Pandemic Travel
Travel to me, is akin to meditation, to breathing. Just as I turn to yoga to ease my aging body, to bring space and comfort. Travel does the same for my mind and soul. It allows me (and I would argue all of us) to step out of our normal day to day, and experience life differently for a while. When we stay in hotels a space is created for us to relax (just like in a yoga class) we are away from our norm and we look at things from a different angle.
When we are camping, in nature we see and hear things we may otherwise miss. We calm and reconnect to the natural rhythms.
Both of these experiences help to bring us clarity and adventure and new eyes.
So when the pandemic hit? To say I missed travel, and deeply feared loosing it is an understatement. To say that the thought of years going by without seeing my daughter in Australia, freaked me out....
But we cope. We move on. We find things to fill our time.
We lived in a gorgeous area in Hunterdon county NJ, and spent a lot of time getting to know all the spots to walk. We hiked many of the trails in hunterdon country and the dogs loved theHorseshoe Bend dog park (Cat and Charlie highly recommend this 7 acre park). We kayaked, hammocked. Relaxed. And truly enjoyed that, but still missed travel.
As the world opened up I went back to the inn I worked at and watched people’s reactions (which are widely varied) as travel SLOWLY came back, but still has a long way to come.
And we traveled more close to home.
A dear friend and I rented a sweet little cottage in New Hampshire right on Big Pea Pond and the beauty of that was incredibly healing. A little retreat for both of us to relax and catch up on things.
We went to Lake George with 2 of our kids and their good friend & SO respectively, which was super fun. And Dan and I took a trip to 3 gorgeous old inns which I will write about soon.
So we have fed some of the travel need.
Traveling is different. As I’m sure you’ve found. Different rules, but it’s nice to be able to explore the nearby beauty. It is a quieter, more intimate experience now, as is life…slower paced, time with your inner circle.
New Jersey has some amazing beauty, beauty we may have taken for granted if not for all of this.
Cape May and Spring Lake are gorgeous shore towns we visited. Staying at one of the little apartments run by the Virginian we had our own little kitchen and a fantastic view of the ocean. We camped out during a snow storm at the Chateau in Spring Lake NJ, with a sweet little room with a fireplace. The lake is beautiful to walk around as is the beach-and in reality this is what alot of pandemic travel seems to be-communing with nature and loved ones, really can’t complain about that! But I do miss being able to go further, to get to explore new areas.
We cannot wait for our RV to be built and delivered next year and it will come. As will the end of the Pandemic, but it it will take time. The pandemic may be here to teach us patience and to help us re evaluate how we engage in the world, and that’s not all bad-a little patience and self examination is always good. But we have also lost a lot, besides the people we may have lost from illness, we have also had shifts in friendships, in how we work, and educate, and so much more. So we are allowed to have some days when the grief is present, when we need to sit with this and process. I am confident, though, that we will all come out different, stronger, and excited to re-engage in new ways in the future.
