Wednesday, June 9, 2021

McMahan Pandemic Adventures

Pandemic Travel


The COVID-19 Pandemic has wreaked havoc on every aspect of our lives.  In March 2020, my thriving student transportation business suddenly closed and the prospects of reopening were grim.  In late June, Troy’s law firm did cutbacks and he was laid off.  We decided to make the most of this crazy time and try to create new memories and experiences for our sons.  We figured we can just as easily get COVID in our neighborhood or at Costco, and locking ourselves in our home wasn’t healthy either.  We travel with hand sanitizer, wear masks everywhere and physically distance from strangers (especially easy since so few people are travelling).  Bottom line, we are extra careful!


Financially:  We liquidated the family business and sold most of our fleet of vans.  Savings and unemployment also helped us stay afloat.

Cutting corners: Before the pandemic we traveled based on our mantra “the deal dictates the destination.”  We usually find pretty great deals and pandemic air travel proved to be quite affordable ($66rt LAX-Orlando, $44rt Tijuana-Cancun, etc.). That principle still applies, however, we have to dance around COVID restrictions.  We typically like to avoid travel to locations that require a COVID-19 test to enter and exit.  It would be awful to get a false positive and be stuck somewhere.  We also use hotel points or find other lodging deals.  Packing granola bars, trail mix and a water bottle to refill saves us money.  We typically find markets where we travel to buy food and snacks.  Dining out can add up so we like to keep restaurant meals to about one a day.  Whenever possible, we find local food in local neighborhoods.  Always delicious and affordable.  Also, we only travel with small carryon bags.  It avoids baggage fees and it’s just easier to get around with one piece of tiny luggage per person. 

Travel Insurance:  When we travel to other countries we always purchase travel health insurance.  We do the same now, except we make sure that COVID is included.

Scholastically: We had so little faith that the public schools that we had previously loved, would adequately educate our children during distance learning.  So we enrolled our 9th grader in a charter school program that was already established with distance learning. He works on 2 classes at a time and meets with a teacher to check in weekly.  It’s been wonderful and they’ve even offered him tutoring which has helped with his dyslexia.  He’s also been able to participate in virtual seminary on all of our trips.  For our 6th grade son, we decided to homeschool.  We incorporate learning wherever we go and he does reports on geography, religion, history and culture before each trip.  It’s made learning and traveling so much more fun and interesting.  Travel is so educational!


Here’s a quick overview of most of the places we’ve been.

Utah (a handful of times)

Idaho

4 National Parks (Zions, Yellowstone, Arches, Grand Canyon)

Arizona

Orlando

Colonial Virginia

Costa Rica

Turkey

Serbia

Mexico





August 2020 Disneyworld




Lagoon Amusement Park, UT 

Hiking the Narrows, Zions, Utah 




Yellowstone, Montana 

Colorado River rafting, Arizona


BYU football game, Utah


Jamestown, Colonial Virginia

Williamsburg, Colonial Virginia


Costa Rica


Belgrade, Serbia

Nikolai Tesla Museum, Belgrade, Serbia


Old Fortress, Belgrade, Serbia


Cappadocia, Turkey

Cappadocia, Turkey

Hagia Sophia Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey










Cancun beach, Mexico

Cancun, Mexico







Sand Hollow Golf Course, UT (golfed with cousin and uncle)


Brianhead, UT


Saturday, December 19, 2020

Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade Serbia.  Wow.  I will put more descriptions in this post later.  For now, here are a few highlights.


Jetlag Preston on a city bus

Free walking guides of the city.

Serbian Orthodox church
Graffiti everywhere.  It's not violent or gang related.  it's more about expression and art.

Nikola Tesla museum was super interesting.







Pedestrian area
Sunset walk




Fortress

Ammo chandeliers in fortress church



So fun watching my kids being kids




We were so excited to see that Yugos still exist.  Remember Yugos?!







Republic Square
Serbian mariachi band.

Dog parking is too adorable.

Our hotel.  Clean.  Safe.  Affordable.  About $50 per night.  It was technically an apartment building.  Our apartment was built for Barbie and Ken (not full figured Americans).  haha

 


The room included breakfast but they didn't have a restaurant attached.  So they gave us vouchers to take to a nearby "restaurant."  Here's a picture. It was a pub.  Did I mention that smoking indoors is totally a thing in Serbia?  Ya.  Total culture shock.
Preston kept his mask on almost the entire time.  BTW here's a typical Serbian breakfast:  3 eggs, 2 hotdogs, pickle slices and deep fried cheese.  They did bring me an unsweetened drinkable yogurt with I was hoping was packed with probiotics to help push that dense breakfast through my system.




Graffiti  is a big deal in Belgrade.  It's not violent or gang related.  It's about expression and art.














Temple of Saint Sava (Orthodox Christian)






Indoor market. So many vendors.



Jetlag hit Preston hard.  Even in the middle of our tour.



Watching an important BYU football game (thanks to our buddy, Gregg, for FaceTiming it so we could watch.  Also, watching wrestling matches.  Hooray for technology keeping us connected to our friends and sports.

As we drove past this building, our taxi driver said "ya, you guys bombed that one."



McMahan Pandemic Adventures

Pandemic Travel The COVID-19 Pandemic has wreaked havoc on every aspect of our lives.  In March 2020, my thriving student transportation bus...