We snuck our last trip right before the Great Global Shut-Down. We left early for Spring Break on a trip that we WON at a charity event. Sounds great, right? Yeah this was the unluckiest lucky trip I ever did see.
Our little family of three left Canada on March 11, 2020. And returned on March 18, 2020. The WHO announced the pandemic on March 12, 2020. This caused great panic and excessive hand-washing + hand-wringing on our trip. We cancelled our London leg (much to the disappointment of my boy, who was looking forward to a meal at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant) and holed up in peaceful Conwy North Wales until our scheduled return flight. (Note, we tried to return early, but the only flight left a day before our scheduled one and cost $13,000. Thanks but no thanks WestJet). I fought tooth and nail from the corrupt Air BnB owner in London for our money back – a battle that I thankfully won when I escalated up to Air BnB administration.
Yes we were unlucky but lucky. We barely ate out, but 16 year old Aaron managed to order a pint in a pub in Cambridge (pictured below) before things got bad – a long time dream of his (thanks UK for your reasonable liquor laws). We ate bangers and mash and fish and chips with mushy peas. Each day, the locals got more and more wary of us foreigners with our funny, American-like accents and we hid more and more in our lovely little rental in Conwy.
Our last meal was a crackling pork sandwich from Vaugh’s Sandwich Shop in Ludlow. In fact, this humble yet impressive sandwich ended up being the last thing that I ate outside of my home in over 8 weeks and counting.
I’m not sure if I ever want to step foot on a plane again. Or if I’ll even be able to. I’m thankful for all my travels over the years, and feel for younger folks who are just starting to discover the world. You have been ripped off.
Travel will return one day, but not like before. Same with restaurants. Everything will change. The only thing I know for sure is that we will be staying closer to home and that I’m grateful to be living in beautiful British Columbia. Farewell for now. xo.