Life in a Pandemic

Life in a Pandemic

A Personal and Historical Record

 

 

             We had a busy travel year planned for 2020. . . until the coronavirus aka COVID-19 pandemic throws travel into disarray. A trip to Europe for the end of May is cancelled. Ironically, it was highlighted by the famous Oberammergau Passion Play, which began in 1634 when residents of the village vowed if God spared them from the bubonic plague ravaging the region they would produce a play depicting the life and death of Jesus. Offered every 10 years since, it had been cancelled only twice before, in 1770 when all passion plays were banned & 1940 due to WWII. We accept an offer to reschedule at the same price when the Play resumes in 2022, with full refunds for trip insurance and United miles used for flights.Another shoe drops: a Viking River Cruise in Portugal with Marjorie’s cousin Jim and wife Susan scheduled early August is also cancelled. As usual, Viking is very accommodating: full refund or voucher for 125% of what’s been paid. I coordinate with Susan to rebook the trip in Spring 2021 (and then to July, joined by Marjorie’s sister Mary & Jeff). Closer to home, a visit with friends Francisco & Beth for Nantucket's Daffodil Festival has to be called off. One other possibility, Marjorie’s 55^th high school reunion in Portage, is also cancelled.

More cancellations accumulate on the calendar. Choir singing stops and all Masses move to streaming on-line. My Mendelssohn Club rehearsals and Spring concert are cancelled; we have some Zoom meetings of brothers and of the Board to think about the Fall, which is eventually also cancelled. Viewing a webinar on transmission from choral singing, to both singers & audience, was pretty scary! Marjorie has a major art exhibit through April with 3 artist friends cancelled, but thankfully able to reschedule in December (hopefully!). 

 The summer art camp she’s organized for several years for the Colonie Art League is cancelled, as is the Siena College Relay for Life event (tho Marjorie nonetheless surpasses her fundraising goal!). Son Matt and family in Queens are affected in various ways. Matt winds up being furloughed by Manhattan School of Music, moving onto unemployment checks. Anthea continues going to her mostly empty Metropolitan Youth Orchestra offices on Long Island, working hard to hold things together. Grandsons William & Miles finish the school year on-line. William’s soccer is on hold, Miles must settle for on-line dancing and singing classes.

 So what to do? Doesn’t look like I’ll have opportunities to do the usual trip journals for my blog. But I can do something similar to document our life in a pandemic, our local activities and ongoing updates of developments & events ˗ a combination of personal journal & historical record. Plus staying at home gives time to work on photo books, other projects. Artist-in-Residence Marjorie is able to create a stockpile for future shows. 

Saratoga Birthday

 

Saratoga Birthday

September 2020 

 What to do in the midst of a pandemic for Marjorie’s “Birthday Festival” (as she likes to call it)? A new garage door installed, but that doesn’t seem quite the thing. William Shatner sings to her on an e-card, courtesy of Jeff like my Dolly Parton BD serenade. I cater cheesecake for her church discussion group at our house, tho they leave too quickly so we’ll have to eat it all. Still not enough ˗ and she’s complaining there’s no marching band! A surprise overnight should do the trick. Plus good forecasts thru the weekend: sunny & cool (into the 30s, highs about 60). 

National Parks

National Parks

What to do while “sheltering” during the Spring 2020 coronavirus pandemic? Catch up on reading, binge watching on Netflix, whatever. Travel is quite limited ˗ and we’ve already had a trip canceled (ironically, it was highlighted by the Oberammergau Passion Play, begun nearly 400 years ago in response to the plague) ˗ so no new trip posts for a while. But I’ve created other posts organized around “themes,” from religious sites to seasons to holidays. So I decided to pull out a selection of National Park photos, from a variety of trips taken from my childhood and college years to quite recently. By my count, I have visited 30 of the 61 American National Parks, ranging across the country from Maine to the Rockies and West Coast to Hawaii and Alaska; plus another 6 Canadian National Parks, from the Maritimes to the Rockies. These travels have been made by automobile, train, and boat. They provided wonderful panoramas of nature, and wildlife including bears, elk, caribou, killer whales, big horn sheep, and others. I’ll organize this post geographically, starting with the US and moving on to Canada. (These have all been included in other, more extensive posts on this blog; you are invited to look at those posts for more details.)

