Hi everyone! My name is Hannah Masching and I am from Algonquin, Illinois, which is about an hour away from Chicago and three hours from the University of Iowa. I am studying Civil Engineering in hopes of combining my love for creating, innovation, and the math courses that I have taken.

After my senior prom, my friends and I went to Green Lake, Wisconsin, to one of my friend's lake house. A distinct memory I have from that trip was driving through a very narrow trail with trees lining the sides of the road. It was drizzling rain, but we still explored the small cement buildings that looked like forts from historical battles. Along the path, there was an open area with a tall building and a ladder, so we climbed up and were surprised by the breathtaking view of the whole town and the lake in the distance.

Hi everyone,  I'm Catherine McKenna and I'm from Naperville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. As of now I am an open major, however I might be interested in something related to environmental science. Two summers ago my immediate family traveled to Greece with my dad's cousin's family. My grandmother immigrated from Greece when she was nine years old, and we stayed in a home that her family owns. One of my favorite memories from that trip was when my family ate at a quaint, rustic restaurant on the seashore. We sat on an outdoor patio, and were the only patrons at the restaurant, other than a dog. I took advantage of the European pace of the meal and captured golden hour and the sunset on my camera. One old Greek man ran the entire restaurant, and he was very understanding of my vegetarianism and cooked me some pasta that was not on the menu, while my dad and his cousin had a more traditional meal of Lobster. Inside the restaurant there were cases filled with delectable cakes, including the best cake I ever had, made of white chocolate. The meal concluded well into the night, and we traveled home with content stomachs.

Hi everyone,

My name is Erin Knight and I'm from a suburb 20 minutes outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is in the South East corner of the state. I'm majoring in Human Physiology with a Pre-Physician Assistant focus with plans to attend graduate school.

Recently, I went on a small getaway to Door County, Wisconsin with my family where we were given the opportunity to relax but also enjoy nature. We hiked throughout the State Peninsula Park and discovered beautiful views from the many bluffs. As I live in a very urban area, this trip offered a chance to enjoy a more simplistic environment.

Hello, my name is Lydia Hecker.

I'm from Iowa City, Iowa. I'm majoring in English & Creative Writing and chose the University of Iowa because of its writing program. I write mainly creative fiction, so writing creative nonfiction will be an interesting change for me.

This summer I went to Folly Beach in South Carolina which is on the edge of the United States. We drove from Iowa all the way to Folly Beach in two days which was fun in an exhausting sort of way. My favorite moment from that vacation was when I went searching for shells on the beach in the early morning and saw a sea turtle making her way back into the ocean after laying her eggs. It was an exhilarating experience, albeit a bit scary at first because it was dark out and I only saw a dark creature moving in the sand.

Hi guys, my name is Peyton Hanley and I am from Davenport, Iowa which is about 45 minutes away. I am majoring in Actuarial Science and chose to go to Iowa because of its proximity to home and its actuary program. I recently visited Portland, Oregon over the summer and my favorite memory from the trip was going to the coast about an hour away and visiting Cannon Beach. It is a very famous beach for its huge rocks and I'm sure you all would recognize pictures of it. When we went it felt like a beautiful breezy fall day back here in Iowa and we spent hours looking at all the marine life on the rocks as soon as the tide went down.

Alex Franolich

Hello, my name is Alex Franolich. My pronouns are they/them, and I am majoring in creative writing. I'm from Boise, Idaho, and I love music and languages (I can play up to six instruments and am in the process of learning my fourth language).

On my way back to Idaho from a cousin's wedding in Minnesota, my family drove through Yellowstone National Park. While my dad didn't like the weather and my brother couldn't care less, I felt as though I had entered the kind of Gaelic countryside pictured in Disney's Brave (2012). The steam rising from pits of boiling water was ethereal, and combined with drizzling rain and a slate sky, for a moment I could truly believe I'd been transported back in time. Sure, there were other cars on the road and random pedestrians trying to find their cars and campers, but they felt almost fake compared to the untouchable grandeur of everything else.

Hello,

My name is Sabrina Duke, and I am a Theatre Arts and Dance double major. My hometown is Rocky River, OH, a suburb 15 minutes west of Cleveland, OH. One of my favorite trips I have taken was in the spring of 2019, when my family traveled from Los Angeles to San Francisco exclusively using Highway 1. Prior to the trip, my father looked up the best places to visit in Big Sur, a mountainous region on the coast of California between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon. While most of the locations my dad researched were closed, he knew of a cove off the highway about 20 minutes from an ice cream shop were we ate lunch. For the 15 minutes we were in cove, we were the only ones there. While the rest of trip was full of amazing views and beautiful memories, to share 15 minutes of silence with my family and the Pacific Ocean was an extraordinarily beautiful moment among a week of constant beauty.

Hi Travel Writers--


I'm excited to get to know about your and your past and future travels!  I'll start out by introducing myself and you guys should introduce yourselves on the blog too:

I love to learn languages and to travel and to combine the two when possible.  For example, last spring semester I took an Italian course and in the summer I spent two weeks in Sicily trying to speak Italian. Then I wrote a travel essay about how the course did and did not prepare me for the travel experience, which will be published this fall.  I have published a lot of travel essays about my experiences in Latin America.

 I've been a rhetoric professor and writing center director for 28+ years.  I've got a BA in Spanish, an MA in Linguistics-TESOL, and a PhD in English: Rhetoric, Composition, and Literacy.

 In my free time, I like to swim and hang out with my granddaughters, 9 and 1 and a half.  The older one and I are currently reading the last Penderwicks book.