It’s mid-June and Chuck and I are fully vaccinated and starting to get back into the swing of “normal” life. This new normal involves always having a mask handy and washing our hands a LOT more than in pre-pandemic times. But in one big way life IS returning to normal – we’re starting to make travel plans! We took a short trip up to San Francisco a week or so ago to see the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit at the Fillmore West. We flew for the first time in 16 months which is the longest stretch I’ve gone without getting on an airplane in probably 30 years at least. We met my friend Cheryl and stayed at the Marriott Marquis (they are the host hotel and were offering some fabulous rates if you bought tickets to the Van Gogh exhibit) and realized very quickly that San Francisco has taken the pandemic VERY SERIOUSLY. Everyone was wearing masks indoors and outdoors and lots of things were still closed (this was just prior to the new health orders that took place on June 15) so the hotel’s beautiful rooftop bar was closed as was the hotel’s restaurant. But there were lots of places within easy walking distance so we managed to stay fed and hydrated. 🙂  A highlight: the Dirty Habit, a restaurant bar across the street from the Marriott at the Hotel Zelos that offered lots of great tapas-style food and exotic cocktails. I fear we were actually not cool enough to be there but happily they didn’t turn us away.

The exhibit was amazing – it was pretty much a movie with a soundtrack (versus a 3D sort of experience) but it’s worth the cost. We flew Southwest and everybody was cool with the masks. We were surprised when they offered us in flight beverages (since everyone had masks on they said raise on finger for regular Coke and two fingers for Diet Coke) but other than the masks, Southwest is still Southwest. It felt weird to be traveling at first but by the end of the trip I felt like I. starting to get my mojo back and am now ready for the next spate of trips – high on my list is a trip to visit family in a few weeks. So looking forward to hugging everyone in person (and I’m not really much of a hugger)!