It has been a while since I've posted on Southern Sonoma Country Life. Those of us in the San Francisco North Bay area have been enjoying a few months of relative freedom in so far as being out and about again, spending time with friends and family and tentatively attempting to return to life as it was before the pandemic hit, with various modifications in place.
Just as we thought things were starting to settle down, the Delta variant has turned the world around again and reminded us that we are not out of the woods yet.
Back on April 23rd I booked July flights to the UK to visit my parents, my mother-in-law, siblings and their families and to attend my niece Elle and her partner Rob's year-in-the-waiting, rescheduled country wedding. I couldn't have been more excited seeing as the vaccinations had kicked in within the extended family on both sides of the Atlantic, California was opening up mid-June and the UK was set to follow with easing its restrictions on June 21st.
By June 14, English PM Boris the wild hair announced that due to the rampaging Delta variant the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in England was to be delayed to July 19th. One June 24th, Virgin Atlantic pulled all flights from SFO to London Heathrow indefinitely and we were informed we'd be rerouted with our travel via Los Angeles.
In the two weeks that followed, almost every travel plan I had implemented was cancelled or altered in some way and we prepared for mandatory self-isolation mentally and physically and logistically upon entry to the UK after earning a university degree in passenger location form filling, prepaid government approved test package coordination and too many hair raising stressors to list.
It was tempting to throw our arms up in the air and quit, yet my need to see my parents and reunite with family won out and I decided to take it on as a challenge, albeit one that would be undertaken making sure that we weren't putting anyone, ourselves included into any harm. Remember when we hoped that a double vaxed status would provide a greater level of protection and some kind of vaccine passport? Not so. It transpires that most countries (that are not completely reliant on tourism) don't trust one another's systems and selections at all at this stage and for a while yet it's going to be all about testing and retesting when it comes to those who are persistent enough to make the trip. The fact that a fully vaccinated person is still vulnerable in contracting and potentially spreading the variant is something that we have to accept at home and abroad.
As a writer, I had preconceived ideas about what I wanted to report after my summer transatlantic experience. In reality, it was such brain-frazzling extreme travel in the getting there and back and navigating the intensity of a British summer in which the general population has been put through the ringer for so many more months than we here, in the States, I've not yet figured out all of the angles for my post travel reporting other than to start with a post on the confusion of it all.
Just as we tested out of quarantine and the daily Track and Trace check up calls, the BBC news app alerted me to the fact that Biden and the US government had just put the UK on its do not visit Red List given the rate of transmission of the Delta variant and that Americans were being warned to steer clear. As a dual national I wasn't about to overly panic about getting in or out or back or whatever. If I'd had to, I would have quite happily stayed on with my family for a few more weeks.
But for everyone else who may have a trip planned to the UK this year, good news has come in since I posted this. Latest update is that fully jabbed Americans and EU citizens may be allowed into the UK from August without having to endure quarantine. If I was in the last group to be put through that experience then I'll be glad to hear it. It doesn't appear that the US is reciprocating for fully vaccinated UK citizens wishing to reunite with family here in the States.
My youngest sister Lindsey is a teacher, she and our sister Kerry have school aged kids. They're armed with streams of lateral flow test kits at home, provided by the NHS so that families and schools are able to monitor outbreaks in the younger generations who have not been vaccinated and the contamination of household members. Testing for work is also a big thing thanks to these kits, but compared to here in the USA, its downside is that it has created a massive wave of whole family isolations of those exposed but not infected across the country that has shuttered transportation, hospitality and industry. The "pingdemic" of track and trace as it's been called has proved to be the harbinger of chaos.
I'm in no way qualified as an expert on the situation, but in finding common ground between the UK and the USA, there surely has to be a much better system developed and implemented in which frequent at home testing is more efficient and effective for all going forward.
We had a marvelous visit with our loved ones and my niece's wedding was everything she and we had all hoped for, outdoors and on a spectacular summer's day. There was a visit to the seaside, a coastal hike, a boat ride, family barbecues and lots of homemade Italian food with my amazing mother-in-law. My parents and I spent quality time together in the house where I was born. It was a pleasure to cook a couple of nice meals for them and eat together around the same table as we shared in my growing up. I can't ask for more than that.
I'm so grateful that we tested safely home on our extended journey to LA and on to San Francisco and a few days after we arrived back in Petaluma. I hope that the next time I embark on a trip back to see my folks it will be a lot less of a planning ordeal but it may be something that we have to accept as travel becomes more complex in the immediate future at least.
I'll share some of the fun things from my trip to England in the coming week or two, but for now, I'll say it was an education into all the things I never imagined with this transcontinental life of mine! Not least there wasn't a soul in the car hire at Heathrow when we arrived, nor was there any vehicles parked in the long term lots. Unreal. Real.
If you're traveling this summer, be safe. I hope it's smooth sailing. See you back in Sonoma County!
