My name is Kevin and I’m someone who likes adventure and letting life take me where it wants to.  I am happiest when I am with my best friends doing something new; something I have never done before.

I was 14 years old and a freshman in high school.  During winter break I had an exciting trip up to Toronto for a hockey tournament. This meant I was going outside of the United States for the first time since I was 3 years old. 

As I entered the airport I looked around and noticed a few of my teammates and their parents as well as a couple of my coaches.  We greeted each other cheerfully despite the time being 7 in the morning.  We got on the plane and I was excited because I was sitting next to my teammate who also happened to be my best friend from my hometown.  When I got to Toronto and I was driving along the highway overlooking downtown Toronto, I was amazed at how beautiful it was.  I was also amazed at how cold it was as I stepped out of the car. 

The tournament went by fast with lots of fast-paced, fun, quality hockey.  Since my team did not qualify for the finals, my teammates and I were able to spend a night at the hotel with no worries of preparing for the next game.  With this pressure off our shoulders, we were able to have one of the best nights of my life. 

Being 13 years old, one of our favorite activities was ding-dong-ditching.  On this night we took it to another level. About 8 kids on the team, including me, told our parents we were going to another teammates room.  However, that was totally not true and we ended up going all over the city of Toronto a finding hotels to run down every floor as we bang on every door.  That laughter-filled night we just did what we wanted to without any supervision and let life take us wherever. 

Luckily, the parents also had a great time that night and my family, along with a couple other families, decided to stay in Toronto for 4 more days and spend New Years in Canada for a change.  These next 4 days were filled with memories.  My favorite memory was on the second day.  It started from almost the second I woke up. 
I had just gotten out of the shower and my dad told the family he bought tickets with the other two families to go to the U.S. vs. Canada women’s hockey game in Toronto.  We were all immediately excited and couldn’t wait.  After this I went to workout in the hotel gym.  On my way back from the workout I was in an elevator with about 7 of the U.S. women’s hockey players who all recognized the Salisbury t-shirt I was wearing, (I hadn’t chosen my current school yet) since they had played against Salisbury a year earlier.  It was a cool experience because I had seen most of them on T.V. including Hilary Knight and Connecticut native Julie Chu.  

Once I got ready to go out, my family and the other families headed over to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  This place had to be one of the coolest places I had ever been.  From the second I walked into the hall of fame there were tons of incredible players represented all over.  After we got past the players, there were many short documentaries that we could watch until we stumbled upon a 3d film about the passion young players have for hockey focusing on a team based out of Winnipeg.  We finished the film and walked over to where all of the NHL’s trophies are stored, including the new and old Stanley Cups and the Art Ross Trophy among many others.  My two teammates and I waited in a 10 minute line to get a picture with the Stanley Cup that I still have on my phone today.  After a little more walking around and admiring the place we ventured into the souvenir shop and we were on our way back to the hotel when we saw the CN Tower and couldn’t resist. 

Although the line was long and we waited anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour, the view from the top was definitely worth the wait.  The entire snow-filled city of Toronto and the suburbs were all visible from the 1,815 foot tower I was on top of.  The craziest part of the tower was the glass floor.  There was about a 100 square foot see through floor that had a straight view 2 thousand feet down to the ground that kids, including me, hesitantly wobbled onto and after one minute were jumping up and down with laughter.

Time was flying by that day and after our stop at the CN Tower it was already 5 o’clock.  We decided to stop at the Wayne Gretzky restaurant on the way back to the hotel before the hockey game.  While we were waiting for our food we were able to walk around the restaurant and see all the autographed pictures, jerseys, and memorabilia on the wall.  Then my friend’s dad, who is always making new friends, signaled all the kids over.  He had met Wayne Gretzky’s father.  It was an unbelieveable experience just to say hi to the man.  We then ate our burgers and headed back to the hotel to rest before going to the U.S.A. vs Canada hockey game at the Air Canada Centre. After the short rest we were on our way.  The was a few blocks away, but we could feel and hear the energy right as we stepped out of the hotel.  We arrived in our seats and just by ourselves, we made up about one third of the entire United States fan section.  The United States battled hard and came out on top 2-1.  What was more satisfying than the win, however, were all the Canadiens around us that came up to us after the game angry about how loud we were cheering, saying that is why they hate Americans.  Once we were back at the hotel and still very energetic, we decided to go skate on a local pond that hosts free skating late into the night.  While we were there we grabbed an ice cream and skated all over the frozen pond in zero degree weather until our entire bodies were numb. The night ended quickly after that and we unfortunately had to leave one of the best weeks in our lives the very next day.

Another adventure I went on, and by far least known place, was to Westfield, Massachusetts.  This trip was started because a few years ago on my hockey team a friend brought a few girls to one of our games.  Somehow over the course of the next year I became really good friends with them, mostly through FaceTime.  The only time we ever saw each other in person was at a few of my hockey games. 

The summer after I met them I always told them I wanted to come up to see them.  However, that never happened because either I had no time available to see them, but mostly because I didn’t have a way to get there because my parents didn’t want to drive me. 

