Celebrating anything during COVID requires creativity and flexibility. Our anniversary this year evolved into not involving any trips, but it did take us outside our house, which is practically like a trip these days.
It was Jason’s turn to plan our anniversary activities. With so much uncertainty at present, I didn’t begrudge him the task. He made us a berries and cream cheese French toast casserole for breakfast, which we enjoyed on our patio. In the afternoon, we went on a hike along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail to the Bear Canyon Bridge and back, which was just over 3.5 miles. Jason picked this path because wildflowers were reported to be in bloom. They were. We encountered 16 or 17 different types of blossoms, some of them covering whole hillsides in sheaths of violet or blush.
The trail was empty until the bridge thanks to a shorter access point from the other side.The hillsides were brimming with blooming dots.
Afterward, we went to dinner at The Charleston Draper, which had recently reopened to guests. We sat in their courtyard under towering trees and twinkle lights at least 10 feet away from anyone; it was conscientiously charming. This normal outing was sprinkled with oddities like masked employees and used dishes being treated like radioactive waste, but it was enlivening to be able to celebrate in a practically standard way even in that alternate universe.
You can find anything online, including custom wrapping paper.
We spent the evening around a firepit in our backyard roasting marshmallows and spotting falling stars. It was basically a scene from a quirky but warming rom-com.
A cozy fire and a hot man? Sign me up!
Although not our usual celebration, we had a perfect day. After all, an anniversary is best spent with just two. Thanks, COVID for making togetherness inescapable.
COVID need not eradicate your own anniversary celebrations. Here are just a few ways you can commemorate your special day while maintaining social distance:
1. Lots of restaurants have created outdoor eating space. Make use of it.
2. Rent a cabin or condo in a remote location. You can get away from your house and still avoid people.
3. Enjoy al fresco dining in your own backyard.
4. Take in a drive-in movie. Many are playing old romantic favorites like Sleepless in Seattle and The Notebook.
5. Escape into nature on a hike or on a bike.
6. Take a hike and have a picnic on a deserted hillside.
7. Have a cookies and games night with homemade cookies and two-player games like Castles of Burgundy or Patchwork.
8. Prepare a delicious meal together using an online cooking class. Options include Gordon Ramsay’s Masterclass, America’s Test Kitchen, and cooking with the New York Times.
Being a social outcast has never been so cool… and isn’t likely to ever be again.
This spring, life quickly turned topsy-turvy in a way most of us didn’t realize was possible. Reflecting now on the last few months seems somewhat premature since the COVID situation is still in flux and the outcome is yet unknown. However, just going over the range of what has happened so far feels like a monumental task. Hence, I wanted to tackle this topic before a 25-page essay becomes necessary.
I’m still digesting this affair with the rest of the world. In another year, decade, or century perhaps we will fully understand the lasting legacy of this pandemic and what we should have done differently. Until then, here’s a bit of my limited perspective.
March
March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. Instead, it felt like one of those rollercoasters that starts out slow and then, next thing you know, the ground just ceases to be under you. It was a month of disruption and isolation where plans vaporized as if hit by a phaser on maximum. The roads and parks became silent and eerie while panic gripped communities. As the death count in the US rocketed and businesses suffered, many Americans fought over toilet paper and placing blame instead of coming together to hinder this microscopic foe.
Like most of you, Jason and I became lost in the pace of change. The month preceding the onset of social distancing was particularly busy for us, so much so that Jason determined we needed to cut out some of our routine activities. Be careful what you wish for my boy! From that eventfulness, we dropped off the quarantine cliff, and suddenly nothing was going on. At first, every day seemed exactly the same as we struggled to adjust.
