A trip to Kingston provided a chance to re-examine Canadian history.EricFerguson/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
When the planes stopped flying in March, the feeling that the world was closed hit especially hard in my home office. I was 24 hours from boarding a flight to Atlanta with my son at the time, a trip we’d been looking forward to for months. Suddenly, it was impossible. And then, like a row of very sad dominoes, the entire travel industry began to fall. Airlines went from dealing with overbooked flights to empty airports. Hotel occupancy rates went from near-full to single-digits. People lost lifestyles and livelihoods and replaced optimism with fear.
My own mantra, as a travel writer for the last 18 years, of “Go Now!” no longer applied. I’ve preached from this very pulpit about the importance of not just “saving for a rainy day” but making the most of the sunny ones as well. When the forecast turned to nothing but grey skies for the foreseeable future, it was hard to know what to say. I watched any travel that took you far from home become difficult, then dangerous, then irresponsible.
But something else happened, too.
Sunny days literally came back. With summer weather and a well-timed drop in COVID-19 numbers, the world opened ever so slightly and “Go Now!” was back on the table, though with a caveat: We also had to “Go Close.”
I squeezed my family of four through that slightly open window and ran with it. Our first trip was simply a drive; we never left the car but explored new neighbourhoods, got drive-thru ice cream cones and came home renewed.
Manitoulin Island was an ideal destination for an RV trip.Ravi Natarajan/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
We wanted more, and slowly, we went farther. First, a few nights for a road trip to Chatham, Ont., where, with masks and at a distance, we explored Black history, learning the city’s history as a terminus for the underground railroad during slavery and how Black communities here rose and then fell under segregationist laws. Taking tours – through nearby Buxton and eventually to Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site – offered moments of gratitude, respect and understanding. Then a few more nights with an RV trip to the beaches, parklands and Indigenous lands in and around Manitoulin Island. A pop out to Prince Edward County to appreciate the vineyards and farmlands. A few days in Kingston re-examining Canadian history and kayaking the Thousand Islands. Our time outdoors expanded. We walked more, rode bikes and celebrated the freedom of our outdoor spaces – hiking trails and neighbourhood paths and local parks – with a renewed appreciation.
Along the way we discovered what many of our fellow Canadians did, too: Our backyards are someone else’s dream destination. The spaces close to home hold as much opportunity for exploration as the ones we dream about in faraway lands. When the world opens up again, there are dozens of places I want to visit. But this year I learned a valuable lesson. Travel isn’t about how far you go, it’s a way of seeing the world – and that opportunity starts right outside your front door.
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