East

Several trips have taken me into parks in the Eastern US. A family trip when I was young went into the Everglades. Marjorie and I had an early trip to the Smokies that included Mammoth Cave and some views of Shenandoah (1973); we’ve revisited through the latter area (2003, 2016), with a more extended stay in the Smokies in 2016. Acadia was visited in 1976.

Acadia

  

 

Mammoth Cave 

Great Smoky Mountains 

 The Smokies offer some fabulous panoramas, especially in the Fall.

 

Shenandoah 

Everglades 

The only photo I have from my childhood trip is one my brother took of lightning during a ferocious thunderstorm while on a tour.

But a later trip in 2022 provided lots of photo ops,

including lots of wildlife.

                                                                 West 

Rocky Mountains

Travels into the Rockies have included a whirlwind driving tour with a friend in college (1967), stops along a train trip (1974), and parts of 2 more recent trips (2012, 2019).

Glacier 

Our stop on a train trip included an overnight stay in Lake McDonald Lodge. The photo above shows St. Mary Lake in Glacier.

Badlands 

 The Badlands are in South Dakota, so not really the Rockies, but a stop here was on the way West to Yellowstone on my college trip.

Grand Teton

This was also a brief "drive-through" after touring Yellowstone.

Yellowstone 

Between 2 trips I've spent more time in Yellowstone, including a stay with Marjorie at Mammoth Springs Hotel in the park, which offers a wonderful array of scenic panoramas: thermal & geyser areas,

 

canyon,

 mountain meadows,

and wildlife.

Rocky Mountain 

Rocky Mountain was another relatively brief "drive-through" on my college Western trip.

Mesa Verde 

Mesa Verde was also a very brief stop on the college trip, but a later trip included an overnight following a train excursion in Southern Colorado that allowed more time to enjoy the plateau views and admire the cliff dwellings. 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison 

Another "drive-by" during my college trip.

Southwest

Southwestern parks were visited during the 1967 college trip and other trips to the region: Arizona in 1987, Utah in 1997 & 2019, and Santa Fe in 2012.

 

Great Basin 

The wonders of Great Basin vary from high mountains to desert to cave, and amazing night views thanks to the darkest night sky in the contiguous US.

Arches 

Bryce  

Celebrated my birthday at Bryce Canyon Lodge in the park.

Canyonlands 

Capitol Reef 

Grand Canyon 

The "Granddaddy" of National Parks, and I've been lucky to visit twice: another "drive-by: on the college trip and a longer stay with Marjorie as part of an Arizona trip in 1987.

Zion 

Petrified Forest 

California

 

Visits to Californian parks ˗ Sequoia and Kings Canyon and Yosemite ˗ occurred during a belated honeymoon in 1972. 

Pacific Northwest

Marjorie and I have traveled to parks in the Pacific Northwest in 1986, 2008, and 2013, visiting Mt. Ranier, Olympic, and Crater Lake.

 

Mt. Ranier 

Our visit to Mt. Ranier included a stay at aptly named Paradise Inn in the park.

Olympic 

Olympic is another park that contains a wide range of beauty, from mountains to rain forest to seashore. And we again enjoyed stays inside the park at Kalaloch and Lake Crescent Lodges.

Crater Lake 

Hawaii & Alaska

We traveled to Hawaii in 1989, visiting 3 islands.  

Hawaii Volcanoes 

A drive around the Southern tip of the Big Island Hawaii for early morning views, steam rising from lava reaching the ocean.

Haleakala 

Another very early drive up to the summit at sunrise. 

          We traveled to Alaska in 2001, a combination of car and Inside Passage cruise.

 

Denali 

We stayed in the park at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, had a wonderful nature tour into the park.

Glacier Bay 

Cruising on the "Ocean Princess." 

Kenai Fjords 

We drove down from Seward for a beautiful boat tour of the park, glaciers and wildlife. 

Canada

Parks visited in Canada have ranged from the East, including the Maritimes of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (in 1981 & 1990 via ferry and car) and the Thousand Islands bordering New York (1984), to the Canadian Rockies (by car in 1992 and train plus car in 2014).

 

Cape Breton Highlands (Nova Scotia) 

Fundy 

Beautiful tidal sculptures.











 

Prince Edward Island 

Pastoral scenes, including Green Gables, and lovely shorelines.

Thousand Islands 

Beautiful scenes, islands of all sizes, and good fishing.

Banff 

A wonderful combination of mountains, lakes, and wildlife, including tea at Lake Louise Chalet.

Jasper  

More of the same!