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A year of traveling while facing a coronavirus pandemic: June-September, 2020

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Covid-19 continued its march across Utah, the US, and the world. We relaxed in Logan, gardening, reading, running, and (Caroline) playing ukulele. I retired officially from USU on 1 July, after 29 years. That milestone certainly was a casualty of the novel coronavirus. No goodbyes, no celebration, no congratulations. No mingling with colleagues, and no opportunity to reminisce. Not even a card!  Luckily, I have a thoughtful family, who brought balloons, chocolate cake, and a bottle of wine. Then, we went to feed the ducks! It gave me a better sense of what was being missed across the world... graduations, marriage celebrations, reunions, and even funerals attended by more than close family. In my case, there will be no "make-up" retirement party. At USU, I was there one day, and not the ne xt. Close out the lab and the office, and my 29-year history passed into oblivion. Remember the adage, nobody on his deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time at the office.&qu
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A year of traveling while facing a coronavirus pandemic: March-June, 2020

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  Remember the toilet paper shortage? Rice, flour, eggs, and butter also were in short supply. The 2020 pandemic affected everyone. During the first 2 months, Caroline I were traveling in the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, DC, Oahu, and Maui. Yes, the novel coronavirus was slinking around the world, but it had not yet been recognized as a malady that would incapacitate and kill millions of people (as of today, over a half million Americans have died). On March 10, we were back in Logan, UT. On March 11, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. On March 13th, President Trump declared a national emergency. Universities began to shut down and send students home. There were nationwide shortages of certain foods and materials, like toilet paper, as people began hoarding essential items. The focus of prevention was still on physical contact with a virus-contaminated surface, with 1 video of a physician demonstrating how to disinfect all of h is groceries getting more than 24 million views in 1
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A year of traveling while facing a coronavirus pandemic: January-March, 2020

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Everyone has their coronavirus pandemic story for 2020, and this is mine. The uniqueness of it is that Caroline and I lived out of a suitcase, away from Utah, for at least half of it. Dancing and drumming at Nokomis Beach Park on January 1. The year started with us in Venice, Florida, visiting family and celebrating the New Year. We kayaked to Don Pedro Island State Park, rode bikes and ran along the beach in Manasota Key, danced at the drum circle at Nokomis Beach Park, toured a rum distillery, explored the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota,  and played with our grand kiddo. It was a great celebration, welcoming a new year of mystery, love, and adventure. Green sea turtle egg fragments on a Florida beach. We were honored to be trusted with transporting grand kiddo back to DC, and we were met by our number one daughter in the baggage area at National Airport. We spent the next 2 weeks being grandparents, walking with kiddo to the National Zoo to watch the marine mammals and the lions, going
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