was Santa Monica. At the time, there was a lot of music, shops, entertainment and vendors. A city she liked in Los Angeles county was Altadena. “I was thinking about moving there, but you know California is so expensive,” she said.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
“Oh, did I tell you I went to Vancouver, Canada twice?” my mom said.
“What! You did”? I responded.
“Yes, I did. Vancouver is a big city that has a lot of diversity. The people are very friendly and helpful to tourists” .
She visited the steam clock in Gastown, did a lot of sightseeing and went to different restaurants and attractions. “There was actually a Vietnamese restaurant, with an interesting name called Pho Bich Nga,” she said. “It was across the street from the hotel I stayed in.”
She showed me a picture of the restaurant. I was laughing so hard I felt like I was going to explode. I’m not gonna lie, I was sort of jealous that I wasn’t born around that time. I would have liked to have been able to explore and experience traveling with my mother. I’m glad I can hear her travel stories.
Hey, maybe in the future, we can travel together. She always wanted to go to London, England. She expressed that getting your education is very important first! So I would like to attend The University of British Columbia and complete my residency and pursue a career to become a Midwife or an Obstetrician.