Travel floodgates have opened

With covid numbers down, people have resumed long delayed travel interest.

My family is no exception. It’s a test to balance caution and adventure.

It started with my grandson, William, from Portland, closing out last year with a nine-week trip through Europe.

How you can talk an employer into letting you go for nine weeks and still have your job waiting for you is beyond me. But he did.

As a caution, William donned a mask when around large numbers of people and made the best of it.

The overwhelming interest on the trip, which included nearly a dozen countries, was the architecture.

Here in this country, if something is 100 years old we think it is unusual. In most parts of Europe, people live in places that are several centuries old.

Accordingly, architecture of cathedrals, older buildings, were his prime interest.

Caution on covid matters played well and he came home in good shape.

The travel bug was contagious in his family because his parents, Nathan and Karen, upon hearing of his adventures, took to travel and just returned from Ireland and Scotland.

They also were most impressed by the architecture and the ancient historic sites along the way.

They got through the trip, but immediately came down with the covid bug upon their return.

They carried their covid vac cards and tried to follow all the requirements along the way.

In preparing for the trip, the covid threat was still foremost on their minds.

On the domestic front, our eldest son, Paul, leaves in a few days for two weeks canoeing on Yellowstone Lake. It is his fourth canoeing trip to the lake.

This time he is going alone.

Rangers give people doing this specific camping spots along the lake that are designed to provide safety features such as places to keep your food elevated to prevent grizzlies from coming after your food.

Paul has seen grizzlies, moose, and deer on former canoe trips.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because when I was younger, I spent quite a bit of time traveling to foreign countries.

At least traveling is one thing I have passed down.

My oldest daughter, Kathy, has made several trips to South Korea. 

It is still necessary to travel with covid in mind and to take every precaution. Keep your vacs current, take a mask and avoid large gatherings, nearly an impossible task. 

There’s nothing like finding out how others think of the USA.