[00:00:14] Speaker A: Welcome to two Travel Dads podcast. Here we share our favorite destinations, travel tips, stories from our adventures, and bring on awesome guests to share insights into their travelsome lives. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and check out our detailed show
[email protected]. Podcast episodes welcome back to another episode of two Travel Dads podcast featuring, well, let me ask you this.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Let me ask you this.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Starring myself, Rob and Kate Batsall.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Woo hoo.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: I've really been enjoying recording these episodes with you because they're so different than when we actually sit down with, like, a schedule of what we want to talk about.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I hope that people are just enjoying our random brain rambling.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: If you're listening, I hope it feels like you're eavesdropping and you feel special.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Good times.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Or that you're part of the conversation.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
So with that, today's, let me ask you, this is about pandemic slash post pandemic life and travel and how we feel about it. So I know that sounds very loose and open, but that's how we like it.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: We love it loose and open.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: I don't remember where I was going with that.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: This is very distracting.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Anyways, let's talk about that. Okay, great post.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Pandemic travel or during pandemic lack of travel.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: I know. So. And right now, as we're seeing a surge in COVID in different places again.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Ew. No, that's not okay.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: I know, but you know what? It's on the news. It is what it is. So with that pandemic hits, I'm gonna talk about this first because I worked in travel and still work in travel.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: You are the person for this question.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: And literally, here's the story of me learning about COVID Once upon a time, I am at Disneyland with my family and actually several other people who work in travel, other travel bloggers. And we were all hanging out in California Adventure podcast episode about that, and we were just chatting, and one of my friends, Kim, she said, hey, have you guys heard about this, like, COVID thing? It was something on the news, because, you know, at the time, we lived in Seattle, and she also lived in Seattle. And so that's where, for the US, that's where it really kind of started. And none of us really heard anything about it. And we're like, oh, that sounds kind of weird. Whatever. Let's go have fun. And we went and had fun, and then we flew home on March 1, which I was talking to the kids about this, actually, last night that it was the scariest flight of my life. And I actually thought that we were going to die as we rapidly descended 20,000ft due to the most violent turbulence I've ever experienced.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: It was horrifying. And I, like, Elliot and I were sitting kind of like middle of the plane, and then Chris and Oliver were like six, seven rows in front of us. Like, we weren't even all sitting together.
[00:03:17] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: And the plane was just like going up and down and there was flight attendants buckled into seats in the middle of the cabin because they couldn't even make it back to the back of the plane. Like, it was so intense.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Oh, wow. For the nervous traveler, that is not the norm.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: It is not the norm. And I've never even experienced anything else even remotely reminiscent of a single moment of that flight. It was terrifying.
[00:03:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that's bananas.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: It was bizarre. Anyways, so that was our flight coming home from that last trip before the pandemic. And we got home and literally the next day is when the news started to flare up and we watched the world shut down.
For me, something that was really big that happened is as they started to announce, you know, lockdown, social distancing, things like that, I all of a sudden, sudden saw my workload just disappear. And I had about an hour and a half time in this one afternoon, I think it was March 14 or 15th or so, where I received email after email canceling work projects that were already contracted, and in an hour and a half, I lost $55,000 worth of work.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: It was. I, like, literally, it was stuff that was already booked and scheduled. All of this happening and all of a sudden my business just vanished in.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: An afternoon that must have felt very like, world endy.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: It was bizarre. Like, I.
It's really weird to think about now because now, like, life is basically back to normal, but it was really weird and mortifying. So with that, I mean, then we did our move across the country during the pandemic and our camper got a podcast episode about that, too.
And we landed here in Florida, where the beach was closed.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: And it was not quite like it was in Washington as far as pandemic goes, but it was pretty intense still. And we definitely weren't going anywhere. So that was my, like, pandemic transition into the life of let me just go kayaking and get really good at taking my kids to the beach.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: What happened for you when everything kind of kicked in four years ago, so.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Weirdly, as you were telling the story I was like, oh, weird. We were both on, like, trips when it kind of happened.
[00:05:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's right, because you were traveling, too.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: And so was my husband, and my husband was where you lived at the time. He was in Seattle, and he was coming home from a work trip, and it was like, the 3 march or whatever. He was gonna be home, and I was leaving for a cruise. Yes, a cruise. And we all know what happened with that, for I was going on, like, a three or four day cruise.
