It’s taken me a long time to write this blog post and I have to admit, it’s not because I’ve been lazy, but because I didn’t know how (or if!) I should write about taking a vacation during a pandemic. But hold up there… we didn’t go to Italy or anything like that!

Hubby and I have been fortunate enough to be able to take a vacation, or at least a weekend getaway, every year during our wedding anniversary month in August. A month or two before the pandemic hit in March, we had begun talking about where we would like to go for our 2020 anniversary vacation. My restless legs have become an increasing nuisance on flights, so we liked the idea of taking a break from flying and doing a road trip to Banff, Canada, which would also allow the dachshunds to join us for one of our big vacations.

Unfortunately, pet-friendly lodging was slim pickins’ by the time we considered this popular vacation destination and the complexities of planning such a long road trip seemed overwhelming for such a (relatively) last minute trip, so we hadn’t committed right away. By the time we had finally kinda-sorta decided we should just go ahead and commit to the trip, talks about how serious COVID-19 had become started to hit the headlines in the USA. It was a good thing we had hesitated to book our Canada trip after all!

Come mid-summer, we felt like things with the pandemic were on the upward slope to getting better (while also knowing full-well that it was likely only temporary) and we began contemplating if and how we could still do a responsible and safe vacation. While we didn’t want to take away from or ignore the tragic and risky situation that was going on globally, we were also just trying to cope (like many others) with the never-ending quarantining in the best way we could. If the pandemic had taught us anything, it was that we should definitely be careful in life, but it’s also okay take reasonable and responsible risks because you never know when it could be your last day to enjoy life.

With the nationwide lockdowns in almost every state, hubby and I had a whole new appreciation for living in such a beautiful state because figuring out how and where to take a socially-distanced vacation was pretty simple. We just had to plan a vacation in our own state doing the thing we love most – hiking! We ultimately decided to do a vacation in southern Colorado, specifically Telluride, for our seventh anniversary trip.

We tried to plan our trip in a very deliberate way to reduce virus risk for ourselves and others. We chose lodging that wouldn’t require us to go inside a building or unnecessarily interact with other guests and staff. Since hubby and I both work from home, we were also quarantining well before our trip in order to reduce the chances of us contracting the virus and spreading it to other towns. And lastly, we tried to financially support the local economies we were visiting while also being considerate to the safety of locals by only ordering take-out from restaurants and wearing our masks at all times when we were in close quarters with people.

By default, the itinerary was left up to me and since I am obsessed with chasing waterfalls (and southern Colorado has a lot of them!), you can bet that I had more hikes planned on our itinerary than days available. We ended up covering over 40 miles in 11 hikes during our 9-day trip in southern Colorado. If you think you can keep up, join us virtually on our So. CO journey in my next few blog posts!

First up, we are smoked out of town and leave for our trip early!