After the initial shock of speedy isolation wore off, Jason and I started figuring out ways to make isolation less isolating. Within the first month of seclusion, we had 11 virtual board game nights with different sets of friends over Google Hangouts. In our peak week, we had four virtual game nights on consecutive evenings. That proved too much for my eyes. These games were made possible by the resourcefulness of Jason. He rigged some of my photography equipment to hold a cell phone over the game board for a board view. To date, we’ve successfully played Pandemic, King of Tokyo, Splendor, Pandemic Legacy, and Wits & Wagers this way.
I organized two virtual game tournaments for my family.
I initiated virtual King of Tokyo and Splendor tournaments with my family using the above-mentioned method. I was pronounced King of Tokyo, while my brother was declared the winner of Isolated Splendor. Later, an online Dominion tournament ensued, which was won by a nephew. The matches were more intense than expected, especially Splendor. Missing the competitive exhilaration provided by sporting events? Set up virtual game nights for all your cutthroat needs!
You can’t be a legitimate champion without a trophy.
Jason and I also introduced virtual movie nights to my family. We’d all watch a prearranged film at a specific time in our respective locations and get online to discuss the flick afterward. This was a weekly tradition for a couple months.
Beyond getting some screen time with real people to reassure us we weren’t the only ones left on the planet, Jason and I kept sane by taking walks almost every evening, often as soon as the workday was over. Sanity was also gained by nearly daily workouts. I’ve got strapping arm muscles (relatively speaking) thanks to my regular stints on the arm bike; I call these my COVID arms. It was easy to make time for exercise in the absence of everything else.
Having interesting projects helped break up the monotony too. Since I wasn’t taking new pictures, I was able to catch up on editing photos from a few years ago. I commenced some sewing projects for Regency accessories. Additionally, I started planting a forest of succulents, an undertaking I anticipated and bought supplies for before the shutdown. I also took advantage of internet learning opportunities. Online ukulele lessons, photography classes, and cosmetic chemistry courses all kept my brain engaged. Thank goodness for technology!
This was my first batch of succulents. I gave them all away.This was round two of my succulent mania/therapy. I’m about to plant round three.
Any day that was warm enough, I spent on my laptop in the backyard. This change of setting from the study to the patio mollified my mind considerably. On a few Saturdays, Jason and I legitimately got outdoors by snowshoeing up the slopes of Alta Ski Resort and then snowboarding down them.
Jason and I were disappointed the end of the boarding season dissolved due to COVID, but we made this happen.By the last time we went to Alta in mid-May, the snow had melted into countless crevasses.
And how was and is working from home working? Jason and I get along exceptionally well. Even after being compacted together 24-7 for months, we still adore each other. Transitioning to working from home was pretty easy for us. The hardest thing was Jason’s loud phone conversations and video chats. I’m pretty sure talking to people in meetings and out of meetings is 99% of what he does. I just escape to another floor, or better yet the backyard, when he’s being a chatty Cathy, and all remains good.
May
After two months of social distance, new routines seemed more normal. By the end of April, I had fallen into a productive pattern split between working inside in the morning and outside in the afternoon. The evenings mostly involved walks, cleaning, and exercise. A clear distinction emerged between weekdays and weekends as we grew more accustomed to our altered habits.
We also found a way to get “out” thanks to a local theater creatively transforming their parking lot into a drive-in, which started screening classics like The Goonies, The Bourne Identity, and Back to the Future Part II.
Jason and I launched “distant” lunches to allow for in-person contact. Basically, we realized we could meet up with friends at a park and easily maintain social distance. These lunches continue to be a source of unattached interaction for us. Everyone brings a chair and a meal, and we see each other with our eyeballs. We even did a distant picnic for a family Mother’s Day gathering.
As social obligations began to creep in again, in a limited fashion of course, I noticed they were a bit distracting. While I was ecstatic about seeing people on more than one occasion, the checkoffs on my to-do list declined as did my focus, which made me feel a little overwhelmed. After weeks with almost none of life’s normal interferences, it seemed unnatural to have them return. I missed feeling like there was plenty of time and reason to take long walks with Jason on nearly a daily basis.
