Alaena Cox has traveled to many different places, whether it was a state, country, or continent. She has been on both sides of the United States within a single summer. She drove to New Jersey for a fun beach vacation with her mom and two sisters. Then the next moment she was on a plane flying to California to be a flower girl at her uncle’s wedding. She has made a family trip to California twice, once for the wedding and another for Thanksgiving. Both times she went to Universal Studios to ride the fun rides. Her personal favorite ride was the Transformer one. After attending the wedding and saying goodbye to her uncle and new aunt, she and her family drove to Arizona.

     In Arizona she visited the Grand Canyon and went through a drive-thru zoo called Bearizona. Her mom drove through a bunch of enclosures, with the windows up of course, and they all got a sticker for visiting. Alaena put the sticker on her water bottle that she brings to sports. Alaena was the most excited when they drove through the bear enclosure. Alaena loved Arizona so much that she misses it and would like to go back one day.

    Alaena has been on a family roadtrip many times to Illinois to visit family on her dad’s side. She plays games, swims, and has a lot of fun visiting family from Illinois. One time she went to a Cardinals game to cheer them on. She was very little at the time so she got very sleepy as the game went on. 

     This summer Alaena went to England, Scotland, and Ireland after a little plane trouble. Alaena visited her family that had moved to England right before the pandemic. Alaena was unable to visit them sooner because of the new vaccine laws prohibiting them from traveling. Thankfully the vaccine laws were not a problem anymore so she got to see her uncle, aunt, and two cousins. In England Alaena and her family were out and about all day and when they came home, the fun was not over. While Alaena’s cousins slept, everyone would play board games keeping their voices down so they would not disturb the little ones. To make the trip across the Atlantic even better than it already was, they all traveled to Scotland to explore a different part of England.

     In Scotland the buildings and roads had so much history. Each close, or alleyway, was narrow with many steps, Alaena was either walking uphill or downhill the whole time she was in Scotland. Alaena and her family booked a hotel while her uncle, aunt, and two cousins booked a different one. She walked through spooky ghost tours and went to many cafes even though she does not like coffee. After the fun family trip to Scotland, they drove back to her uncle’s house to spend their last two days together. Soon the time was up and she had to fly back home. 

     First from the Leeds airport, they flew to Dublin, Ireland where they were supposed to have another flight. Because their first plane hit a bird on the way to landing, the airport crew had to do a whole safety inspection, so by the time they landed in Ireland, their other flight took off. Alaena and her family were now stuck in Dublin, Ireland for a day. Alaena walked around Ireland and visited the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. One night Alaena’s mom suggested they watch the Barbie movie in Ireland so they all walked to the closest theater to watch the Barbie movie. It was a last minute decision so none of them had any pink. Finally the time came and the sun rose on the next morning telling them it was time to leave. They were finally on a plane back to the United States.

     Alaena has been on many planes and has many opinions on them, especially the food and the people. She does not find the food tasty on the plane but her favorite was the pasta they served on her way to Tenerife. The one time Alaena and her sister were sitting next to a wealthy old man, she heard all his stories on the plane about Rolexes and limos and assumed he was rich, and he suggested they had a cleanest tray contest. Alaena cleaned her tray decently. The wealthy old man cleaned his tray, but Alaena’s sister had other plans. She stuffed a whole bunch of trash into one small container and it could not hold it all. Her sister had managed to make a time bomb out of trash. Her tray exploded and it went everywhere disqualifying her from the competition. The wealthy old man won, Alaena said he only won because he paid the flight attendant a compliment before she judged. The plane finally landed and all was over as they waited for Alaena’s dad to pick them up form the New York airport.