Assignment 3 - Andrew Rogers

Although I have only lived in one place my entire life and have never left this country, I have been blessed with opportunities to travel to many other states.  My family loves to travel together. One of my favorite places we have visited several times is San Diego, California. San Diego has a unique combination of weather, people and culture. We stayed on an island off the coast, more specifically, Coronado Island. So it is more the culture of the city of Coronado that I have developed a fondness for. In contrast to the large metropolitan city of San Diego, the small size of the island allows for a close knit community that blends together the small town lifestyle with the hustle and bustle of the city. It contains many individually owned shops and restaurants which creates a genuine and unique experience for those who live there. There are no tall buildings, no taxis, no urban feel. Its all homegrown and authentic, an escape from the city. In fact you travel over a large bridge to reach the island that descends as you reach the island, gently sloping towards welcoming you to the uniqueness of its streets.

I have also been lucky to travel to Charleston, South Carolina. This trip was similar to Coronado but had much different feel to it. Charleston had many cool experiences from Fort Sumter and the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point to amazing restaurants (Coast- best restaurant out there, get the Spicy Adobo Shrimp, total perfection of a dish). But, what made this specific trip unique was the circumstances we visited during. We arrived three days after the shooting at the Emanuel AME Church. The church was located about a block from our hotel, so the mood around our area was at times very somber. We walked past the church multiple times and saw the huge vigils placed along the facade of the building. However, there were no riots as there had been in Baltimore that year and even when the Black Panthers rallied outside our hotel, only about 50 people showed up. There was a feeling of unity that was pulling the city together. That response spoke volumes about the city as a whole and the culture fostered in it.

Look at it............bbfe59ea8e1a606edd7144ef8e277ad29416cd3a.jpg.