I'm only nineteen and have never been out of the country. But, I have been to twenty-seven of fifty states in the USA. I have met Bill Plante (Senior CBS White House Correspondent), discussed legislation with a Congressman on Capitol Hill, discovered what it truly meant to be an American and packaged 30,000 meals for hungry children in Washington D.C.. I helped build a library for an inner city elementary school in Detroit and helped to rebuild the city of New Orleans from Katrina while growing my faith in God. So, to say I'm blessed would be a definite understatement.

It's always been a tradition for my family to go on vacation every year and unlike other families, mine always takes a trip to a different place than the summer before. When my mom first brought up Alaska I thought she was crazy. I pictured Alaska to be a cold, dark place where no one would take a vacation to. Needless to say her idea was shot down. Then a few months later, she brought it up again and this time everyone seemed to be on board.

Needless to say ten days in Alaska have been some of the best days of my life by far, and most definitely my favorite trip. Alaska one of the most beautiful, diverse, and undiscovered place in the United States. I decided to write this article to give you a little insight of my Alaskan adventure.

I took this picture from the plane at 10:30 p.m. on our almost six hour flight into Anchorage. You think the mountains in Colorado are big, think again. Thousands upon thousands of acres of untouched, snow covered mountains. Just my first glance into what would become one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Alaska is three hours behind Central Time, and during the summer the sun never sets. So a 6 a.m. wakeup call to catch a train from Anchorage to Seward proved to be a challenge in itself. (Well worth it.)

I spent hours on a train one day going from Anchorage to Seward standing outside or sitting in my glass car, taking in all the sights around me. I had only seen things like these in movies. Mountains that went on for miles, acres of trees, and lakes upon lakes of clear, still water. This was one of the first instances where I wondered why more people hadn't been here.

I got off a train and found myself in a tiny place (you know, kind of like home but minus the cattle, ninety degree weather, tractors, etc). Seward, Alaska. A town surrounded by grey mountains, dark blue waters, rocky beaches and forty degree weather. Not your typical "day at the beach", considering I had just come back from Florida. Since our rental house wasn't ready for us yet, my parents decided it would be a wonderful idea to hop in the car and just drive. Obviously if you know my parents, you'd have the same reaction I did (I leave that to the imagination). Because let's be real, we're in Alaska, not Russellville, Missouri.

After waking up from a nap that seemed to have last an eternity, we had arrived at a park area and decided to go on a hike through bear country. After dodging mosquitos the size of small mammals and praying to God you didn't see any bears, we arrived at Exit Glacier. Honestly I had no idea glaciers existed that far south, but it had to have been one of the most breathtaking experiences I have had to this day. From the picture above, it doesn't look that big. Mind you I was standing halfway up a mountain, and there are people at the very bottom of the glacier, they just look like ants.

The amount of cold air coming from Exit Glacier was unbelievable. Hearing it crack and move was something that can't even be described, and seemed completely unreal.

The next day was full of whales, sea sickness, and a four hour boat rides in the middle of Resurrection Bay on a cold, rainy, Alaskan summer day. We had spent our last day in Seward and we were on to Cooper Landing with a rough population of 209 people (pictured below).

Cooper Landing proved to be one of Alaska's gems. And with this view as my backyard, I couldn't even begin to complain. We spent a full day in Cooper Landing rafting down the Kenai River. The water was glacier fed, so it was absolutely something you didn't want to take a swim in. We were a few weeks ahead of the salmon run, so the river was as peaceful as it could be.

At this point in time we were around our halfway point of our trip and it still hadn't sunk in that I was closer to Canada than I was to my home. Cooper landing was a short lived stop, because after all, there's only so much you can do in a town of 200 people. So we were on to our last stop. Homer, Alaska with a population somewhere around 5,000 people.

Homer was going to be the place of one of my favorite adventures of the entire trip. My five family members decided to kayak across Kachemak Bay. Home to all sea life, including whales. We kayaked to a small beach where our guide was going to take us on a little hike. (LITTLE did I know that we would be climbing an entire mountain while I was in my flip flops. Not one of my smartest days.) But the views proved to be well worth the trek. This is when my trip had finally sunk in. That I was on such an adventure that some people will never experience in their lifetime. Not only was my family's trip to Alaska a once in a lifetime experience, it sparked a sense of adventure within myself. From this point on, I knew that I would travel for the rest of my life. I have set a goal to visit the remaining of my 23 states, as well as many countries as possible within my lifetime. Alaska proved to be a pivotal moment in my life.

Not only did I hike mountains, stand next to a real glacier, kayak across the waters of Alaska, but I found out how other people live. That not everyone comes from the same place, but yet here we all are just trying to make life work. Not only are we trying to make life work, but to make our lives better, and to understand the lives of those around us. Traveling allows for these things such as observing and understanding, and yet this I never would have known without Alaska.

"I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring."