Travel

There is zero chance I would get on a plane right now or in the foreseeable future.

I think hotels bother me more than planes. I don't relish resting my head on a Covid infested pillow.

Since it is mostly spread human to human and less likely through touching surfaces I’d rather risk the hotel than the flight. Flying seems to be high risk. Hopefully a hotel would be fairly empty and any virus In the room would be dead. I would certainly ask for a room that has not been occupied for a while.

That said, we have a cabin rented in June and we will bring our own pillows and make sure to wash sheets when we get there. There will be a thorough cleaning Upon arrival.

Greece wasn't hit very hard by the virus, and they are opening up to travel rapidly, even to people from the US. Your bigger problem might be if you have a flight. If we see a second spike, the EU might tighten up the borders for flights from the US, or require a 2 week quarantine. Our flight to Croatia in July was cancelled last week.

I was set to go to Hawaii back in March then postponed due to COVID 19, they are going to allow visitors back in July with out a 14 day stay in your room. Right now I am set to go in December but I might change it to next March ?

We still have our room booked for December. Hoping for some sort of vaccine or (worst case) natural antibody by then so I feel confident to fly. I really love Maui. A LOT.

Right, Greece wasn't impacted a ton or as bad as others, especially Mykonos, an island, but the problem would be getting there and with layovers in Athens/Paris/Amsterdam, etc, it would be tough to be sure and not impacted by it. So hard to gauge.

We're supposed to go to Disney and Universal in August. We are likely going to cancel but we're just waiting until closer to the date before we do that. I suspect we'll still go to Bayfield in October and we'd like to take a trip to the Omaha Zoo sometime this summer, but it all depends on what's going on.

We were supposed to go to Kauai a few weeks ago. Instead we spent the money on heavy equipment to work on some long overdue projects on the property. Not quite the anniversary we planned but I guess there’s a silver lining in there somewhere...

What no vaccuum?

/ducks

Diesel was supposed to buy her a Peloton

/pulling SS in front of me as a shield

I am waiting for my landscape bill to remedy our water/frost heave situation. That might chew up Hawaii for 2020.

We're going to Bemidji next weekend and was wondering what you'd recommend for outdoor activities with a 10 and 2 year old. We're already planning to go to Itasca but I'm curious about other ideas

Pretty sure there’s a Paul Bunyan statue up there somewhere.

Give them an iPad and visit the brewery.

Drive 30 minutes east one day to Cass Lake. Sail Star Marina. Darryl will rent you a fishing boat or a pontoon and you can motor around the islands; Star, Cedar and the Potatoes. Go ashore on Star (north portage) and it’s a 20 ft walk to the lake inside an island in a lake! It’s cool.

Tell Darryl the Ryan’s recommended the marina and he’ll be extra nice. We’ve known him for decades.

My Hawaii vacation was postponed in March due to COVID 19 was rebooked for December I just changed it again to March 2021 ?

We were supposed to do Hawaii March 2020 also. Looking at fall of 2021 now.

Our big trip this year is now Duluth for the weekend coming up.

When I type Sailstar Marina into Google Maps, it says it's permanently closed. :confused2:

:conf2: Well that’s weird and simply not true. They are open and operational. Gas dock open. Boat launch open. They are blocking people from coming inside and their public restrooms are closed, but they are open.

And I just Googled them and where does it say permanently closed? My screen shows them currently open, closing at 5 with all the contact info. Plus a Google map showing their location. Very odd you get different info.

I was just there last week. Guessing something didn't update after COVID. They have a bunch of signs and whatnot up about masks and social distancing and their retail/office area is closed, but they are still gassing up boats and working on them. Red, I have known Daryl since I was I was a kid, my Dad has known him longer. I would go rent a boat from Stony Point about 2 miles further down the road on Highway 2 before I would rent one from Sail Star and thats if you can get Daryl to stop walking away from you long enough to ask him a question...I only dump my pontoon in there once or twice a summer. but I know things are different for all of you on Star.

There are so many other things to do up there too (Lake Windigo in Star Island is a cool experience thought). There is the the Chippewa National Forest historic office building in Cass Lake. It was built by the CCC and completed in 1935.

