Seeing US for the first time

I came to the land of freedom and opportunity when I was 16years old, the only thing I knew about the states is what I saw from movies, which more often than not was not good presentation of the US. I was so nervous and freaked out about coming, just because what I saw in the movies. When I left Iceland on May 20, 1995, it was a cold and rainy day, I was wearing a heavy jacket :). The flight took about 9 hours which was not normal. I was really nervous flying for so long. It wasn't until we reach Philadelphia they told us to get off the plane to wait for another one-we were going to Norfolk, Virginia, apparently the airplane we were on had mechanical problems, so that's why the plane ride took so long. We waited in the airport for almost 5-6 hours for another plane, which wasn't all that fun. We arrived in Norfolk, Virginia safe and sound. My dads friend picked us up in our new car-my dad had gone to Virginia four months earlier to purchase a car for us, it was a nice Nissan Quest. When we finally got outside, it was so freaking hot, we had to purchase some new clothes-shorts and tank tops, we don't usually wear those in Iceland :) it was so beautiful outside, we stayed in Norfolk for about two week, then we drove, yes drove, to South Carolina to visit my moms friend, it wasn't so nice in Sumter, SC. We only stayed for about 5 days or so then ran out of there. Next up was Washington DC, it was amazing, we went to the White House, museums, and just walk around. We only stayed about 2-3days, then off we went, driving. We drove all across the country, went thru Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Ohio, we stopped in Waterloo, Iowa for one week, to visit my dads family, it was very interesting to say the least. Then we kept on driving, the scenery was amazing, we drive thru Nebraska, Colorado, Utah- we saw the most interesting thunderstorm, lightening was on both sides of the car, I was freaking out :). We stopped in Las Vegas for a day, man was it hot. Then California, here we came, the first thing we saw when we came in was fire, yes of all things. Driving across the country with my family was amazing, we got to see and experience a lot of different states and scenery. Many people that live in the US haven't visited than many states as we did, I am truly grateful for that experience.