And so I was watching the news and, like, texting him, and he's calling me and going, oh, my gosh. Like, you know, there's, like, this thing is happening in Seattle where I am, and I don't think he was supposed to go back out for, like, six more weeks or whatever. And they were like, yeah, yeah, no, no, nobody's coming back. So I basically, like, texted him, and I was like, please come home and burn all your clothes when you arrive and, like, shower and acid or whatever you need to do. And then I got on a cruise ship, and, of course, at that point, we didn't know that cruise ships were going to be, like, a cesspool. So we got on a cruise ship where I did not have any Internet or cell service for three days. And then we got off the cruise ship, and it was me and four of my girlfriends. Me. And we got off the cruise ship, and, of course, then our cell service kicks back in, and it's just. Our phones just blew up with all of this, you know, oh, my gosh, the world is ending. Yada, yada, yada. So it was really crazy. And I was like, wait, what happened? We're all just like, la dee da on the cruise. Everything was fine. Went to the Bahamas. It was lovely. And then turns out the, you know, entire. The pandemic had spread at that point.
It was here. So. So, yeah, that was kind of. It was kind of crazy. And then, yeah, again, it was no traveling for.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: For anybody. For. I mean, we didn't even go to Pennsylvania to visit parents. We didn't, you know, do any of that stuff. So, yeah, gosh, we camped in our driveway.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Isn't it weird that that was four years ago now?
[00:07:31] Speaker B: That's because that I can't.
It's bananas. But I feel like the pandemic now is very much like the 911. Like, where were you when, you know. So it is very kind of interesting that we've gone through these kind of global situations, catastrophes, whatever you want to.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Call them, by the way, on 911, I was. I was one of the openers for my Starbucks store in Ballard, the 3294 shout out.
And that was also fascinating because that was before I had a cell phone and before there was Internet absolutely everywhere. And all the information that was coming into my little cafe at 06:00 in the morning was bizarre. And it was just putting together these weird pieces and stories. And then all of a sudden, like, we were shutting down our Starbucks, and there was, like, corporate people standing outside giving out drink coupons, and we're like, what is happening to the world? And then my grandma called the store in a panic.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that's really funny, because you probably worked in a store where you couldn't turn, you know, you didn't have a radio. You know, you're just listening to, like, the Muzak that's playing in the store.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: And I was in the same situation.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: Because pure music is what it was.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: I was. I was in at American Eagle Outfitters in the king of Prussia mall. If you listen to our last episode, you'll know about king of Prussia. Anyway, and again, we didn't have a radio. We were, like, running. There was an NBC ten store down this. Down, like, a couple streets, like a Hudson news kinda. NBC ten is big in Philly. And so we were, like, running down to, like, watch that, like, in, you know, it was like two of us that had just opened the store, and we were running down to watch the news and see what was going on and then coming back to tell the other one, and then the other one would run down.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: So, so wild.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: This became a. Where were you when.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it really. Yeah, we don't need to talk about the Berlin Wall today. But I remember that, too.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: That was in the eighties.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: I know. Do you not remember that?
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I mean, I remember, like, David Hasselhoff or something. Did he do something?
[00:09:34] Speaker A: I don't know. Anyways, so back to the pandemic.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:09:38] Speaker A: So for us, our first kind of thing that kind of felt, I don't want to say normal, because it was really weird. The first kind of travel y sort of thing that we did once the pandemic hit was Disney World invited us to come and, like, see what Disney was, like, fully masked and, like, managing social distancing and all that. And it was the strangest experience because it was such tight, I guess, security, you would say, about how everything happened and everything was sanitized and there would be just your own immediate family in a ride vehicle, and there was nobody in the parks. It was fascinating.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Did you. Were you this is very weird. This aligns, too well. This is, like, kind of weird.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Because our first thing that we did after everything started to, like, like, restrictions started to let up was go to Disney. Oh, but doing it in Orlando.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Yeah, well, no, exactly. We were in Orlando, too.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: We still had time on our passes and we had to use it because we had, like, another month left or whatever, and we had to use it when they reopened. So we went and so what was your. Was, were you like, this is awesome, because there's nobody here, or were you like, this is weird and creeping me out?
