Item
Meeting my niece during COVID
Title (Dublin Core)
Meeting my niece during COVID
Disclaimer (Dublin Core)
DISCLAIMER: This item may have been submitted in response to a school assignment prompt. See Linked Data.
Description (Dublin Core)
In August of 2019, my sister gave birth to a baby girl, my first niece. At the time I had just started a new job and was accruing vacation time but did not have enough to cover travel to San Diego, CA for a week. In February of 2020, I booked a flight to visit my sister and meet my niece in May of 2020. Those plans were then canceled the very next month when a pandemic was declared and the country was placed on lockdown. In April, I was able to reschedule my trip for July of 2020.
Flying from Bismarck, ND to my hometown while most of the country was still on lockdown was a different experience. Before COVID, every plane I had boarded was near, if not at, capacity. Flying during COVID saw several empty seats with no two people sitting directly together - even if they appeared to be part of the same party. One observation I had was that while every plane was sanitized upon passengers deboarding, I never saw anyone sanitize any gates while I moved through and sat in airports.
Driving through San Diego, I was shocked to see open freeways with far less traffic than I had ever seen during peak hours. Restaurants were still limited to takeout (though I was really only there for the taco shops anyway) and most indoor venues were still closed unless necessary businesses. The businesses that were open to the public naturally required masks. As I was there to meet my niece and spend time with my sister, I loved not having to make up excuses to avoid meeting up with any old friends and being able to focus on time with family. It was strange to see my hometown, a vibrant and busy city, locked down and the roads and businesses empty. I felt even more grateful for the opportunity I had to travel and still be able to spend time with family since we never know when it will be too late.
Flying from Bismarck, ND to my hometown while most of the country was still on lockdown was a different experience. Before COVID, every plane I had boarded was near, if not at, capacity. Flying during COVID saw several empty seats with no two people sitting directly together - even if they appeared to be part of the same party. One observation I had was that while every plane was sanitized upon passengers deboarding, I never saw anyone sanitize any gates while I moved through and sat in airports.
Driving through San Diego, I was shocked to see open freeways with far less traffic than I had ever seen during peak hours. Restaurants were still limited to takeout (though I was really only there for the taco shops anyway) and most indoor venues were still closed unless necessary businesses. The businesses that were open to the public naturally required masks. As I was there to meet my niece and spend time with my sister, I loved not having to make up excuses to avoid meeting up with any old friends and being able to focus on time with family. It was strange to see my hometown, a vibrant and busy city, locked down and the roads and businesses empty. I felt even more grateful for the opportunity I had to travel and still be able to spend time with family since we never know when it will be too late.
Date (Dublin Core)
July 1, 2020
Creator (Dublin Core)
self
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Reagan Volkman
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HST643
Partner (Dublin Core)
Arizona State University
Type (Dublin Core)
Text story
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Travel
English
Social Distance
English
Public Space
English
Public Health & Hospitals
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
San Diego
restrictions
travel
airplane
newborn
lockdown
pandemic
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
Arizona State University
HST643
Spring A Session 2025
History of Tourism
San Diego
Linked Data (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
01/28/2025
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
03/12/2025
03/31/2025
Item sets
This item was submitted on January 28, 2025 by Reagan Volkman using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.