In re evacuation costs in a medical emergency, check out what your Amex (or other) card includes. It may depend on the card, but ours was sufficient to prove to out Antarctica tour operator that we did not need to purchase evacuation insurance.

JustTerri, one of my best friends just spent a month in Dunedin. They really liked it.

Justerri - I heard that people who have already had Covid have good protection after one shot.

gsciencechick - which trial are you a part of?

We will be heading out in our fifth wheel RV later this Spring. Most likely to points west and north of us. Probably to visit DD in Dallas, as well. A long Fall trip in the RV back to visit family again in Michigan. As soon as our son's work schedule permits, and I get my Covid pokes, we'll fly to Augusta to visit them

JustTerri, if you’re visiting Tarpon Springs and Dunedin stop by Safety Harbor which is the cutest of the three IMHO.

If you like the Tarpon Springs vibe (fishing industry), have you looked at Apalachicola? And while you’re up that way go see Quincy.

Thanks Maddie, I’ll check out Safety Harbor. Not sure if I’ll like a fishing vibe but I like to eat fish lol. I don’t personally fish. There’s something about me that becomes possessed with fishing line. It seems to come alive and aim for things to get tangled on. If someone is fishing in a five mile vicinity my hook will find them or their line. It’s embarrassing.

I did my undergraduate internship at Safety Harbor Spa 30 years ago! I still have fondness for the area, but I know it's changed a lot. Oh well, at least I had a conference in Clearwater a few years in a row.

Lynn, did you see "Nomadland"? It made me think of you and your new RV, LOL.

We are trying to book a trip to the Bahamas either in late May or mid-August to celebrate dd’s Hs graduation. (Ds is doing summer semester to add a couple of classes so he will graduate with a double major next spring. Having so much trouble finding dates when they are both available!) Dd is doing a travel/study “gap year” (she gets full credit, so not really a gap.) She will be in the South Pacific one semester aNd Hawaii the other. They have parent‘s weekends during the semester 🤩 so we might get to go to Fiji! And Hawaii!

Since I lucked into my shot last week, both dh & I will be fully vaccinated by mid April. Ideally, I want both kids vaccinated before the Bahamas trip, so I will be actively searching for shots for them once it opens to all ages in early May. Obviously, dd will have to be fully vaccinated before her travel program next fall.

I love the idea of vaccine passports! Maybe it’ll make vaccine resisters get over themselves. I think places like WDW, football stadiums, heck, even restaurants should require proof of vaccination once it is widely available to everyone. Airplanes, absolutely.

Nomadland was so good! Very touching, I thought.

I have a friend coming to visit in June. She is driving to High Point to drop her DH off for the furniture mart then driving to me to spend a few days. We'll drive back to Chicago together and I'll have some time there with family and other friends. She and I both have first shots and hopefully by then DH will have his but he's in the last group in our state and that timeline is not projected yet.

No plans to fly. We've waited this long....

In a month, we are going to a state park that has lovely cabins on a lake. My sister and DBIL are going with us. We’ve all been vaccinated and by then they will have passed the waiting period for as much immunity as your going to get.

In June we will fly to Florida. DD and her crew spend the summer (late May to early August) at DSIL‘s grandfather’s beach house. DH and I drove it once and I said never again. And I will double down on that now that DH is unable to help with the drivIng. We can fly Southwest. I love their “no change fees” policy. In fact, we will be using the credit we have from the flights we canceled in 2020.

I am more comfortable flying than driving. I think the airplanes are well cleaned and sanitized. I‘m not so confident that gas stations and road side restaurants are.

Mtn wrote: In re evacuation costs in a medical emergency, check out what your Amex (or other) card includes.

I have a friend who has the Amex Platinum card strictly for the evacuation insurance.

I am in Novavax Phase 3. There are 30,000 nationwide and 250 here locally. They should be applying for EUA any day now.

bbstx, we use wipes to pump gas and wouldn't stop at roadside restaurants. We carried an ice chest and picked up food at grocery stores. For restaurant meals, we chose fine restaurants. I'm much more leery of flying right now though I think that will soon change. Too many people in the airports and on the planes for my comfort level.