[00:10:51] Speaker A: It was kind of a little bit of both because there was, like, there were no lines. No wait, no. Anything like that. But then also, Disney's, you know, a happy place, and all of our photos are stifled. We all have masks.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: I mean, they're awesome masks. Like goofy Donald duck stitch, you know, things like that. Like character faces.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: But at the same time, like, they say you smile with your eyes. I'm sorry. No, all of those photos. When all those photos with us at Disney World in the magic kingdom wearing masks, you can tell they're not framers. They're not framers.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: You're not framing those bad boys. I know.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: No, and it's funny cause, like, I've been, like, going through and, like, updating old blog posts about Disney, and I'm finding so many pictures that I added from, like, during peak COVID and, yeah, we're having fun. We're at Magic Kingdom, but also, like, you can see the darkness around the edge of my mask from the sweat.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: It had started absorbing, yeah. Just really weird little nuanced things like that that, you know, were a part of the experience. Like, yeah, we got to go. While other people were still, like, extremely locked down because they were immunocompromised or they lived in a place where they couldn't go to a really distant theme park, you know? Yeah, it was very different for us.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Yeah. There were a lot of cities that were really, you know, hardcore locked down. What's funny is, so my husband thought that Disney, during the pandemic, was, like, the best Disney ever because he does not like crowds and he does not love. He was not a huge fan of wearing a mask in the hot, hot. Right.
But he was like, I would do this all day long if I could. Just like, he loved having tables that were, like, 10ft apart. And, you know, he's like, you're not right on top of people. It's great. This is fantastic. So his dream, Disney is a pandemic, Disney.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Well, and then universal was the same.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: And then, you know, I actually wrote a lot about that, about kind of what the difference was and how they were managing them, and it was very, very different.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: And, yeah, yeah, it's funny, I look back at pictures. Cause we went to California in 2021 in February, and restrictions in California had not really been lifted much. And we were in San Francisco, we were in Los Angeles, and I was looking back at pictures that I actually wanted to get framed of our trip. And a lot of the pictures, the kids are wearing masks, and I'm like, but this was a part of our life. And what's funny is even their school pictures, I actually had them wear masks in their school pictures, because when you look back at, like, your kids school pictures, you're looking year after year after year. I wanted to be like, this was the pandemic year because it is a historical event. So, like, they're going to. When they have kids and their grandkids and stuff, they're gonna look back and be like, yeah, that was back during the COVID times, you know? So I don't know how to say that. An old grandpa voice also.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: No, because, you know, one of the things I love to say, and I say this to read often, her son is like, he'll tell a story about something, and then once he's done all this, say, that's a good story, grandpa. And.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Because he does tell stories about grandpa.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Totally. But, like, when we talk about this to our grandkids, someday they're gonna be like, oh, that's a good story.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it is really interesting. But, like, I also like the document. Like, having it all documented is really kind of an important, you know, piece of human history.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: So it is. And it's also. This was kind of the first, like, worldwide event where social media was around.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Which also made it more complex because you got such contrasting information, misinformation, opinions with. From people who all of a sudden had a platform to talk about things they didn't know anything about. But also everybody documenting how it was, like, daily life. And that wasn't something that had been done for 911.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: That's true. That is true. Yeah.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Or Desert Storm or.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah, 911. It was, you know, even though there were people that had documented it, you didn't get it right away. You were getting it later.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: And when you bought the Time magazine.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We had a friend that lived in Brooklyn, so he had. And he was an art student and had been filming on the Brooklyn Bridge when it happened.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: And we got to see his footage, but it was. It was insane. But I guess, you know, they had. When the first tower got hit, they had the news there, and then, of course, they got to see it all unfold on camera, but it was still. It wasn't. You know, it's weird to think that there wasn't really social media back then. It doesn't seem like that long ago, but I guess it was.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Like. And when you look at. When you look at things from 911, it looks historic.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Like, it's got a certain quality. It has that film quality to it, and it makes it so that it seems, like, almost kind of detached, even though we can remember exactly vhs tape quality. Uh huh. Yeah. And so. And so when you look at it, it kind of jogs memories and puts that filter on it. Versus now, like, I look at pictures of us in our camper or pictures that were, like, taken of me filling up our gas tank when we were driving across the country, and I'm wearing a mask outside, wearing plastic gloves at an empty gas station in the desert.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Yeah. That's crazy. That is very, like, apocalyptic kind of feel.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: It's very strange. It's really weird. But it's also, like, it has a quality of the now versus the nostalgic quality of thinking back and seeing, like, 911 photos. It's. It's just a totally different way of looking at it.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: I know. Boy, I walk down memory lane for everyone.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: I didn't know this is where this was going.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: I didn't either, but I'm really glad we're all here for it.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Good job, everyone.