Then one saturday in the summer a year later when I finally had my license, I woke up at 6 A.M. to go caddy at a local golf course.  I waited in the caddyshack for a few hours before I decided to leave.  Since I had nothing planned for that day I decided, why not go up to Westfield?  Since I knew my friends were home I got on the highway and began driving.  I told them I was coming up when I had been on the highway for about 10 minutes. 
The drive up to Westfield was beautiful with a myriad of farms all along the way.  I felt anxious and excited the whole way there after I had to wait 2 years to be able to see them again.  I arrived in Westfield around noon.  One of my friends, Julia, started giving me directions when I got close to her house.  After a couple minutes of this she told me to take the next right.  The next right, however, was very tight and outrageously steep but still wide enough for a car to fit.  In my head I was thinking what the hell is this but I continued on my way.  After about 5 minutes of driving I finally got out of the narrow street alive.  When I told Julia what street I was on she didn’t understand.  She then continued telling me the directions from where I ended up and I finally arrived at her house. 

Julia had her friend Hannah over and they both walked out of the house with huge smiles just as excited as I was to see them.  Hannah and Julia buckled their seat belts and I drove off to show them the road I travelled up.  After not being able to spit out their words for a minute because of laughter, Julia told me that the street I went up was a bike path.  I had never felt so dumbfounded in my life. 

We continued on driving to pick up my other friend Max.  When we went to pick up Max he was still asleep so I had to somehow go inside the house to get him without his parents seeing me.  The task wouldn’t be very easy since his parents were in the side yard.  The good thing though was that they weren’t inside so I just snuck in through the front door and woke him up.  He told his parents he was going out with Julia and Hannah and we were on our way. We took the long way back to Julia’s house to hangout so Max could show me some of his SoundCloud music while we had the volume turned up all the way.  Eventually we got back to Julia’s and immediately went to play some two vs. two pool basketball.  Max and I did not let our feet off the gas pedal and we ended up absolutely demolishing Julia and Hannah 21-0. 

After I got out of the pool and dried off I decided I better head home before my parents become suspicious of where I was.  It felt weird how I was an hour away from home while my parents had no clue.  I said my goodbyes and started on my way home.  The drive back home was filled with farmland on back roads with a beautiful August sunset and country playing on the radio.  By the time I got home it was no later than 6 PM.  To my parents it was as if all I had done that day was caddy, but to me I had a day filled with memories I would always remember. 

The final adventure I went on was to California.  This is the first time I had ever gone further west than Chicago. As I was on the flight over, I woke up around the time the plane was flying over the Rocky Mountains.  I couldn’t stop staring at the beautiful view of snow-capped mountains transforming into desert all the way to the LAX airport while I listened to the California playlist I made including artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kanye West. 
The first night we spent was at a beautiful hotel at Huntington beach.  It was an interesting night with a fire and s’mores on the beach and a lot a rap music being blasted out of other people’s speakers which got a little uncomfortable listening to around my parents. 
After visiting Huntington Beach we went to L.A. to visit some of my dad’s real estate sites such as Google, with YouTube on the site, and FOX Motocross which was very cool.  I also experienced my first In-N-Out which was better than I had ever expected.  The next day we went to Hollywood and walked around downtown after going to Universal Studios.  At Universal Studios we went on a couple rides, watched artists sing, and took a tour of the entire site. 
Over the course of the next few days we drove up the Pacific Coast Highway with our goal being San Francisco.  Along the way we made stops at many insanely beautiful places including Santa Monica, Malibu, Pismo Beach, and Carmel. 

At Santa Monica we stayed at a beautiful hotel right on the coast.  We at dinner at the hotel overlooking the ocean before making the half mile walk past muscle beach to the Santa Monica Pier.  The Pier was unbelievable as we were able to go on many rides, play many games, and see a couple famous people. The best ride was the ferris wheel because my whole family was able to fit in one pod and the view from the top was unbelievable.  To top off the night my family took a slow and scenic walk back to the hotel through downtown Santa Monica with an ice cream passing the Hotel California on the way.  To this day my family still doesn’t know whether or not the Hotel California we passed was anything special but we like to believe it is. 

After spending the night in Santa Monica we made our way up the coast to Malibu.  Although my dad was originally just going to drive by Malibu we ended up spending a few hours at the beach playing in the waves and watching some surfers pull off mind-boggling tricks.  After leaving the beach we were also able to get a look at Pepperdine University which was the school featured on Zoey 101. 

We left Malibu at around 4 o’clock and made our way towards Pismo Beach.  Once again, we stayed at a stunning hotel.  This hotel was also on the coast, it was isolated, our room was like an apartment, and the outdoor pool was huge.  This night was very relaxing.  It started off with a nice dinner at the hotel.  I decided to branch out of my box a little bit and order some odd-named fish I’d never heard of that ended up being amazing.  Right after dinner My siblings and I decided to take a night swim in the pool and throw the football around until the hotel staff forced us out at 11.  We reluctantly listened to the staff’s orders and went to sit by the fire with our parents.  I sat by the fire for a while until it was just my mom and I.  At around midnight, my mom and I took a stroll down to the rocky coast with some small patches of sandy area and calmed our bodies while we listened to the tranquil sound of the sea that was too dark to see.

