Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

I like to travel.

You probably figured this out by the fact that I started a miles, points, and travel blog. And I am guessing by the fact that you are reading a travel blog that you probably like to travel also. The current COVID-19 pandemic has certainly impacted many aspects of life. And the fact that we’ve been under stay-at-home or quarantine orders for the better part of three months is probably a relatively minor thing. Especially if you compare it to many of the physical, emotional, and financial challenges that many people have gone through.

We have been happy to stay at home, cancel our travel, and do our part to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the coronavirus. And of course in many ways, it hasn’t even been our choice at all. Many states, countries and other governments have banned travel, enforced mandatory quarantines or closed borders in any case.

A few months in, now that we are adjusting to the new normal, our family has felt that we were ready to plan and take our first trip. It will be different in many ways than other travel that we’ve done as a family.

But first, a note on travel, masks and social distancing

To me, it is unfortunate how politicized the act of wearing masks or social distancing has become. It probably should go without saying, but the virus does not care what politics you have. I am not a doctor, so I am taking my cues from scientists, medical professionals, and epidemiologists both in my family and in public positions. As is normal with science, the data is always updated and hypotheses change to reflect that. It is my understanding that the current scientific consensus suggests that wearing masks and attempting to stay socially distant does have an effect. So we are doing that. We wear masks when we are out, and attempt to stay six feet apart from other people, especially indoors.

I try to avoid “mask shaming” or “travel shaming” — instead, I understand that different people may have different perspectives on things and I try to assume good faith.

There is a specific commenter that I have seen on various Boarding Area blogs on travel-related posts. He usually makes rather rude comments about how this is no big deal and how he is traveling all the time and making fun of anyone for choosing to not travel or do what they feel is required to stay safe. I see his comments pop up over and over again and his schtick is tiring….

a man and child on a beach at sunset

The trips we canceled

Before I talk about the trip that we planned, I wanted to review some of the trips that we canceled earlier this year:

  • March – family trip to Hawaii. It’s interesting because with hindsight, it is obvious that canceling this trip was the right move, but back in March when this was all going on, it wasn’t quite so cut and dry. With Hawaii imposing a 14-day quarantine on most travelers, I don’t see us going there any time soon
  • April – father/son trip to Utah to watch our church’s General Conference and do college tours at BYU and a few other schools.
  • June – I had a trip planned to Europe with my dad and my sister
  • September – family reunion out at Yosemite.

And that’s not even talking about the trips that we had planned in our head. Thankfully we were able to get almost all of our miles, points and cash back to us.

a body of water with trees and a beach

Planning a trip to Lake Michigan

We are starting to ease back into life. My job was already fully remote and we already homeschooled most of our kids, so, from that perspective, we weren’t impacted as badly as some other people. We are minimizing the times we leave the house and as I said earlier, we wear masks when outside and attempt to stay 6 feet apart from other people. My son has gone back to his part-time fast-food job, and my other son has started summer Cross Country practices. We have him run outside with the team but whereas the team uses the indoor weight room at the high school, we have him come home to do weights instead.

After talking about it as a family, we decided we felt comfortable taking a driving road trip and staying in an Airbnb and focusing on outdoor activities. It was hard to decide on somewhere in particular, but we ended up deciding that we would visit northern Michigan. We booked a 3-night stay in an Airbnb near Lake Michigan and plan to spend our time mostly outdoors. We will go to the Lake Michigan beaches, and visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It is about an 8-hour drive from where we live, so we will probably make a few stops on our way up for gas, restrooms, and food. For our family, this feels like a good mix between traveling and also staying safe ourselves and limiting our ability to possibly transmit the virus ourselves.

I will report back after we take the trip with how it went. Depending on how it goes, we may try a few other road trips this summer and fall.

What about you? Are you going anywhere this summer?


This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them

User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.

BoardingArea