I have a driving trip in two weeks (NM to CO). I'll be spending the weekend with friends (we're all vaccinated) in their home and possibly eating in restaurants. A (vaccinated) friend and I are in the beginning stages of planning a 2+-week trip in the fall to New England, Montreal, upstate NY and PA. Finalized destinations and routes will depend on what is open in early October. She's going to drive up, so we'll have her car for the touring. But I'll need to (as currently planned) fly in to Philly and out from Pittsburgh.

We have a river cruise scheduled from Amsterdam to Budapest in early June but fully expect it to be cancelled We also have an ocean cruise in the fall from Bergen to Barcelona but won't be surprised if that is cancelled also - too many European countries still have strict border barriers, especially from US. We and our traveling companions are fully vaccinated tho.

Too bad, Chessey, they sound lovely

We’re supposed to go to a wedding in NC in August. I’ve made a reservation for a cabin and will have to decide by mid-June if I’m going to cancel or not. We had originally planned to drive which adds a couple days to the trip. Hard to say what the Covid situation will be by June - anything could happen in the next three months.

We have no trips planned this year, except perhaps to drive to Ohio to visit my mother. We will all be vaccinated by the end of this month. I miss our trips to Europe but we won't go this year.

seagrass

Seagrass, as catchy as HU-753479426 is, can you go back to Seagrass? : )

We want to go back to Europe but can wait until next year - we're not in a rush. In the meantime, we will just do road trips around southern California. DB Kevin has not been vaccinated yet and is content for now to spend time alternating between Los Angeles and Coachella Valley. We take road trips to Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree while we are in Cathedral City, and that gives us a good change of scenery. Being on the West Coast, it is more of a trek to go to Europe, but Mexico is fairly close. I would like to go back to Mexico City in the near future, and Kevin has never been to Oaxaca or Chiapas.

Maddielee, what do you like in Quincy, FL? My son has a farm in Quincy! Handsome Harvest Farm~ we haven't seen them since the pandemic started and can't wait to get up there. We live in Ft Myers

Frankginakay. I’m on Marco and I have to say it’s as busy here as it’s ever been for spring break. I will be glad when snowbird season is over!!

We will soon start taking our long-delayed sailboat trips. Initially we will only go a week or two at a time in the general Carolinas / Virginia area. We haven't sailed in 18 months and probably forget how.

DH is doing a mission trip to Belize for the month of July. We will both be fully vaccinated before he goes, so when he finally comes home we hope to spend the fall exploring the Chesapeake. Next year, the Bahamas, Bermuda, who knows?

Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama.....

Sorry, aok, your post made me burst into song!

I am so itching to plan something, ( both DH and I are a month today past our 2nd Pfizer) and DH is even more itching. However, when I start trying to think of something even small scale, I get a bit creeped out about restaurants and hotels etc and what is open and what is not. Maybe another week or so I will get inspired.

I would love to have something planned to look forward to.

“ Maddielee, what do you like in Quincy, FL? My son has a farm in Quincy! ”

Years ago my sister had an antique store in Quincy, they later moved to Havana (Florida, not Cuba 😊). I still have family in the area.

JustTerri was looking for smaller, quaint Florida towns and I remember loving all the old houses of Quincy. The town has such a nice neighborhood feel.

I was planning on visiting Ireland with my adult children for the first time last fall, but that didn't happen, and now that we are all completely vaccinated, I wrote to my cousin in Dublin if this September might be possible to visit. He said that the country was still very shut down and retail, entertainment, hotels, restaurants and pubs are closed and even in-country travel is restricted. He didn't think that in several months things would be fully open as the vaccine roll-out there has been very slow, but they are projecting that most of the population might be vaccinated by August. I was hoping that with lower prices and less crowds it would be a good time, but he really recommended against it as we would not get the true Irish experience.