<a href=" https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/chippewa/about-forest/offices/?cid=fsm9_01654 7" class="bbcode_url"> https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/chippewa/about-forest/offices/?cid=fsm9_016547

Depending on the day of the week you are there, there is Lyle's Logging Camp in Cass Lake that has old logging cabins set up as they were back in the heyday of logging days.

There is Lost Forty tract of old growth Norway pine trees that were missed back in the logging days due to a mapping issue.

In Bemidji, you should eat at Fozzie's BBQ. I like their BBQ burrito...you can look it up, but never had a bad meal there. Another decent place to eat is 209 Bar, but I have heard rumblings that it may have gone down a bit since they expanded.

We were up in Bemidji a few weeks ago on a lark, and ate dinner at Lucky Dogs. Highly recommended if you're a fan of the frankfurters.

<a href=" https://www.luckydogsbemidji.com /" class="bbcode_url"> https://www.luckydogsbemidji.com/

I gotts tell you that I was very underwhelmed when I finally rode there this summer. Yes, it is old growth White and Red Pine & a climax forest but it didn't inspire awe in me.

Yeah you can’t drive a car through any of them, but it’s something to do in nature ‘round these parts. ?‍♂️

If you truly want something “in nature” hit the Big Tap Bar in Cass Lake. No really, I dare you :biggrin2:

13 mysterious mummies found in well

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/13-coffins-mummies-discovered-saqqara-egypt-scli-intl/index.html

If it weren't for COVID, we would be enjoying our 2nd full day on Maui. I am not taking it well that our Hawaiian Christmas was cancelled so I am looking for a post COVID trip.

I've never been to Europe. I am considering a Mediterranean cruise for the family. I have no idea what the best time of year is to travel, the best cities to visit or how much to budget. I am not looking to go cheap ass. But I am not looking for a yacht either. Nice cruise line with a balcony.

I have taken one cruise in my life and it was an Alaskan cruise. I won't ever take a cool weather cruise again. I want to have warmth on the deck and drink cocktails while at sea.

You’re a brave man wanting to go on a cruise anytime in 2021 and maybe even 2022. Most cruises there will occur in the summer because fall is when they reposition ships to the Caribbean and spring is when they go back to places like Europe.

The common places they seem to stop that I’d want to go are Barcelona, Sicily, and the Greek Isles. One year we will probably do a trip like this

If you’re looking non-cruise I’d say to check out places like London or Bavaria/Austria. A lot though depends on what you want to do because if you’re into churches and museums then there’s a ton of other really cool places like Florence.

We have found a really good time to travel anywhere seems to be right before school starts in the fall. You’ll miss the European summer holiday and probably a lot of the tourists while the weather is still nice.

If you do go the non cruise route look at doing a stopover in Iceland. It’s beautiful there and was a fun 3-4 day (or shorter if you want) place to visit before continuing onto Europe.

You’ll get a lot of great ideas since you’ve never been to Europe. There’s so many interesting places there

It won't be 2021. Likely 2022 or after. If we do a family trip with kids it could be sooner 2022 or 2023. If my wife and I go alone, we could do a longer trip (and nicer) but the kids have to be fairly self sufficient (other than having my parents drive them around. Likely 2023.

I am going to Hawaii March 19-26 direct non stop flights ?

I was supposed to go to Kauai this past May. Probably waiting til the next year the frozen four is here so we have enough vacay and hopefully it’s safe enough to do all the things. I just got a Hawaiian themed tattoo instead this year. ?

We took our daughter to London two years ago over New Years. She was 8 and just loved it.

Seeing the Mayor’s fireworks on NYE was really cool. The trip was chilly but hardly any tourists

We're going in October, 2021. It's a reschedule of the March, 2019 trip that was canceled. Hopefully will be vaccinated and more restriction free by then.

We're going to Orlando in March of this year - assuming we won't be going to Pitt in April and spending some extended time in the warm weather combining some remote work with spring break.

We did a Mediterranean cruise 10 years or so ago, starting in Barcelona, a couple of stops in the south of France, and a bunch of stops in Italy. It was alright, but I’m not a big fan of cruises on the ocean in general.

Best trip I’ve been on was a river cruise, started in Cologne, and ended on land in Munich. I really enjoyed having a lot less people than an ocean cruise. I think ours was only 50% capacity, with a total of around 50 people (usually 100). Everything was included, small group tours/excursions, meals and liquor/beer on the boat as well as most on land. It’s somewhat expensive, but we didn’t really have to pay for much of anything once we got there.