Well, let me ask you this.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:39] Speaker B: What made you decide during the pandemic to up and leave the west side of the country and move to the east side of the country?
[00:16:49] Speaker A: Because pre pandemic, we were already in the process.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Okay, well, fair.
[00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah, no, we were already in the process of, like, moving and selling our house, and we already had an offer on a house here and had gone through inspection and done all that. And we were.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: So you were pretty much committed.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: This is happening.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: But, like, we also had done it with a really long, like, a 60 day close so that we could really button things up. And then everything happened, and then all of a sudden, we had to put our house on the market two days later. And the real estate agent here was like, if you want to have this house, you need to close on this now before they don't let you. And it was all very doomsday, which is why, when all that happened all of a sudden. A week later, we had a moving truck booked and we had bought a camper and we couldn't have hotel reservations anywhere, so we had to camp our way across the country to be able to move. Like, it was very swift.
Had we not been in process, I'm sure we would have stayed and then we would not be here today. But thankfully we had already done that. And thankfully our real estate agent made us panic about it.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think everybody was panicking because.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: It was all panic. No disco, you know, I mean.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And then. Then everything happened with the 2020 election, which I know, right. That that was, that was a part of this collective trauma and that was, you know, different panic, same disco.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So now we're up again. Woohoo.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: New disco.
[00:18:26] Speaker B: We're gonna redo everything new.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: More niche panic now.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Okay, fair.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Depending on who you are.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Interesting. Do you feel like. Well, okay, so let me ask you this. Do you feel like the.
There are still, like, so you. Because you're booking travel for a living, do you feel like there are still a lot of restrictions in different places, in different. I know when we were looking at our trip to the UK, we were like, okay, well, we're leaving the United states. Are we, are we gonna have to wear masks and play, like, what are, what's going on over there? You kind of have to, like, check the websites and do all the things and.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah, so I haven't come across anything that is specifically like that currently. But, like, I mean, to be honest, when we flew to Hawaii last month, I wore a mask on the plane. So, like, we had our masks because no matter what you're, like, used to now in daily life, like, for me, it's. I still remember the flights that I did have to take when it was still, like, when there would be 15 people on a plane and you had to wear a mask and you had to, like, wipe down your entire section. Like, it still is a part of, like, this is a part of the flying process.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: And so even though it's not required anymore. So actually, it was funny. I was at a conference in Washington state when the FAA removed the mask restriction.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: Uh huh. And it happened. Or I was on my way to Washington. It happened mid air.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Did they make an announcement?
[00:20:03] Speaker A: They made an announcement because people were on, like, you have Internet on there?
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Sure, sure.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: People were on their phones and somebody on my plane was like, we don't have to wear masks anymore, everyone.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: Oh, wow. That's so weird.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: It was bizarre because then you hear just this hubbub, and then the flight attendant came on and said, we would like to let you know that the FAA has removed this restriction. We will be continuing to wear ours during the flight. If you choose to remove your mask, that is a personal decision. Like, it was very weird. And also at that time, like, I was still kind of in that mode of, ooh. And had I known that was going to happen, you know, I think I still felt trepidatious enough about everything that I might not have flown.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:51] Speaker A: And then got to my conference and I'm still wearing a mask. And I was like, oh, you don't have to anymore. Even the FAA says so.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: And you're like, yeah, but people are gross. And I was like, the guy that was coughing on me in my flight.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was, it was, it was very strange, honestly. You know, there's another where were you moment. Where were you the moment the FAA?
[00:21:09] Speaker B: I don't even know. I didn't even know it happened, like, when it happened. But I think that, you know, the, like, being on an airplane is a germy place anyway.
And so for me, I would rather not get, like, I'm a, I'm not a germaphobe, but I'm also, like, not a person who likes disgustingness. So when we got, when we.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: So you're normal?
