Reflecting on Travel

the beautiful coastline of Polignano a Mare

It’s officially been Summer for one week now, and believe me, I am all but reminded on the daily that we should have been returning home from a long European holiday any day this week. But instead of reluctantly packing our bags and admiring our much more golden hued skin and extra freckles, we’re counting up how many months we’ve been at home in our jammies with absolutely no sense of amusement.

Travel. Yep, it has been the topic of a lot of conversations with family and friends lately. Not to mention that it is something that Ryan and I talk about almost daily as well. Because obvious or not, all we want to do is get away. In fact, you’re mostly aware that we’re typically the kind of people who are running out the door to travel with just about every opportunity that we get. But it’s tricky. Or at least for us, this whole travel business feels tricky right now.

When?

The question for us isn’t so much if we will travel. Because yes, we most definitely will happily and excitedly travel again. It’s more about the when. When will we feel safe to travel? When will the number of new COVID-19 cases seem to steady off? Or even better, continue in a pattern of decreasing? When will there be a vaccine? When will the Level 4: Do Not Travel global health advisory be lifted? But probably far before we answer any of those questions, how about, when will we feel safe eating out at restaurants again? When will Ryan be able to return to work? Or when will we not feel the urge to wipe down every single item that comes into our home from the outside world? There just seems to be a whole lot of “whens” for us to figure out before travel will feel like a viable option again.

And yes, I do realize that Ryan and I are a bit more conservative with a lot of these “whens.” Because obviously the world has been opening up for the past few weeks now, people are definitely traveling more, restaurants seem to be booming, and a lot of people have been able to resume “normal” work schedules. But for us, this whole pandemic has felt murky from the beginning. We feel like we’ve gotten a lot of mixed messages about what is safe, or what isn’t safe. And so we feel like the best thing for us to do right now, is to just patiently allow the dust to settle. And then once all of the kinks have been worked out, yes hopefully then, we will feel like all of our “whens” are answered, and it will be time for us to pack our bags.

Thoughts?

But what do you think? Have you planned any Summer travel? Do you feel like driving somewhere is a safer option than flying right now? Would you go camping, rent a house, or stay in a hotel? Or are you among the group of people that are not planning any travel until 2021? I’d love to hear some other opinions on this whole travel debate. Perhaps your different perspective will encourage us to feel a bit more adventurous again!