My daughter recently got engaged and is planning her wedding in September 2022 in Ischia, Italy, where her father's family is from (and still live there). We aren't booking anything that doesn't have a refundable deposit as we don't know what things will be like -- who knew the world would still be like this a year after the first lockdown!

We are planning a trip to Hawaii in early June. This replaces our earlier plan to go to Scotland in the fall. DH and I both retired this year, and it's our silver anniversary and we will both be fully vaccinated by the end of this month. So we have to celebrate! Other than the long flights, Hawaii seemed the easiest place to get to. We will stay on Kauai. The biggest challenge was what to do with our elderly dog--she can't handle a kennel. Luckily DD's college age friend is available to stay here with her.

We really have not stopped traveling by car since this last July? I think. But, we have a Cabo trip coming up next month and a short girls trip just to Dallas in May and then Florida in June. If California would open up, we'd like to still have our annual Newport Beach trip in July, but they way things are there, I doubt it. We'll find another place to go. My GF is there right now, helping her parents pack, they are moving out of LA, so I'll have a better idea when we lunch when she gets back, as she was with friends in Newport area and she can tell me what the area is really like, as far as shopping and restaurants.

@just_terrilynn I had forgotten you had covid. People here who have had it have been told maybe 3 months immunity? Who really knows yet. Those of us here who don't work have been pretty much in the same boat, staying at home. We are so close to being fully vaccinated, that we will wait. We've come this far!!

"We use wipes to pump gas and wouldn't stop at roadside restaurants. We carried an ice chest and picked up food at grocery stores. For restaurant meals, we chose fine restaurants. I'm much more leery of flying right now though I think that will soon change. Too many people in the airports and on the planes for my comfort level." It's the air space situation I would think of in an airplane. I'm not sure how long it will take me to feel comfortable closed up in a car with someone other than my husband.

I didn't go through and do the "thank you" button - but thank you all for sharing your plans. I know everyone is SO ANXIOUS to get out and do things again!

I thought I'd mention a couple things for anyone making a road trip who has concerns. Before I left for mine I bought some Powecom KN95 masks - rec'd by someone here. From everything I could tell they are legitimate, not fake. We wore those anytime we went inside a public place including gas station rest rooms. I wasn't at all concerned about surface contamination because you can wash your hands if you have to touch anything. I'm concerned about being in close proximity to other people and breathing their air especially in areas where masks aren't required. I thought these masks worked great - excellent fit and you could tell you weren't breathing air from anywhere but through the mask.

I brought food in a cooler which minimized the need to go out to eat though we did stop and get a Subway sandwich to go on the way. Servers were masked and we kept our distance in line. The facility had a restroom so we were able to wash our hands before we ate in the car and I had lots of disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer in the car.

I ended up booking a Hilton Garden Inn on the way from MN to TX and a Hilton Home2 Suites on the way back (we stayed in friends guest house in TX). I was able to use their app to do contactless check-in - picked my own room through the app and got a digital key on my phone to get into my room. I picked a room close to the door on the main level so minimal contact with anyone else's air. I thought this whole process was amazing. I did end up getting a regular key card because it was easier to use and there weren't a bunch of people milling around the lobby. But again, I felt safer with the KN95 mask than with the masks I usually wear at home. I brought disinfectant spray for the room but decided I didn't want to be breathing in those fumes after drenching the room.

I really liked the Home2 Suites because they had a pretty good sized fridge/freezer where I could keep my perishables overnight and refreeze my ice packs. And I'm ready to buy a complete Home2 bed ensemble because when I hit that bed I felt like I was in a cloud - DH thought so too. It was the most comfortable bed I've ever been in - mattress, pillows, comforter - amazing. You could also set up your phone to control the TV, light switches, etc. It was pretty cool.

Tina, the 3 month immunity you are talking about, is in antibodies only. Antibodies don't last too long in most people. Your T cells, is where it's at, and is where the immunity really tells the tell. If you research studies, you will find that information. Of course, you haven't had Covid, from my understanding, so you should be more careful.

