Hanging Out at Home
No Planes, Trains, or Automobiles? Grab your Sneakers
When you love travelling, sitting at home can be hard. For nearly ten weeks, like everyone else, that’s what my family has been doing. Hanging out at home.
We should have been road tripping the province with our son for the end of the hockey season, while our daughter finished up her first year of university. It all came to a halt on March 12 or thereabouts. All hockey under Hockey Canada was cancelled. Schools closed shortly after this. University would follow suit, having students finish up their year online, from home.
In an instant, everything changed. Everything stopped. Both my teens were home. My daughter finished her first year of university, and my son has been learning online for the time being, with his teachers and classmates.
Through all of this, I feel incredibly fortunate. Fortunate to live where I do in the world, and in my somewhat rural setting. Even though we may be stuck at home (other than my continuing part-time work), we’re not stuck inside. We have the outdoors! The outdoors has kept us sane and occupied.
The days are getting longer, warmer, and the outdoors is more inviting. Trails and parks have re-opened. At home, it’s easy to forget what is happening out in the world, but one trip to the grocery store can fix that.
Line-ups to get in, limits on how many people are in the store, and arrows on the floor point the way around. And remember, six feet apart. Where I live, masks are not mandatory, but many are wearing them.
Thank goodness for nicer weather and the outdoors.
We go for hikes on the wooded trails behind our house. My son rides his dirt bike on the trails as well, getting him outdoors and off his phone.
Of course, there are rainy days and not so nice days. During these days we find other ways to amuse ourselves both individually and as a family.
We usually take one or two trips a year out of the country, and several local road-trips. While I look forward to travelling again, I’m not sure how I feel about when and where we might go. Like many others, I may opt for closer to home travel for a while.
I thought I’d share the ways our family has passed the “stay at home” time. I’d love to know how you keep busy as well, and I hope you’ll let me know in the comments!
- Family Dinners! yes, we’ve been enjoying many family meals together. From breakfast to lunch, to dinner, we’ve shared lots of quality family time at the kitchen table.
- Family Game Time! Monopoly and Scrabble are the big winners here on game nights.
- Family Hikes! We are so fortunate to have lots of great trails through the woods behind our home and we’ve been taking advantage of nice days to get outside and get some fresh air and exercise. Now that some restrictions have eased, we hope to expand our hiking to other areas, not too far off.
- Gardening! The better weather means it’s time to get raking. We have pine needles galore and leaves, leaves, leaves. Lots of raking going on here. We’re also still doing landscaping and getting some new gardens planted. There are plenty of things yet to come, like the patio planters and deck upgrades.
- Personal time! Yes, even now with all the togetherness, we still need personal space and time. Time to read or write, watch a movie, or play a video game. Personal time is also great to communicate with friends and family we haven’t been able to visit for a while.
Scrabble! Monopoly!
For those of us who love to travel, not being able to and the uncertainty of it all can be depressing. During this time we can research future travel hot-spots, and find other ways to see the world.
Here are a few ideas (along with a few links) and the things I’ve been doing
- Read other travel blogs and their social media sites, lots of inspiration to be found. Check out some of my articles for inspiration … Las Vegas, Sedona, Beaches Turks and Caicos
- Watch travel shows! One of my favourites is Rick Steeves. (I say HGTV’s foreign property shows count too!)
- Webcams from around the world! These days all you have to do is search webcams and a destination and you can find all kinds of options. Check out Aruba, Paradise Island, Bahamas, Barbados
- Virtual tours! You see them a lot now, they’ve become quite popular.
- Visit online travel stores or agency websites! Great way to start searching and researching future travel options. Know what options you will have if you do want to get out in the world right away.
In the last few years, I’ve leaned more towards city stays and a more active ‘get out and explore’ attitude- With visits to places like Pittsburgh, Columbus (Ohio), Las Vegas, and Sedona.
With the current world situation, I find myself thinking about a simpler and less on the go option- an all-inclusive resort stay. I love all-inclusive resorts. I’ve been to many, but not in recent years.
I like the idea of a non-stop flight. Staying in one place and relaxing with minimal contact sounds good too.
I guess I’ll wait and see how things unfold and go from there. How about you? Are you hesitant to jump back in the travel world, happy hanging out at home? Or are you ready to jump right in, both feet at once?