A Vacation to Remember

    A vacation that I will remember forever was when I went to Florida with my friends in 2019. Although it may seem like it is just Florida, this vacation was my favorite trip ever. It even beats Hawaii and Mexico, which is a more appropriate favorite vacation. I went with a big group of friends and our parents considering we were in middle school. We stayed in this big, beautiful beach house I was honored to find. It took a lot of house hunting to find a house for that week and we almost had to choose a new destination. But I was set on Florida and ended up finding the perfect house. It was four stories tall and was in a cute, local neighborhood with no other renters. The house was one of the reasons this vacation was so special. It had so many features like a game room, a big balcony with hammocks and a dinner table, and it had a big golf cart. The balcony became a special place for the group because we would constantly find ourselves sitting out there and talking or eating. We ate every single meal outside together and would play music and laugh until it got late. There was also a huge pool that we would swim in on the nights when it wasn't raining. I remember getting so incredibly tan on this trip because I would be outside from the moment I woke up until I went to bed. Me and my friends practically lived in swimsuits, shorts, and towels. The whole trip was the most picture-perfect, teenage summer experience. Another feature of the house was the bike rack which had a total of six perfect bikes that was the ultimate cherry on top. Because none of us could drive and our house wasn't exactly right on the beach we felt that we would have to be very dependent on our parents which didn't seem like a lot of fun. When we realized the house came with bikes me and my friends knew that this trip would be so much fun. We started biking everywhere and in circles all around the town and neighborhood. There was one day when we literally biked 70 miles accidentally. We were just so happy and carefree that we biked for hours around the neighborhood listening to music and talking until it got too late to be out. When I checked my Apple watch that night all of the parents thought it was crazy how we casually biked 70 miles without noticing. We started biking everywhere and would bike to get coffee, bike to the beach, and of course the daily, after-dinner ice cream runs. We all got very sunburnt on our forearms, thighs, and shoulders from the intense sun exposure while biking but it was worth every burn. I got so close with this group of friends over the trip and I still think about it all the time. It is funny because we did other stuff on the trip like going to Seaside, jet skis, and so much more but the parts I remember the most were the biking, balcony, and pool. I felt so at home there and we even made friends with some of the other kids in the neighborhood and even biked with them one night. The night we had to leave Florida I was crying so hard and I was even crying on the way back home. It genuinely affected my life so much for the rest of the summer. I felt like a part of me was left behind in Florida and I did not understand why I was so emotional after. But I think my mind connected this trip with my dream summer and teenage years that I felt so wrong leaving it all behind knowing I would never be a teenager in Florida biking with all of my friends ever again.