[00:21:33] Speaker B: I mean, I don't know that I'm normal. I feel like I'm a little bit over the top. But when we got, when we get on a plane, I, like, wet wipe everything down with, like, lysol wipes because, like, have you ever seen the videos of when they go with the black light? People don't watch the video, just wipe down your stuff. Seriously. But I'm also the person that gets sick really, really easily. And, like, I always get whatever the guy sitting next to me has, and then I go on a trip, and then I'm miserable for myself.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Your whole life is all, have what he's having.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yes, pretty much. And so I don't want to go, you know, I don't want to pay all this money to go to Hawaii or something and then be, like, sick with the food stomach bug the whole time we're there. My husband, when we went to St. Thomas, he got a stomach bug and was quite literally in our hotel room for almost the entire trip. And meanwhile, I'm like, I'm going to the pool. But I felt bad for him. But I'm like, listen, we paid a lot of money for this trip, so somebody's going to enjoy it.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: But so I have a story.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: It's relating to that.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: And it's relating to making poor decisions about flying while sick.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Um, okay, so.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: So once upon a time, 2009. Who remembers 2009? Do you remember what happened in 2009?
[00:22:45] Speaker B: No.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: The swine flu.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Oh, good.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Remember the swine flu?
[00:22:49] Speaker B: There was bird flu. There was swine flu. There's all kinds of animals.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Did you get the swine flu?
[00:22:54] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: We got the swine flu.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Oh, wonderful.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: While we were in Mexico.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Ooh. Ooh.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Like, it was mortifying. It was the worst trip ever. We had coordinated this big trip to Cabo with friends and family. In total, there were 15 of us.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: It was bombing.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Did everyone get the swine flu?
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Half of us got the swine flu, but so half of us were kind of locked in our rooms, dripping sweat, vomiting.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Oh, lovely.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: And then Hurricane Patricia hit Cabo at the same time. So we're like, with swine flu, a huge group of people. There's a hurricane blowing.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Everyone's dying. Hurricanes are blowing.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: But so then, you know, then we're, you know, it's time to go home. And it's not like we could just stay in Mexico with swine flu. We didn't have a place to stay. This is also 2009, so it was a different world.
So we got to the airport, and we flew through Salt Lake City, and there were signs all over the airport that said, if you see anyone with these symptoms, please alert.
And literally, we are, like, going through the airport, like, with this, like, off white colored skin with sunburnt cheeks, sweating, like, trying to be.
And we got home, but, oh, man. Then we. Once we were home, we were sick for another four days. I remember one point, like, laying on the bathroom floor naked, throwing up, sweating.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Gross. It was all the more reason to wipe down your trays. Please wipe.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Exactly. And so the point of that story is that, yes, wipe down your airlines.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Because you don't know who's you might seem like a crazy. Well, that is the thing, too, right? Like, I don't. I'm not gonna shame anybody who booked a flight, paid, you know, some ridiculous amount of money for tickets on an airplane. It's expensive, and trying to get it rescheduled is a nightmare. So if you get sick on your trip, that's. You're just in it to win it, and you gotta go.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: But then you also need to extend the courtesy to other people of managing yourself and keeping your germs to yourself as best as possible.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Don't puke on your friends and the seat next to you.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: However. But I think that people need to be aware, like, you know, I don't think. I think we only think in our own kind of little world, be aware that there's gonna be sick people on your plane. So, you know, I highly recommend taking doubling up on your vitamin C and your zinc and all that stuff too.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: We actually have a podcast episode about that, too.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: I know. I listened to it before I went to UK. 8 hours on a plane. I was not gonna mess around.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yeah, but so, I mean, with the pandemic coming in and, like, travel kicking back up, I think it's something we're always gonna kind of think about even if we don't think. I remember the pandemic and now I need to be cautious of this and this. I think it's something that we're just now going to have it ingrained that there's these little nuanced behaviors or discomforts with different things as we proceed in life. Like, it's just now. It's a part of our collective experience and collective trauma.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: I hope that minimally, people are just washing their hands more. That's my wish for all of it.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: That is a great wish for sure.
Going from there, though.
Working in travel, I see where travel is today, and I don't feel like it has recovered to what it was before the pandemic.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Even though travel is kind of at a peak, I think travel now is different.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: In what way? What do you mean?
[00:26:23] Speaker A: So I think that before.