Hiking has been another sanity booster for us. Horsetail Falls was one such trek.
June
I think I have acclimated to the new, new normal for now, which is a mix of nothing and something. The staggering lack of focus I felt a month ago has dissipated. I’m not sure where next month and the months after will take me and us as a country, but I hope we will navigate through them wisely.
With about 120,000 deaths in the United States from COVID-19 to date and a surge imminent in Utah, this virus continues to change and shape our attention and daily routines. Amidst the anxiety and turmoil, may we be safe. May we be sane. May we be considerate. May we be rational. May we be responsible. May we be compassionate. We are all in this together from the elderly lady living next door to the small business owner down the street, so let’s help each other and go easy on the judgement. That is my wish for all of you and for myself.
I can’t help but wonder if after all this is over, we as a nation and as a world will be a little depressed instead of elated. That may sound like nonsense. The thing is, when normalcy returns, we may remember that normal wasn’t perfect. The same problems we had before all of this will still be there. Needing to just get through the next few months is less intimidating than needing to get through the next 30 to 50 years. Plus, as engulfing as COVID feels at the moment, there will be other urgent crises. May our perseverance outlast this virus and make us more resilient to all that lies ahead. That is my final wish for this post and all those that read it.
Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in North
America and the biggest national park outside Alaska. Its reputation
notwithstanding, it offers much beyond cracked mud, cattle skulls, and
rattlesnakes. Death Valley holds both the lowest point in North America and terrain
over 11,000 feet. It also contains oodles of oddities like stones that move
themselves, ghost towns, and a salt pan spread over 200 square miles. Plus, the
blankness of its landscape allows for full appreciation of each colorful twist
and etch. For us, Death Valley was packed with countless surprises, some of them
galactic.
The great thing about taking pictures in a salt pan is that even Charlie Brown wearing a sheet would look tan.
Due to its remote location, reaching Death Valley requires some driving no matter which direction you are coming from. We decided to make this our first road trip with a new car. Unfortunately, the excitement of taking our fresh wheels was tempered by beeps. Our windshield wiper fluid became low somewhere between St. George and Las Vegas. Our car, in all its technological glory, reminded us of this near deficiency precisely every mile. We stopped in Vegas to mollify the Gods of Beep with an offering of washer fluid, but it took three stores to find this common item. What’s up Vegas? The rest of our drive was exquisitely beepless.
The famous polygons of Death Valley are formed by salt crystals expanding in the cracks of dried mud.The salt in Badwater Basin is mostly sodium chloride. It is spectacular when viewed as a single crystal or a collective.
Our first day in the park, we covered a tourist requirement by visiting Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Many of our fellow visitors just popped out to get a picture by the sign and then hurried on to their next photo stop, missing the best of Badwater. With about half a mile of walking, the distinctive polygon-shaped salt patches that Death Valley is known for can be reached. These are definitely worth taking a couple thousand steps. Why so salty? Death Valley’s salt pan was covered by a lake that evaporated about 2,000 years ago leaving behind its minerals. More deposits have been added with each flash flood. Since Badwater Basin is below sea level, those compounds have nowhere to drain. Voila! A couple thousand years with a clogged pipe and you’ve got a salt crust up to five feet thick.
Densely packed spirals of spiny salt fill as far as the eye can see at the Devil’s Golf Course.
After North America’s low point, we visited Satan’s fairway.
The Devil’s Golf Course is a part of Badwater Basin that doesn’t flood because
it’s a few feet higher than the valley’s deepest point. It’s also rarely
touched by precipitation. That absence of water has allowed for the formation
of large halite crystals over time. These are sharp and unforgiving; I’ve never
encountered terrain so eager to stab. We managed to take a little stroll
amongst the jagged, pickled sculptures without any bloody bumps.
The devil’s in the details.
