Seaside

Last summer I went to Seaside, Florida with my family in July. We ran into some friends which made the vacation more exciting. My family and I go to Seaside a couple times every year, we have been going since i was six months old, so it is like home to me. Seaside is a little town on the beach attached to Watercolor, however they are both pretty much considered one small town. It's my favorite beach with white sand and clear, turquoise water. While we were there, my mom took us out snorkeling on the sandbars and we found many sand-dollars and my mom even found a couple starfish as well. In addition to snorkeling, my sister, Hallie, and my brother, Macan went YOLO boarding. YOLO boarding is a big surfboard with a black grip on it that you stand on and use a paddle to ride around the ocean. It's very fun but hard to learn because you have to have good balance at first. In Watercolor and Seaside everyone rides bikes and/or golf carts everywhere which makes it more fun than riding everywhere in a car like in the city. Every year my family and I go get shaved ice from a little trailer right in the middle of Seaside that everyone goes to. This trailer is called Frostbites and has the best snow cones (shaved ice) in the world, if you ask my opinion and have almost every flavor with silly names like 'Frog in a Blender' and 'Pink Flamingo' or even 'Atomic waste' which is every flavor put in one, surprisingly delicious. There are many other fun activities in Watercolor and Seaside that we do but it's the way everyone can go and relax and enjoy their friends and family at the beach that makes it so great along with the fresh smell of saltwater from the ocean and the feeling of sand in your toes because as they say Seaside is "Where bare feet and sandy floors rule." I recommend anyone who likes the beach to go there even if you do not like the beach I know this place will change your mind!

Along For The Ride

In Sarah Dessen's novel Along For The Ride a girl named Auden grew up through books and grades with both her parents being college professors and the summer before college she stays with her Dad and his new wife and daughter, where through new boys and girlfriends she finds the true teenager inside her. This is a fiction novel set at a small beach town called Colby. I have a video attached from amazon, that i believe does explain the setting in Along For The Ride, of the beach that inspired Sarah Dessen. I have not completed reading this story but so far I really like this book because it relates to me in the way that Auden, the protagonist in the novel, goes to the beach and learns many new teenage ways just as I go to a small beach town, called Watercolor in Florida which i meet new friends and have time to have fun and learn new activities which inspire me in different ways like Auden was inspired and learned there is much more to life than just grades and school. I recommend this book to all teenage girls who have always been too involved in school and have not lived there life too the fullest, however, this does not mean school is not important but girls should have a little time to be a teenager. A book review by Nice Girls Read Books recommends this book to "Any fans of contemporary teen stories. I think Sarah Dessen is pretty much the go-to already. Still, if you haven’t tried Along for the Ride yet, I’m urging you to give it a go!" which I do agree with because their review i read involved a lot of the same ideas i have, while reading this novel. Also Harmony Book Reviews, who's reveiw on this novel was much the same as Nice Girls Read Books which i do agree a lot with, puts Along For The Ride in their top four of Dessen's novels. In addition, on the back of Sarah Dessen's novel it gives some critical praise including from the Washington Post "Captures that sense of summer as a golden threshold between past regrets and future unknowns, a time that shimmers with the sweet promise of now." As well as "Sleepless nights have never seemed so romantic!" from Seventeen, and lastly, NPR's The Roundtable stated "Helps us realize that people aren't what the seem and there's always time to change. A wonderful book!" Sarah Dessen also makes biking and trick biking a huge part of the novel which she explains why in a video attached from Amazon that explains not only bike riding but also overall ideas in her novel. Her husband is a bike rider himself and she believes bike riding is a part of growing up especially when a kid gets his/her training wheels off not only on their bike but in life too people do say it is time to take your training wheels off and grow up. This also shows how Auden, in Along For The Ride, changes her way of life and matures in many different ways.

http://nicegirlsreadbooks.com/review-along-for-the-ride-sarah-dessen/

http://www.amazon.com/Along-Ride-Sarah-Dessen/dp/0670011940 (LINK TO BOTH VIDEOS)

http://harmonybookreviews.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/along-for-the-ride-by-sarah-dessen/