Before the pandemic, people would take trips, take vacations or whatever, and it was just like kind of a normal thing. If you got to do something cool, you got to do something cool. I think that now people are being much more intentional about the things that they do and really gunning for those outdoor adventure sort of trips.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: And national parks. National parks saw huge, soaring numbers since the pandemic.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Well, you can be outside.
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: It's always nice.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: You can be outside. You can socially distance, all that stuff. That's a phrase that I haven't heard.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: I know, right?
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Social distancing.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: It's my husband's dream scenario. He wants everyone to social distance.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: I mean, I want that in general, too, but no. So with that, though, like, with people traveling again now, it's not just that they're starting to travel more, it's that they're doing new.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: They're going to different places than they would have before. Do you feel like it's more. They're trying to do, like, more bucket list y. Kind of like, absolutely. This is a now or never kind of deal.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: More bucket list y. And, like, talking with my friends and family who don't work and travel, they also are doing the more bucket list y, maybe fancier sorts of things or more bespoke. Yeah, bespoke sort of experiences, because I don't know if it's. Maybe it is something of who knows when we're. If we're gonna get locked down again, or. Yeah, maybe it's a. Climate change is so bad. Who knows when somebody's gonna give up and then we're all gonna be gone. You know, there's. There's something going on that has made it so that people are much more active and pursuing really unique and fun, different things than before. Like, it's not just people booking a trip to Disneyland during summer break.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I agree. I think that we definitely got way more. I mean, we booked the trip to California and which, for other people that might not seem everybody else is like, who cares?
[00:28:19] Speaker A: But when you're an east coaster, that's a big trip.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Also. It's a big trip for Cape ATL because she doesn't go anywhere. Like, before that, she had never been west of the Mississippi, and she is, for some reason, speaking in third person.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: I was just gonna call it out.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Because you say you don't do it.
[00:28:33] Speaker A: But you do it.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: I hate that. But, you know, for me, that was, like, a huge deal. I had never been to the Grand Canyon. We went to see. We went to Arizona first. We went to see the grand Canyon.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: I'm going to the Grand Canyon next week.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: That, oh, you're so privileged. And so.
But, I mean, I think that that was very, you know, kind of like, I had always wanted to go to San Francisco and see the sea lions on the things, and. Yeah, there were, like, five sea lions, you guys. Really sad, actually.
But, you know, that was like a really big bucket list kind of trip. And we booked it because we were like, oh, my gosh, we haven't gone anywhere in how many, you know, a year or two. And we were kind of over it.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: My husband hasn't traveled for work since. Well, he did. He went to Orlando, but that's not.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's not.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: That's not travel.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: That's not travel. But, no, I think that that is the perfect example of, you know, changing how you would normally operate throughout a year. Now that we've gone through this is like, intentionally going and doing something like that, whether it seems big or small to somebody else who cares. That is a huge thing for your family, for us guys.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: I wonder if listeners are going, are traveling more or going to bigger and more. I would love exotic places.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: I would love to have some info from people about that. Like if you want to jump on wherever you get your podcasts or jump on social and leave a comment somewhere about what your travel mo is these days, I would love to hear that because I only know what's in my travel circle and my family and friends.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. And where. Where they, where they're going or where they're planning on going.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Or if they're making less plans and just holing up in their house, maybe. I don't know.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Or becoming professional local campers, which is also fun.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: That's another podcast. I don't even know what that is. So beyond me.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Oh, good times. I think this was a great little chat that we had. We always have great little and it was unplanned.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Thanks for letting us in your ears.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it was great. If you enjoyed us, go ahead and leave a rating somewhere. If you didn't enjoy us, keep it to yourself.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. That's what my mom always said.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah, my mom didn't say that, but I agree with it.
[00:30:47] Speaker B: Still do it. It doesn't matter.
[00:30:48] Speaker A: And then make sure you hit that subscribe button. This was another episode of let me ask you this via to Travel Dads podcast. Have a great day. We'll talk to you later.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Bye.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: To Travel Dads podcast is created by Rob and Chris Taylor in St. Augustine, Florida. We'd love to answer your questions here on the podcast, providing both our experience and stories. To share our own insights into whatever you're wondering about, visit twotraveldads.com podcast Dash episodes to leave your questions and to check out past episodes and show notes. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and have an awesome day.
