Month: September 2020

Remembering

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For many, they will remember what they were doing or where they were March 13, 2020. I know I remember. It was the Friday before March break. The kids were finishing school for March break (yes I know, it just ended this week), and those of us in the travel industry were witnessing the closures of every border in the world. That night I had a horrible experience as the shelves of Walmart were bare, every aisle worse than the one before.

Then I went to work the following day. I helped clients book flights home from Spain as the borders were closing all around them. Call after call, I was there. Much like I was on September 11, 2001.

For those who work in tourism, travel agencies specifically, they will always remember the where, when, why of everything they did on that day in our history. I remember that the information was so confusing, much like it was in March. We would hear, planes are falling out of the sky. There were at least six planes, no eight. It was impossible. And then it was silent. All the planes were out of the sky and we were all left in shock and disbelief.

It didn’t quite happen that way in March. Planes kept landing in Canada and people were all trying to get home before getting stranded where they were. While the rest of us crawled in our homes, many were just trying desperately to get back to theirs.

The skies were never totally silent during Covid, but they were very quiet. When I lived at my parents house, and at my condo, we are on the flight path to the airport. In peak flying time, we used to sit on the porch at the house and we could look at our watches, every 90 seconds a plane flew over the house. On the days after 9/11 there was silence. I never really understood the saying, silence is deafening until that time.

A few weeks ago I was out for lunch on the patio of Lone Star by the airport with a friend from my travel agency. On that bright sunny day we heard a large plane coming in for landing. We looked at each other and smiled. The sounds of planes is something that a lover of travel appreciates. It was an unspoken understanding about wanderlust.

Viva Las Vegas

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A few years ago, at a previous company, our team moved to a new building and we now shared space with other teams. We were asked to fill out this little ‘get to know’ you form that would be attached to your cubicle as a conversation starter.

The questions to answer were:

Name:

Department:

How you like your coffee?

Tell us something about yourself:

My answer to the last question was – I have been to Las Vegas 19 times. Boy oh boy was that a conversation starter. Everyone wanted to know why would I go to Las Vegas 19 times. Off the cuff I would say, why not, or I would go more if I could afford to go now, or I want to stay in every hotel on the strip and beyond.

My very first time to Vegas was for my 21st birthday. The friend I was supposed to go with had to change her plans at the last minute, and I had to find someone to replace her. I did, but she wasn’t really a friend of mine, the trip was okay but nothing memorable.

Thankfully I was working in a travel agency, and Las Vegas used to be a very reasonable three night trip. I do remember a time when you could eat three meals a day there for under $20. You could also find $1 Blackjack, which was a bonus. I remember reading ‘the book’ on the plane to Vegas and sitting at the table and trying to remember all of the rules. Everyone is a professional when they play for a $1 so I was always getting great advice (insert eye roll here).

Over the years, it was always fun to go to Las Vegas with people who had never been before. Walking through the themed hotels, on the strip, in and out, pennies in the slot machines. I always loved watching friends faces while we were on final approach when they looked out the window and saw this larger than life scene appear in the dessert. You had the pyramid of Luxor, the New York City Skyline, and at the time the worlds largest hotel MGM with its huge lion and green windows taking over the view. The excitement was palpable.

I do remember a certain night (October 23, 1993) sitting in the sports book at Caesers Palace beside a Phillies fan who got up to leave in top of the 9th inning because her team had already won the game. When Joe Carter hit the home run and the whole bar was screaming and I was jumping up and down all I wanted to do was find that lady and torture her with my enthusiasm. On the flight home the next day, the flight crew left out all the local Toronto papers for us to see how the celebration looked at home.

It wasn’t until years and many trips after that, that was I were during another world series. This time it was October 2003 and it was Florida Marlins vs. New York Yankees. This story I have shared many times, but yes, in search of $1 black jack and found a friend for life. Funny how that happened, but it did.

It has now been nine years since I have been to Las Vegas. The urge is there, but not in the current state that it is in. Many serious gamblers that sit at the tables could care less if they talk to anyone, but for those who are there for fun, there is something to be said for sitting with Plexiglas in between the spots that just doesn’t do it for me.

For now it will be all of the great memories of the past trips that will need to keep me going until we can return to travelling.

Birthdays

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Birthdays, love them or dislike them? I happen to like birthdays, mine and celebrating others. I know it is not something everyone enjoys doing, and as we are getting older it could be a reason to not want to celebrate, but I would argue that we should always want to celebrate the day we arrived into the world.

I wonder what age one changes from loving the celebration to dreading the day each year. When we are young, we want a theme that is a current trend or fad, book a venue, party supplies, loot bags, the cake. What about the cake? Probably the most exciting, chocolate or vanilla, cupcakes or sheet cake, pink or purple (and of course now no more candles).

At some point I decided to combine by love of birthdays and my passion for travel and start to celebrate my birthday with a trip. The first time was in 2006, for my 35th birthday to Paris. I am sure I have written about it before, but on my birthday we went up the Eiffel Tower during the day and the Moulin Rouge at night for my birthday. I will never forget that birthday. I was reminded of our Eiffel Tower experience over the weekend.

Other birthday trips that followed were a couple of birthdays in Los Angeles, one of them at at spectacular chocolate afternoon tea at the Langham hotel in Pasadena, New Orleans, Savannah and last year Jamaica. Savannah was fun, eating at Paula Deen’s restaurant as part of my birthday request. Each experience was memorable and I am reminded how grateful I am for having the opportunities I have had over the years to travel and how much I have seen and how much more there is to see.

You may be asking why I am writing about birthdays today? Well, today is September 8th, which is Heath’s birthday. The night before he passed away we had a few conversations, and one of them was our birthday plans for our 50th birthdays, which are in 2021. I told him that I found the trip we would take, and we would be able to put a deposit on it in the coming months. It is CRAZY to think that if we had put the money down on the trip, that it wouldn’t actually even be happening, after booking it more than three years in advance. It was a two week cruise to Australia and New Zealand.

I can’t end this birthday post without the mention of my #16plus30 birthday, which was the birthday that really changed my life. It is hard to imagine that a year before the party I thought of the idea, celebrating not 46 but the 30th anniversary of my Sweet 16. It was capped off by Heath being able to come in for the weekend and celebrate not just the party, but a really cool weekend of celebration. When he left, I knew I had a new friend for life.

Cheers to you, my friend. You are missed every single day, but you already know that.