Before any of us knew it my family was all packed up ready to take a long drive up to Carmel-by-the-Sea along the breathtaking yet steep California Coast that my mom was about to have a panic attack over.  Carmel was a quaint little town with cobblestone streets.  That night my family and I walked around the cozy town, grabbed some dinner, and relaxed on the beach before heading to our also cozy hotel located near the center of the town.  The next morning I decided to go for a run like I had been doing every other day to burn off all the calories I had been eating.  However, this (as well as my absurdly steep San Francisco run) was the only run I remember because of how picturesque everything was since it was too dark to see the night before with Pebble Beach on the route, all the eye-catching homes, the quietness of the town, and the great weather Carmel was lucky to have. While I was on my run, my family decided to go out for breakfast before heading to the beach for the day so I quickly showered and hustled over a short distance to the restaurant with a table watching over the town.  We enjoyed the delicious meal before we headed over to the hilly beach.  The beach had a nice breeze and an even better view of Pebble Beach than I had on my run and we spent most of the day there relaxing and playing games with each other.  We stayed for the sunset and ate dinner at a restaurant in town before we had to go to sleep early that night for an early departure to San Francisco.

After 5 days in California, we ended up in San Francisco.  Once we arrived in San Francisco we were buzzing right from the start.  We quickly put our luggage in the room and headed over to the historic Redwood National Forest.  The entire hour and a half I was there I couldn’t believe how enormous the trees were.  The Redwoods passed by quickly and we found ourselves on a boat heading to Alcatraz in no time. 

Alcatraz was such a cool place.  Once I got on the island the workers gave me a pair headphones that would guide me throughout the island.  The device had the availability to fast forward through part but I couldn’t bring myself to do that.  I was so fascinated with the whole place that I made my family walk around for an extra fifteen minutes before they said I had had enough.  Although I didn’t want to stop the tour I did and we headed back the downtown San Francisco. San Francisco is known as the Gay Capital in America and oddly enough, we arrived in San Francisco the day gay marriage was legalized which made the place absolutely nuts. After dinner we headed over to the ever-so-famous Ghirardelli Chocolate for a ginormous ice cream sundae.  While we were at Ghirardelli we sat along the window and watched all the men in thongs going crazy all over the place.   Next we walked around the city just exploring the insane place before going to sleep. 

We started the day day just before noon by heading over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito.  I had only seen the bridge in movies and T.V. shows so it was really amazing to go over it in person. In Sausalito we first found a diner for breakfast located right on the bay.  The view was beautiful as it was a very sunny day in the mid 80s.  Once we were all fueled up we took a absurdly scenic bike ride around Sausalito.  Around mid-afternoon my family and I headed to a nearby aquarium.  Now, I am not usually a fan of aquariums but his one was different.  I don’t know if it was the sea animals they have out west but I actually really enjoyed this aquarium.  At this aquarium there were seals, sharks, eels, penguins, and they even had a whale show that I was able to watch from a nearby window.  Just like Alcatraz I was reluctant to leave the place.  The good part about leaving though was that I was able to buy a pair of desperately needed flip-flops.  We finished up shopping and went back to the hotel in order to move our luggage over to a different hotel in a different place located right next to Ghirardelli Square.  On the way over to the new hotel we were able to see the That’s So Raven house and the Full House house.  We were also able to drive down Lombard Street which is known as the most crooked street in the world.  Driving down Lombard Street was fun but my family and I made it even more exciting by sticking our heads out the window and going crazy as if the Boston Bruins had just won another Stanley Cup.  We couldn’t stop laughing the entire way down. 

Once we made it over to our new hotel we ate at a really good barbecue pub place that had a great vibe and energy around it.  We devoured our ribs and went to walk around Ghirardelli Square.  My sister, mom, and I walked down to what looked like a Greek amphitheatre where I took pictures of my mom doing funny poses in front of the Ghirardelli Square sign.  After my mom’s funny showing we caught back up with the rest of our family who we found out were headed over to take a trolley.  Thank God the line flew by quickly because it looked as if it would be an hour before we got anywhere close to touching the trolley.  We were on the trolley within fifteen minutes and it was such an unbelieveable experience.  I acted as if I were in a movie with the wind in my face blowing back my hair while I leaned out of the trolley with one hand grasping onto a pole.  The ride was definitely everything I would’ve expected it to be.  To cap off the night we went to Ghirardelli for some ice cream one last time with my family and ate it around a fire pit overlooking Ghirardelli Square and the entire bay area.  Unfortunately, this was our last night in California before heading back home at 10 A.M. the next morning. 
Luckily, the next morning I was not lazy and I went for a run around San Francisco before I met my dad at a local diner all sweaty for one last delicious meal in California.  This was an adventure of a lifetime that I hope to take sometime again in the near future.

These adventures, including many more, have shaped me into who I am today.  I am independent, curious, and someone who likes to have a lot of fun.  Adventure seeking is something I really enjoy, and for that reason I do not know anything about what I’m going to do when I’m older.  I’m just going to let life take me where it wants because that is the best kind of adventure.