Pick The World – The United States Of America

I remember the first time I traveled to the USA with my parents. I must have been about 6 years old and our trip lead us to Vail, Colorado to go skiing. Before we headed to the mountains we had a first stop over in New York City and stayed with a friend of my parents over night. I remember how impressed I was about the apartment somewhere high up, overlooking this beautiful city. But what impressed me even more was the TV in our bedroom. Actually the TV’s in every bedroom. For me this was amazing especially as there were more than just 3 channels and one of them showed cartoons all day long. Back in Switzerland we only had the 3 channels and there was something like a good night story for kids on around 5pm and that was it for the kids.

If I remember correctly we only left to Vail late afternoon on the next day. But there was a Blizzard and after hours of waiting in the air (according to my mom as I was fast asleep), we had to turn around and fly to Denver where again the flight had to circle for hours until we were finally allowed to land. I remember waking up because people were clapping and laughing and looking in my mom’s face, who looked as white as snow. She never liked traveling on a plane and this must have been torture. One day she told me that all she could think of was, that at least us kids were sleeping if the bird would go down…

Our friend picked us up the next day and drove us to Vail. On the way I remember seeing a huge herd of bison. And then we arrived in Vail and I was not sure what the fuss was about. There was snow, but we had that at home too. The hotel was nice and we had a huge room (my parents friends owned the place and gave us a big suite). Again I remember the TV and the cartoon channel and the next big thing was the breakfast the morning. In our room. There were sausages, bacon, hash browns and you name it. Something that was totally new to me. And while eating this amazing breakfast I was allowed to watch TV (my brother probably too, but I don’t really remember him…).

I remember losing my first tooth there and the tooth fairy coming and leaving a one dollar bill for me. I remember the toys we got, the same playmobile for both, my brother and I. And I remember leaving to go skiing with my mom and then she left something in the room. We had to turn around and go back and when we opened the door to our room there were about 6 cleaning ladies sitting in front of the TV, minibar open, and having a nice soap opera session. None of them moved when we entered the room, just looked at us and continued watching the TV show…

I remember skiing only a little bit. I remember the trees. And I remember my parents having a great time.

I’ve been back to the US a couple of times ever since. New York, Miami, Tampa, San Francisco, LA, Champaign (Illinois) and Hawaii and I even spent 3 months in Aspen, working as a nanny when I was just over 20. I loved it up there. And I actually went back to Vail for a weekend and was able to stay with my parents friends in their hotel again. I was treated like a VIP there and it was nice to see them again.

As I said, I’ve been back to the US many times. I’ve made heaps of great memories and I love the States. It would be way to long to list all those memories but I figured my first trip would be a fun one to mention.

In response to the Pick The World Blog Event. Thanks a lot, LaChouette, for this great event. Brought back some great memories 🙂