I am also not a fan of cruises. I hate getting off a boat with thousands of people knowing everyone in town hates us for being there. Seems like a fake experience.

I honestly would only prefer to cruise the Caribbean so I can ignore the ports and chill.

I've done two Caribbean, one Alaska cruise, and a river cruise on the Nile. Alaska and the Nile ones were awesome and I've since realized that I like scenery and seeing something other than a wide expanse of ocean.

I do want to do a Norwegian Fjords cruise and a river cruise on the Danube. We'll probably do a Mediterranean at some point but after that I'll probably stick to land tours.

We're kicking around the idea of a late summer road trip to Utah to go to the National Parks out there. I'm thinking if we go we'd stay in a couple hubs (probably Moab to see Arches and Canyonland then somewhere else near Bryce Canyon and Zion) before heading either to Salt Lake City or back home.

For those that have been, any thoughts on how best to do it given we'll have an 11 year old and a recently turned 3 year old? We'll likely sprinkle in a mix of park and non park activities to get some variety but it's not an area I'm too familiar with.

Capitol Reef is cool too

This road.

https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/783-mokee-dugway-usa.html

Dave, I posted this 2 years ago. We went in Oct. I think summer would be too hot.

We also went 2 years ago. Our favorites in order were Bryce, Capital Reef, Arches, Canyonlands and then Zion*.

Zion was difficult for us. It was EXTREMELY crowded, if you werent parked inside the park by 7:30 am... forget it, park in Springdale. We had to wait over an hour at some shuttle stops as full shuttle after full shuttle drove past, depending on time of day. Numerous trails were closed after some recent damage including the entire Kolob section, Angels landing, Hidden canyon, upper emerald pools some of the most popular hikes in the park. So everyone who was there (a lot of people) were confined to the same few trails. It did not feel like a national park to us... We hope to go back some day, hopefully under different circumstances.

Zion also has more 'dramatic' hikes with steep drop-offs, un-even footing, etc. I wouldn't recommend any of the hikes we did (Observation Point, Canyon Overlook, The Narrows) for those with small children. The Narrows however was a very cool and unique experience. I am sure there are some easier hikes, they just aren't quintessential zion hikes.

Where as Capitol Reef, it was like we had the park to ourselves. Cassidy Arch trail was AWESOME! and I think we only saw 4, maybe 5 other people the entire hike. At a minimum drive the main road, some cool views (Grand Wash Road or something like that it is called) you kind of have to off-road a bit but it is a fun drive. Capitol Reef jsut doesnt have many options for staying near by, so plan on camping or driving a decent distance if staying overnight. We left our previous spot early, got to CRNP around 8:30am, spent all day there, and left for the next park after dinner. We wish we would've stayed overnight somehow.

Bryce was fantastic! Great views, great hikes. Be sure to get down and walk within the hoodoos, not just stand above them. Also, go into Bryce after dark, pick any viewpoint (we choose Fairyland point), let your eyes adjust and just enjoy the night sky. It looks fake, like someone is super-imposing an image on a domed screen. Was a really cool experience as I had never been able to do that previously, maybe you have. It doesn't even have to be that late, I think it was 9:30 for us. Seeing the milky way in its glory was really, really cool. I tried to take photos, got a few good ones, but need to get better. Lots of hiking options that aren't too long or difficult, but should be enjoyable for kids too.

Arches was another very crowded park. I will echo, Moab kinda sucks... If you want a photo of Delicate arch without anyone in the photo, start early. By mid morning people are climbing all over it , walking under it, etc. I prefer my national park photos without people in them It was also over 100 degrees when we went, and the rocks were radiating heat. Bryce, a few days later, had temps in the 40s. Be prepared for every type of weather if visiting most or all of the parks.

The downside of Zion and Bryce, was the multiple HUGE tour buses that show up, stop at each viewpoint and dump 60+ people off all at once. Things can get very crowded at a small viewpoint very quickly.

Buy beer wherever you fly into first or, if driving, before getting into Utah. While it is around, finding beer and booze isn't always straight forward and selection sucks in the smaller NP towns. There is a brewpub in Springdale, but pretty overpriced and not great quality in our experience.

