When: July 11 // Weather: warm and windy // Real life: Day 2 in South Haven, MI
Tee (organic cotton) // Sneakers (sustainable brand) // similar Bag (secondhand) // Sunglasses (secondhand)
I saw someone go on a Twitter rant recently about “how could anyone possibly be travelling right now?!” I didn’t feel the need to respond to that person because we all have heightened emotions right now, but…I don’t think that passing that kind of blanket judgement on people is fair, or productive. Sure, there are probably a lot of people who are traveling and acting recklessly and potentially endangering other people. Not cool, guys. But there are also people (like me) who are travelling but taking many precautions to care for themselves and others.
So, the point of this post is not to try and convince you to leave your home base if you don’t want to (you do you, girl). It’s just to share a little about my own recent travel and how I managed to have a good, safe time.
Destination: We picked South Haven, Michigan, because it’s only a 3-hour drive, so we could make it all the way there without stopping for gas, food, or a tinkle. It’s a small town, and the county where it’s located was trending downward in terms of COVID-19 cases. Michigan also already had a mask mandate in place. Oh, but most importantly, South Haven is cute and sits on scenic Lake Michigan. 🙂
Lodging: We stayed at an adults only B&B, Yelton Manor, a mere block away from the water. Most of the rooms were listed as available when we were booking a couple weeks before, so we figured it was unlikely to be crowded (we were right). The typical group breakfast thing was cancelled in favor of a la carte ordering, which I actually prefer, pandemic or not. We made good use of the screened in porch and terrace with spaced out chairs and umbrellas.
Activities: One of the main reasons we picked a Lake Michigan getaway was that we knew we would have plenty of options for outdoor fun – the “beach,” lighthouse, parks and nature preserves, and just sitting on the terrace reading.
Food: This was the trickiest part because we very much wanted to avoid indoor dining. It wasn’t especially easy, but we did manage to find good food that we could either eat outside or take to go and eat at our hotel. We brought some nonperishable snacks and desserts so we wouldn’t have to make extra trips out for late-night food.
Packing: Things I don’t usually think about packing on a road trip but were at the top of my list for my covidcation…face coverings, Clorox wipes, and antibacterial fabric spray. Gotta do what ya gotta do!