Ocean Pollution

In Sarah Dessen's novel, Along For The Ride, the setting is a little beach town called, Colby. Colby is a cute beach town that brings the protagonist Auden to see the true teenager inside her. However, beaches and oceans are beginning to be destroyed through all the ocean pollution. Poisonous wastes are being dumped into the ocean, called toxic wastes. toxic wastes are not only impacting plants and animals in the ocean but also our own health. Thus, if an organism in the ocean is affected by a toxic wasted it can be passed through the food chain and end up being the seafood we eat. Along with Toxic wastes, oil spills and the dumping of other harmful materials are affecting the ocean and are all major causes of ocean pollution. On the other hand there are also many ways to prevent ocean pollution. Boaters can help a lot by only turning on the engine when needed, don't take your boat out in the water if there is no need for it, store and transport gasoline in places where there isn't direct sunlight because the gasoline will evaporate and all the gases that have been evaporated will pollute the air, lastly you should by new and cleaner marine engines for your boats. The ocean is made up of multiple zones, including the sunlight zone. the sunlight zone is where pollution is the biggest problem. oil pollution is the main kind of pollution in this zone caused by two main causes. one being big ships leaking oil and the other being ships carrying oil crashing into things in the ocean. People can reduce ocean pollution and save many lives of plants, animals, and even humans. If people don't do something about ocean pollution soon our beaches will not be a place to go and spend time with family, friends, to be a teenager, like Auden and her friends in Colby in Sarah Dessen's novel, Along For The Ride.

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/ocean_pollution.htm

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.treehugger.com/large-cargo-ship-pollution-smoke-photo4.jpg&imgrefurl

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://feww.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/ocean-polution-credit-gavin-newman.jpg&imgrefurl

Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen is a fiction author and the author of one of New York Times best sellers, Along For the Ride. She was born in 1970 in Illinois but she grew up living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Both her parents were professors at the University of North Carolina. Dessen's mom was a classicist and her dad taught Shakespeare. Dessen said she had always been a writer and used to always receive books for Christmas when she might of rather received new sweaters or jewelry like her friends, however she loved to read so her gifts were put to good use. She inspires a lot of her stories in her books on her big group of high school girlfriends. Dessen sold her first book, That Summer, three years after graduating. Now, she has published over seven books, all for young adults. Her first two books, That Summer and Someone Like You, were turned into a movie called How To Deal. American Library Association constantly chooses Dessen’s books as Best Books for Young Adults. She says normally her writing isn't going to well, not much else in her life is either. In her words writing, "It is the one constant, the key to everything else." Sarah Dessen now lives in the country with her husband, daughter, and two dogs, which she spoils. Sarah Dessen is known as one of the most popular authors for young adults.

http://www.sarahdessen.com/

Christmas Time

Christmas time has always been my favorite time of the year. Every year my whole family comes in town to celebrate. We always go to church, eat dinner at Escalantes, and go home and open presents with my Dad's side of the family on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning its just my family and we wake up and all run out to open presents. This year I got lots of clothes, and jewelry as well as other items. After we open all our presents at home, we go to my cousins' house for Christmas with my Mom's side of the family. My cousins who live in Elmherst, Illinois come down and stay with us until New years. It's very exciting because my cousin Ava is the only one my age so when she comes down to visit us we spend all day, everyday together. We were also able to see my younger cousins Caroline, James, and Annabelle this year. We don't normally get to see them because they live in Washington D.C. They are all very young Caroline the oldest who is four, James who is two and Annabelle the baby who is only 2 months. My cousins and I found our old princess costumes which Caroline loved to play dress-up and play with her baby sister, Annabelle, and James who enjoyed playing with our old train sets we found in the attic want to play dress-up to so we put him in a cowboy outfit with a skirt which he thought was just what cowboys wore. Annabelle loved to be held and was very cheerful and did not cry a lot at all except once when she was hungry. She was learning to sit up but she could not quite get it she kept falling back over on her little pink blanket. On the other hand, one day my cousins Catherine, Cameron, Ava, Hale, Zane, my sister Hallie and I went ice-skating which was lots of fun however I was not very good but my cousin Hale who used to play hockey was really good. Although most of Christmas my Mom and brother, Macan were at a baseball tournament I still was able to have a very fun Christmas with the rest of my family. Christmas is a very exciting and fun time for me and my family because we are able to all be together.