We thought we were going out of our minds. We’re a family that’s used to traveling and family vacations, especially now that our son had turned three and we have been cooped up inside the house since the beginning of March when I began working from home. Needless to say, things this year took a turn for the worst. Things turned absolutely chaotic and trying to balance a family life was not easy. I was fortunate enough to keep working from home as my wife continued working as a nurse for a special needs child. My workload from home became overwhelming, at times working crazy hours and at the same time neglecting my son and family life. I was helping setup and run various videoconferencing meetings and events, which was the new norm for everyone and not many people were familiar enough as it were.
Feeling overwhelmed, working was a much needed distraction to take my mind off of what was happening in the world. But I soon realized the toll that it was taking on my family life when my wife asked my son if he liked daddy being home all day, to which he replied “yes,” “[but] daddy always on his computer working.” It was then that I realized that I needed to balance out my family and work life better by taking much needed breaks in between meetings to spend time with my son.
Since the pandemic began we rarely went out. We only took a total of two or three trips to go hiking nearby on more or less isolated trails. There was a period of two months where my car just sat in the driveway collecting dust. We would try to make an effort to walk around the block or further around a few times a week to try and get our bodies moving again.
Like everyone else, it’s been rough. We’ve dedicated so little time to our own mental health that we sometimes forgot what it was like before all this began. That’s when we began constantly planning future trips to Disneyland or elaborate excursions to pretty much everywhere in the world, those optimistic fantasies seemed to keep us motivated. Not having other children to play with seemed to be effecting our son as well. The stresses of our new reality seemed to be slowly catching up, but we were adapting as best we could.
So when summer temperatures continued on their gradual rise we knew that it was time to take a break. We had set aside a few days, and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing…
Time to get out
Three days before our trip we were woken up to the sound of loud thunder. For a second I thought I was back in the jungle, but then I shot up in bed and realized I was back home. This part of the country rarely seeings thunderstorms, so this was quite bizarre. The thunder was also incredibly loud and you could see the lightning overhead. Little did we know that these lightning strikes would set off wildfires across California, especially here in the Bay Area. The largest of these fires starting on the hills near where we live…it would later become the largest wildfire in California history.
Over the next few days large amounts of smoke began accumulating across the San Francisco Bay Area. It was so bad that we wouldn’t let our son go outside to play. We had the trip already planned out, so come Wednesday morning we took off. We had everything carefully planned and adjusted our small vacation according to the changes of weather and smoke. It played out perfectly.
Adaptability
The original plan was to head up to Oregon from San Jose and head over to Mount Shasta to spend a few days. We chose these areas specifically because there were less Covid-19 cases in comparison to other larger cities. Not to mention not many people go traveling that way. However, our plans changed after the extreme heat began to cover parts of California. My father having had a recent cranial operation was unable to handle hot temperatures.
Prior to leaving we realized that the Mount Shasta area, where we planned to spend the most time, was getting too hot. We quickly tried to look up places to stay up near Lake Tahoe where temperatures were much cooler. We immediately got notifications that 90% of the the hotels in and around Lake Tahoe were booked up for that time frame. It seemed like everyone from the Bay Area was fleeing the heat to go up to the lake. This was incredibly dangerous given the Coronavirus situation and so many people were cramming into one small region. To make matters more complicated, residents of Lake Tahoe were starting to protest the influx of tourists trying to come in as they were already overwhelmed by medical resources, etc.
With Lake Tahoe out of the picture, we decided to stick to our original plan and go up to Oregon, but this time take our time getting there. Visit less touristy areas and spend more time out in nature. Additionally, I love indigenous cultures, especially Yoruk history, so I focused on indigenous-centered educative areas in order to have my son experience that first hand. So even though the Yoruk Reservation was completely shutdown, I managed to find an awesome rebuilt Yoruk village outside of Eureka. It was perfect.
Planning the perfect Family Vacation
On a map I carefully planned out points of interest along the way. Once again, I focused on avoiding crowded areas and tried to stay away from touristy areas, always looking up on TripAdvisor and Yelp to make sure the areas (including hotels) were abiding by Covid regulations.
There was one area in particular that my son REALLY wanted to visit, the Trees of Mystery. The reviews stated that they were NOT following CDC-recommendations for keeping visitors safe. I was incredibly weary. There were rope bridges interlinking between trees high up in the air and a gondola that takes you high up among the tree tops. It would seem incredibly easy to transfer the virus in these attractions. However, we wanted to give my son the best experience possible. So what did we do? 1.) we got there early, just a little after opening to avoid the crowds. 2.) brought a lot of hand sanitizer which we used constantly. 3.) we wore masks almost the entire time. 4.) tried to avoid touching anything unless we absolutely had to. With a three-year-old it’s difficult to follow these rules. Most children do not want to wear masks and want to touch everything, this is a given. But just try and restrict access as much as you can. Be smart and cautious, but do not ruin the experience for them.
Hotels
As before I would carefully research every hotel and kept it at a minimum. The least amount of rooms we stayed in the better. Some hotels are taking the Covid situation a lot more serious than others. And due to lack of tourists and travelers, many places are taking extra precautions to prevent any loss of business.