Just before sunset, we stopped at the Mesquite Flat Sand
Dunes, which is the park’s largest dune. There, you can hike miles along ridges
that rise up 150 feet, or you can roll away like R2-D2 did. That’s right,
Mesquite Flat was one of the many locations in Death Valley used for filming
the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars: A New Hope. Death Valley was also the
setting for parts of Return of the Jedi. As nerdy as we are, we somehow didn’t
know this before our trip.
Mesquite Flat is where R2-D2 rolled away from C-3PO.
The following day, we were off to Zabriskie Point and a 2.7-mile trek through the Badlands Loop. On the Badlands Loop, you wander through the maze of buttery colors below Zabriskie Point. These deposits were once the bottom of Lake Manly. Tilted and distorted by seismic activity and scored by the bursts of countless floods, the Badlands feature a labyrinth of carved, barren mounds separated by the thirsty fingers of dry washes.
Natural Bridge has the biggest span and worst name of the natural bridges in Death Valley.Natural Bridge Canyon contains a number of dry waterfalls, vertical mementos of the unforgiving force of flash floods.
We also checked out Natural Bridge in Natural Bridge Canyon that
afternoon- yes, those names are amazing. Jason and I have seen many natural
bridges, this one was different. With a toothed and chunky span 35 feet tall
and equally wide, this formation could never be called graceful. Like almost
all the 17 bridges in Death Valley, Natural Bridge is composed of conglomerate
rock, which is a type of sedimentary stone containing gravel, pebbles, and
boulders. Basically, conglomerate rock is nature’s cement. This short hike,
only 0.3 miles each way, is sure to please the geologically curious.
Dry should never be confused with dull.
Ever in search of nifty sunset locations, we tried to catch one
at Artist’s Palette that evening. We saw roughly the last 30 seconds. Fortunately,
the sun’s disappearance didn’t mute the heaps of mint, blush, canary, and ultramarine
splashed and swirled by volcanic and hydrothermal activity across this
mountainside. Magnificent!
It’s surprising how many forms and colors barren hillsides can take.
We filled the following day with a trek and a view. First, we
hiked the portion of Golden Canyon to the Red Cathedral. You may know Golden
Canyon by the name Jason calls it- Jawa Canyon. Most of the Jawa scenes in A
New Hope were filmed in this butterscotch-colored gap. Naturally, we
reenacted a few.
Golden Canyon is the most popular hike in Death Valley. Who are we to argue with the herd?
We successfully caught a sunset that evening at Dante’s View.
As it turns out, Dante’s View is also Luke’s view as he is looking down at the
Mos Eisley spaceport. This spot, located on the north side of Coffin Peak, is
over 5,000 feet above the valley floor. From its vantage point, one can see
both the lowest and highest points in the contiguous United States. Yes, in
case you are wondering, back in the 1920s, Death Valley’s landowners dove a
little heavy-handed into the death theme as a means of encouraging tourism-
Dante’s View, Funeral Mountains, Coffin Peak- you get the idea.
We packed for our trip not realizing we were headed to a galaxy far, far away. And yet…Jawa or Jason?Nestled among the ridges of the Black Mountains, Dante’s View is no Hell.
As our final exploit in Death Valley, we got up early to
catch a sunrise at Zabriskie Point, a popular daybreak photography spot. We’d
read that if you didn’t arrive at least an hour beforehand, you wouldn’t be
able to procure a spot. Although we were only 30 minutes early, there was still
plenty of space amongst the 26 tripods waiting for rays to reach Manly Beacon. We
didn’t mind getting a few less snoozes to get this experience.
Zabriskie Point is an iconic spot to see a sunrise.
Death Valley felt like the Wild West meets Mars. It was beautiful in rare and unexpected ways. The diverse landscape appeared alien, and we found spiders in our toilet. The temperatures hit the mid-80s almost every afternoon; it sure didn’t feel like February. How does anyone handle it when it’s 45 degrees warmer? Jason asked me in earnest before we left the park, “Do you promise you’ll come back to Death Valley with me again?” Jason, I promise.
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