@3katz4me I wasn't at all concerned about surface contamination because you can wash your hands if you have to touch anything. I'm concerned about being in close proximity to other people and breathing their air especially in areas where masks aren't required. This is exactly how I feel!!

i wonder what the mattress, etc. is at the Hilton Home2?

“ i wonder what the mattress, etc. is at the Hilton Home2?”

I think it’s made by Serta, you can buy directly from Hilton.

@maddielee - so far the only place I can find anything related to Hilton mattresses is Wayfair and in typical Wayfair fashion they have many choices so I can't tell which one I slept on, both Serta and Beautyrest.

2katz - I also bought that Powecom KN95 masks, and have found a site to buy them that guarantees that they are not fake. And they have them in black, which I prefer.

https://bonafidemasks.com/

Yup - that's where I bought mine.

I just remembered, need to take my own pillow on my road trip.

Would like for us to travel, but all the ramifications of planning a trip leave me overwhelmed. Owning a get away place somewhere is looking more appealing.

We are renting a ski house in Vermont for April vacation. Eating in and driving there for it is only a few days after my second jab and my 13 year old will not be eligible until at least fall.

Just some short road trips for us. Finally going to see two of the kids and grands in a few weeks. Hopefully we’ll see DD in May and some sort of getaway in May for our anniversary.

My BFF and I are going to Switzerland in late October for two weeks. Fingers crossed that the trip will go off as planned. We’re both fully vaccinated and flying first class to minimize contact on the plane.

Made reservations for May for a week at a lake resort. It's just about 4 hours from home. So ready!

We are fully vaccinated, and are going to North Carolina next month and I am going to visit my DD in Tennessee in May. She is also fully vaccinated. Next month will be my first time on a plane since January 2020, and I love to travel. Of course we will wear our masks and face shields on the plane and in the airport.

We are scheduled to go on a cruise in October from NYC to Montreal, but unless Canada reopens its ports it will be cancelled.

Olliesmom~ we also have a trip to Cabo planned for May. Please let me know how it was AND if getting back in US was a problem. I think a covid test is needed. We also are going to TX in early May. We are both vaccinated, although a little scary going to Mexico. We don't want to get stuck there.

frankginakay, Where we are staying, they offer the test there. We aren’t vaccinated but we’ve had Covid, so we aren't really worried about the test, but I've had quite a few friends go, some have had Covid, and some not, and have all made it through fine. I think Cabo is getting more crowded now, but more people should be vaccinated by then also. I can’t imagine if you are vaccinated, you’d have anything to worry about.

I have decided not to get my 17 year old son vaccinated for awhile, especially since he has had Covid. Letting it play out. I'm sure the vaccine is fine, but for him being young-just feels more comfortable that way for us. I am the mom who got his childhood vaccines when he was a baby ONE AT A TIME. I know his pediatrician was probably aggravated at me, but I wasn't taking any chances. I just think giving that many vaccines at one time is not a "one fit for all" for every baby/toddler. That's just me, and I feel good about what I did. When it comes to things like this, I research the heck out of everything!

We are considering Hawaii late this fall. Not sure exactly when we will be vaccinated. So still trying to figure everything out. Our daughter is getting married at home in October, and I have a lot to do here in the meantime. If not Hawaii, we will likely do a driving trip somewhere not too far away, maybe Paso Robles for some wine tasting or Sedona.

We have an Alaskan cruise planned next year. Cruise was originally booked for 2020, moved to 2021 and now 2022. Thinking Europe in 2023, we were also suppossed to go to Europe in 2020, it was going to be a big travel year.

Lars - We drove out to Joshua Tree last Sunday. Love Joshua Tree, had not been these in a few years. We did a hike and had a picnic. It was a wonderful day. Definitely a one day vacation.

I like how all deserts are very different despite being deserts. Joshua Tree is one of the most playful of the ones I saw. Not sure "playful " is the right word, but as I can't find the right one as of yet, I'll go with it for now,

I have heard of but never been to Joshua Tree. It looks cool. So I thought, WTH, let's fly there for a few days. Let's go for Easter break!

Umm, you can't.