Some hotels brag on their sites about taking extra precautionary measures, for example, keeping rooms empty in between guests. But in one instance, saying they were doing it and them actually going through with it wasn’t the case. This hotel in particular advertised allowing a certain amount of time in between guests, but over the course of the few days we saw the hotel booking the rooms to avoid loss of business. It was clear that an influx of people were trying to escape the fires and of course the hotels rooms were booked at capacity.
One of our original options was to rent an RV. However, RV’s were limited and rather expensive. Likewise, most RV parks were already full when I tried looking into it. Camping was another options, however, every single campsite was also booked prior. In some instances the parks were still slowly reopening or remained completely closed, so those options were off the table.
We stayed in a total of two hotels. One in Eureka and one further up in Crescent City. It really didn’t matter to us the quality of the rooms as we were only planning to sleep inside and spend the rest of the time outside. That being said, we still tried to book the best economic rooms we could. When we would arrive in our room three of us would spend 10 or more minutes wiping down everything with Clorox Wipes and with other cleaners. Because of the Clorox Wipe shortage we would just use multipurpose Clorox sprays with paper towels which work just as well. Every inch was scrubbed down and cleaned. Handles, chairs, tub, toilets, sinks, etc.
Food and restrooms
Most hotels now have ‘run and grab’ continental breakfast bags which was pretty awesome. In the morning we would have just one person run down and grab a few bags for us to eat up in our room. On days that we would be traveling or on route we would dig into our snack pack which was helpful in between long distances. We were always fully stocked with beef jerky, crackers, granola bars, and mixed nut packs.
In some cases when we had to eat lunch we would stop at fast-food restaurants. As much as I hate to say it, but fast-food restaurants are the safest when traveling. You just grab and go. While we were staying at the hotel and wanted to eat dinner we would carefully look at local restaurants and pick and choose (sometimes that’s much harder than it sounds, especially when there’s five of you trying to decide). Try and see where locals go to eat. Some of the more popular restaurants had the most horrible food, but low-key local restaurants were the best!
The restroom situation was the most difficult, especially when you have IBS like I do. Just use your common sense when you need to go somewhere. Keep in mind when traveling MOST PUBLIC RESTROOMS ARE NOW KEPT CLOSED. This includes gas stations, restaurants, etc. Try to plan your bathroom breaks to rest stops and to what may be available out in mother nature. Trees are your friend. Be mindful, if you have no other options and absolutely need to do your business in the woods make sure you dig a small hole and cover it up. But if you use the restrooms in state parks make sure you exercise extreme caution and don’t touch anything and quickly clean your hands with hand sanitizer. There were several studies showing how the bathrooms at national and state parks were the number one way of spreading the virus.
Forests and beaches
As mentioned prior, be sure to stick to less traveled areas to avoid crowds. There are so many county, state and national parks with endless amounts of trails. To get lost among these majestic redwood forests is truly an experience. One in a while we would pass on another hiker, but before passing we would each cover up. There was a mutual understanding and respect. I suppose the people who appreciate the wilderness and mother nature are more understanding in terms of what’s going on in the world and want to push that unselfish idea of “we’re all in this together.”
One time on our hike we came across a beautifully clean river. We saw people going in and I took advantage of such pristine clear water. I have been to many places and have never seen water as clear as this. My son loved the adventure of hiking through the massive trees and exploring through the ferns, and above all jumping in the streams and getting wet. This was his time to explore and play!
Similarly, Northern California and Southern Oregon has wonderful coastlines and beaches that stretch out as far as you can see. Yes, the water may be a little cold but the scenery is spectacular. We tried to visit local Bay Area beaches not too long ago, but the beaches were insanely packed and the highways to the ocean stretched out for miles. I had never seen the beaches so packed in my entire life. There are Coronavirus dangers there when too many people are gathered in such a small area. Up north, away from the main cities, the coastlines are virtually empty. Yes, there are families here and there, but there’s so much beach that everyone keeps their distance.
Conclusion
Most people are wondering when it’s safe to start traveling again and the hard truth is probably not for another few years. Being in and out of quarantine it’s hard to say when we will get back to normal or if this is the new normal. We need to concentrate our individual efforts to prevent the spread of this virus. The one thing this virus has shown is that no superman or agency will save the world. The responsibly lies solely on us as individuals and we each need to do our part to stop the spread.
Lastly, before our trip we were weary if people would be following CDC guidelines by wearing masks and social distancing, but for the most part everyone was. Remain optimistic that others are in the same boat as you and are just trying to get through this just like you are. If anything, as a traveler, YOU are the one more likely to carry and spread the virus than let’s say a local. Travel by car. I don’t recommend traveling by plane unless absolutely necessary, and especially avoid it at all costs if you have children under the age of five.
Remember to stay safe and have fun!
Some quick takeaways:
- Be flexible.
- Be smart.
- Visit less-touristy locations and focus on what nature has to offer (avoid popular areas such as Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, etc)
- Do your research
- Stock up on lots of snacks.
- Carry your own TP and hand sanitizer (packs of tissue work just as well if you don’t want to carry a big roll of toilet paper with you)
- It’s okay to stay local but remember to avoid places were a lot of people might travel to.
- It’s your health and safety. Don’t worry about people staring at you for being a little over cautious especially with a child.
- Limit the amount of hotels you stay at.
- Travel by car. Avoid planes.
