Narrative vs. Descriptive of Favorite Vacation Spot

Narrative vs. Descriptive

What is my favorite vacation spot?

The state of Wisconsin is called "America's Dairyland" because of all the milk and cheese that is produced in the state, but for many people Wisconsin is also a wonderland of fascinating, beautiful, and memorable places to visit and experience. A favorite summer vacation for me is to go into northern Wisconsin for a week to ten days. Notice I said "summer vacation" because I'm not one to spend a lot of time outdoors in the winter, in fact I don't really enjoy skiing, ice-skating, tobogganing and building snowmen at ten below zero. But in the summer I can actually engage in some of my favorite outdoor activities, like hiking, fishing, camping, biking, horseback riding, canoeing, kayaking and just relaxing in the lush green environment.

In the summer season in northern Wisconsin, one can experience near-perfect temperatures, up into the low 80s in the daytime with cool evenings (down into the high 60s). My dad used to take me fishing in northern Wisconsin, and I remember the very first fish I caught; it was a northern pike, not very big but it was legal size and I was thrilled. These days I like fishing for walleyes -- they are the best eating. My family loves the sweet aroma and fine taste of walleye filets in a frying pan over an open fire. For part of our vacation we rent a cabin on one of northern Wisconsin's beautiful, unpolluted lakes, and the fun begins the minute we haul our suitcases into the cabin and head out in back to the lake.

A flat-bottomed fishing boat usually comes with the cabin rental, and it is normally tied up to a pier jutting out into the lake. Before I go out fishing for that trophy "Musky" (muskellunge) -- one of the biggest game fish that anglers try to catch in northern Wisconsin -- or for walleye, smallmouth bass or northern pike, I just like to row all the way around the lake. I take the scenic route, around the shoreline, and very often I see other visitors about my age and we talk across the water about the fishing and other activities that are available. Sometimes there are group campfires that are planned (unofficially) and I enjoy going to those and meeting people from other parts of the state and the country.

Actually, I prefer the quiet lakes that only allow rowboats, canoes and kayaks; the other lakes that allow motorboats, can get pretty noisy and anyway those lakes are known for great places to water-ski, not for fishing. Nearly every year I try to go in early June or late September because the fishing is better when the lakes are cool. Deep summer brings warm temperatures to lakes, and the fish stay down deep closer to the cooler water, and they are harder to catch. One of my favorite towns is Eagle River, where the river (Eagle River) runs swift and cold because it is being fed by the Upper Wisconsin River. The two rivers combine and flow into what they call a chain of lakes.

These beautiful, deep and cold lakes were carved out by the glaciers that came down from Canada during the last Pleistocene (ice age) period, over 10,000 years ago. In this area there is wonderful canoeing, and you can paddle in the Upper Wisconsin river quietly by yourself or with another person in your canoe and witness bald eagles, great blue herons, hawks, ducks, beaver, deer of course and otters. The great thing about this river, and many more that are found in northern Wisconsin, is that it takes you through the natural beauty of the gloriously healthy north woods, through farmland where dairy cows are munching on unlimited supplies of grasses and where farmers are mowing and bailing hay for their livestock.

On some perfect late summer days, I take my bike off the back carrier of my car and ride on quiet blacktop county roads, enjoying the wonderful aroma of pine trees, and taking my time so I can fully experience the natural world, and take photos to remind me why I will return the next year.

The narrative and descriptive elements of the paper

In the first paragraph, I used all narrative sentences except two: I wrote that "Wisconsin is also a wonderland of fascinating, beautiful, and memorable places to visit and experience," using descriptive language; and in the last sentence in the paragraph I explained that northern Wisconsin has "the lush green environment." In the second paragraph I described "near-perfect" temperatures without giving the exact temperatures, so the reader could estimate on his/her own. And I used descriptive language in the last sentence: "My family loves the sweet aroma and fine taste of walleye filets in a frying pan over an open fire." The rest of the sentences in that second paragraph were narrative, factual and without any additional descriptive language.

In the third paragraph the fishing boat is "flat-bottomed" and the pier is "jutting out into the lake" which has some description to it. The other sentences in the paragraph are narrative. In the fourth paragraph, fish stay "down deep" in the lakes, Eagle River runs "swift and cold" and the remaining sentences are narrative. In the fifth paragraph there are "beautiful, deep and cold lakes," the canoeing is "wonderful," the north woods are "gloriously healthy"; also, there is a list of all the wildlife to be seen, which is descriptive, but the rest of the paragraph is mainly narrative. In the last paragraph the "perfect late summer day" is a good time to ride a bike on "quiet blacktop roads" enjoying the "wonderful aroma of pine trees"; the rest of that short paragraph is narrative information.