We didn't use it in Utah, but have used it on the Superior Hiking Trail, our Osprey Poco child carrier pack has been great. We tend to by groceries and make most of our meals on our national park trips. Makes it easy with small kids too as they are usually happy with a PB&J, apple and Cheetos, haha.

I am sure Norm or I would be happy to answer any other questions you might have. To echo Norm's comments, we went in early September and Arches was extremely hot and exhausting. While Bryce had sleet and hail one day we were there with temps in the low 40s at night.

Thanks guys. There’s a lot of good info here. Apparently GE hasn’t heard that I still get flak for how narrow the Going to the Sun road at Glacier is.

Sadly with kids in school we are limited to a few windows in the year. We’ve started going on trips the last week or two before school starts and have found a lot of places aren’t t very crowded. My guess is the popular NPs will still have a lot of people though given uncertainty around travel this summer

[mention]fightclub30[/mention] many years ago I was overnighting with a group of Boy Scouts on a trip to climb Mount Shavano in Colorado. I’ve never seen anything like what the sky looked like when getting out of my tent at 4:00am. If we go there I’ll certainly want my wife and kids to get a shot to see something like that.

Fightclub, Zion was my favorite. In Oct it was not crowded at all. The RiversideWalk leading to the Narrows was one of the best hikes we've ever done and was also easy enough for us geezers.

And we too stopped in for a beer at Zion Canyon Brewing. The Oktoberfest was good.

Yeah, thats why I put the * next to Zion. Our experience isn't necessarily typical. It was a gorgeous park for sure. Some recent rain had put a damper our visit, as 2 of the hikes we really wanted to do were closed (angels landing and hidden canyon). Driving there we also didn't know the one way tunnel was closed for repair, so we sat in a 3-4 hour line to get into the park from that direction which ate a big chunk our first day. Then the crowds were just unbearable. We couldn't get away from people, smokers/vapers, and bluetooth speakers, ugh.

It was a let down coming from Yosemite and Sequoia the year before, which probably have more people but seem to be better setup to handle the crowds. It was pretty easy to get away and suddenly feel like there was hardly anybody around for 200 miles. Whereas the Zion hikes we did, observation point and narrows in particular, felt like it was cheek to cheek hiking with people who didn't care about sharing the park. To do the Canyon Overlook trail we had to circle past 4-5 times before finding a parking spot to be able to do the hike.

The risks we saw people take, in particular at Zion, to get a cool picture for instagram or whatever was somewhat concerning. Dangling from ledges, leaving the trail despite signs and chains asking them not to.

I'd like to go back when more of the park is open, and not so busy either.

We must be walking in your footsteps as the following spring we did Sequoia and Yosemite in early May. We just got ahead of the big crowds that come after Memorial Day. And the waterfalls were fabulous from the snow melt.

Anyone skied or stayed near Jackson Hole? We were thinking of going there and Grand Targhee and not sure if there is a "town" between or where people have stayed.

I was there a couple of years ago. Stayed in Jackson. Some good restaurants and bars. Preferred Grand Targhee for skiing. Less crowded and the runs were a little easier than Jackson Hole. There was a pretty reasonably priced shuttle that runs from Jackson to Targhee. There really isn't much in between, except for the mountain, as the ski hills are basically on opposite side of the same hill.

I’ve spent a couple summers in the Teton Valley so can’t speak to the skiing (the hiking is awesome however)! It’s probably changed a bit as the valley has become much more built up, but would think it would be cheaper to stay on the Driggs/Victor side vs. Jackson Hole which is a total tourist trap. I cannot imagine driving that pass on a wintry day!

Only Grand Teton Brewing was out that way when I was there last. I think there’s a couple new breweries in the area now.

What pass specifically? Teton Pass between the two sides?

Been thinking Victor and Griggs, but not sure how bad that drive would be for a couple days

Yeah, Teton pass. I don’t remember for sure but want to say it takes like half hour in good weather. Lots of elevation and some scary turns, it helps to have a powerful vehicle and you better have good brakes. That being said there are lots of people who do that route daily as a commute (insane if you ask me). I had a shitty old sable when I did it and the people behind me were not thrilled during the uphill part.

It’s certainly a neat drive but I wouldn’t want to tackle it in bad weather.