Vacationing in the Time of Corona

Vacation was always going to be tricky this year. In 2017 right before we moved to Chicago our younger daughter and her family joined us in Rockport for our last East Coast vacation for awhile and at that time she declared that we would return in 2020 for a family reunion vacation. Unfortunately at the end of that vacation we found out that our older daughter had colon cancer and shortly after that she told us that it had metastasized.

We all vacationed together in Saugatuck, Michigan for the next two years. At the beginning of this year we knew there were no more treatment options so when it was time to plan a family vacation we knew we couldn’t plan to go to Massachusetts and I was even reluctant to reserve a cottage in Michigan. But our younger daughter went ahead and reserved the cottage we had last year saying, “Whoever can come will come for however long they can come.”

And then the coronavirus hit. After some considering she decided to go ahead and pay the final installment. “Even if all I get to do is sit in another house that will be a change,” she said. A smaller family now the six of us headed for Saugatuck last Monday knowing that Oval beach was open but not knowing what else to expect. I did think it might be less crowded. In fact, it was more crowded since apparently people stuck closer to home and rental houses were at a premium. We limited our interactions sticking to early morning masked visits to the playground, two rides on the chain ferry, a daily trip to the beach, and an ice cream cone most days. We didn’t go out to eat except for a spontaneous lunch at The Grilled Cheese Shack a new outdoor venue we stumbled upon.

It felt pretty safe to vacation in Saugatuck. I checked the NYT coronavirus map each day and Michigan was the same color as Illinois (unfortunately while we were there the Illinois numbers went up and Illinois got darker). It was easy to stay 6 feet from others at the beach and in the water and most people wore masks in town.

Last year I wondered if my older granddaughter was outgrowing the suitcase present tradition (see previous post). That was certainly not the case as she asked me even before we left if there would be presents in my suitcase this year. I was glad I had found enough presents on my only trip to Michael’s and a supplementary trip to the Dollar store. Since there were no visits to the small amusement park or the children’s museum or play space, the suitcase presents became one of the highlights of the vacation.

Last year my daughters and I went to an outdoor yoga class in an orchard but this year my younger daughter and I did Yoga with Adrienne each day. “If anyone had suggested doing iPad yoga on vacation last year I would have thought they were crazy!”, my daughter said.