So usually for The 4^th of July my family and I go to my grandparent’s house and do fireworks, or we just stay in town and go to the neighborhood parade. This year’s July 4^th was probably the best one I’ve ever had, because my mom planned for us to stay in Canyon, Texas to visit Palo Duro Canyon and Texas Tech. The only thing I wasn’t excited about is the 9 HOUR DRIVE to get to Canyon, Texas where we were staying for those couple of days. So, we got up early July 3^rd and we drove all the way to Palo Duro. The drive wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, because my sister and I played the alphabet game, looked for all 50 states on different cars license plates (we found Texas and 2 other states before we got too bored and moved on to the next game ), took naps, and even had a short little sing along to Moana. We got to Canyon, Texas around 3 and drove around the town for a bit before heading to the house we stayed in for the couple of days we were on vacation. The next morning, we got up to go to a new parade which we heard was supposed to be one of the biggest in Texas or something like that, and it really was…..there was so many floats, old cars, new cars, and businesses throwing candy. For the rest of the day we explored around the area we were staying, and we found horses, a fishpond, and a cat named chief (the owner of the house we were staying in had a barn cat). Later that night for dinner we went to eat barbeque and watch the musical, Texas after. The musical was kinda cheesy, but it was still really good. The show was performed at an outdoor theatre with a super cool canyon cliff for the backdrop. After the show I was already impressed, but they made it even better by adding tons and tons of fireworks! That may have been the best 4^th of July I’ve even had! The next day we went to visit one of the colleges I’m planning on applying to, Texas Tech. Overall the visit was amazing. One of the current students took my family and I on a tour of the campus and showed us all of the fun things about Tech. Also, everyone was so nice and helpful there! I even got a cute t-shirt and a bumper sticker . Since our college visit only lasted till 12 pm, we decided to explore Lubbock a little while we were there. We at lunch at a burger place, that was cool, and their burgers were pretty good too! After that my family and I drove around town taking pictures by the different murals painted on the backs of some old buildings. Next, we went to the Buddy Holly museum………I’d never heard of him before going to his museum , but it was still pretty cool to learn about another musician I hadn’t heard of before! After that we went to the Nike outlet and the Converse store just because……why not? The only super interesting thing there was the mini converse shoe keychain my mom got to support Red Sneakers for Oakley. Anywayssss, (I feel like I can’t think of anymore good transitions to use at the beginning of sentences….I officially have summer brain ) we headed back to Cayon, Texas from Lubbock, which took about 2 hours, so by the time we got back to canyon it was time for dinner. We went to a cute restaurant called Barrel & Pie. I think that may be my favorite restaurant we ate at the whole trip! My mom and I ordered a veggie pizza with cauliflower crust and it was SOOOO good, way way better than any veggie pizza I had ever imagined!!! The other yummy thing I got at Barrel & Pie was this peach cobbler juice drink……it tasted like I really was drinking peach cobbler; they even threw in little pieces of peach! The next day we went hiking in Palo Duro Canyon. That morning it was pretty rainy, so we had to go hiking later than we had hoped, but it ended up working out because the rain made it way cooler…we were even wearing jackets for the first trail! After we hiked on the first trail and there were so many horse flies, I really thought I was done after we only hiked a half mile. As we were driving through the canyon we saw “The Big Cave” and it looked cool to climb up to, so we stopped by to check it out. I’m so glad we did, because it was so beautiful when we were climbing in the red rocks and we got good pictures with and amazing canyon background. After climbing, we ate lunch at a taco place, rested at our cabin, and went back to the canyon so we could hike “The Lighthouse Trail”. The Lighthouse trail is a hiking trail with a tall rock that looks like a lighthouse at the end. My family and I hiked just far enough so we could see the lighthouse and then we headed back because it was getting dark. Sadly, we had to leave the next day, but luckily our 9-hour drive home wasn’t that bad!! It was worth the trip!!