Utah and California in the time of Corona

After we got home from Mauritius at the end of February the coronavirus was starting to take hold in the western world.  Things were starting to change as a result, but by that point things were relatively normal still and no one had any idea just how much and just how quickly things would actually change.  By the time my planned trip to Utah to see Dallin rolled around things were getting a bit more tense.  Some schools were starting to cancel and certain sectors were making adjustments, but still things were more or less normal.  Except they weren't.  Just a couple of hours before I left for the airport I learned my dear Aunt Bev had passed away.  I was sort of expecting this, and I had already packed something suitable to wear to a funeral before word even reached me.  I'm devastated that she is gone.  There is no one like her, and she meant the world to me, never a more loving aunt and a best friend to my mom.  Even though California was not in my original plan, and even though we were entering into a pandemic there was never a second thought that I would go to the funeral.  Of course I would go; I'd have flown from London just for that.  And as it turned out the timing of it all was really fortunate as even a week or two later, I'm not sure I'd have made it or even if such a funeral would be allowed as the world had begun locking down.  I boarded my flight from London to Salt Lake City, which was virtually empty.  I had never seen a plane so empty, maybe 15% full.  This was the first sign that change was afoot.  I waited for news about my Bev's service to reach me in flight, and began making changes to my travel plans while I was in the air (thank you onboard WiFi).  When I landed I had to refocus my energy to seeing Dallin, not to mention stay awake to safely drive the three hours down to Ephraim from Salt Lake.  It was a time for us to catch up and for us to work on some things together that were important, and I didn't want my aunt's passing or the rising tide of the pandemic to interfere.  Honestly it was tough.  I felt as though I was operating at red level RPMs the whole trip, and I'm grateful I was able to keep it together so I could attend to each task as well as I did, be there for Dallin, make the trip to be there for my family and the funeral, and then return to Utah with Dallin to refocus our efforts on all the plan Bs the pandemic had suddenly thrown the world into.  And all the while Scott and the other kids were at home in a rapidly changing London, where school, work, church and other things were being shut down overnight.  I came home to a very different London, nothing was the same.  I look back on this trip and realise I was carried by something greater than myself.  There is no other way to explain how well everything worked out in such a highly stressful environment where I was dealing with so much stress and difficult decision making on multiple fronts all at once.  I am so grateful.

Love this boy!  

At the Palisades near Ephraim

The Malt Shoppe and the thrift shop, pretty much the places to be in Ephraim

Oh and the many trips to Walmart just because

Fun dinner out with Rose and Dakota

Manti

6-mile run in the brisk morning of Ephraim

On the road to Salt Lake, and the plane to California we go

Aunt Bev's funeral.  We spent a couple of days in California, the first day we spent with family as we sat and talked near Bev's open casket in small groups throughout the day.  It was an emotional experience for me.  I was at times overcome with grief and tears.  The only other time I have experienced this kind of grief has been over Aunt Dorothy.  I am still sometimes struck with overwhelming emotion over her death, and it is the same for Aunt Bev.  My aunts are so special to me.  I am so glad Dallin, Chad, Brooke and I were all there for the service and especially to be there for my mom.  These things are so important.  

Back on the plane to Utah, Dallin and I headed back down to Ephraim for an additional couple of days, which quickly transitioned to moving Dallin to his pandemic plan B.  It was quickly decided that he'd go to Indiana to stay with Chad for a few weeks.  And within a day we were wrapping things up in Ephraim and getting him ready to go.  Because there wasn't enough chaos already SLC decided to have an earthquake the day before his flight (I left to fly back to London a day before this) which temporarily closed the airport.  Gratefully it opened in time for his flight, but all this extra dosing of drama was a bit too much for my already frayed nerves. 

LHR to SLC flight in March 10th, 15% full (so glad I did not waste an upgrade on this one!)

LAX to LHR on March 18th, 75% full.  Big score at LAX finding the newly scarce hand sanitiser gel.  Welcome to Covid-19

Mauritius

For February break this year we ditched the winter blues and headed south, way south, for some sun.  We spent a glorious week on the island nation of Mauritius with the Stephensons catching some rays and just relaxing.  We chose the same resort brand we had chosen for our stay in the Maldives two years ago.  It did not disappoint.  We had a truly indulgent week enjoying a lovely hotel, wonderful food, spectacular weather and best of all the very best company.  Mauritius is an iffy choice for a February sun holiday.  It's cyclone season and you really do roll the dice going there in February.  We were incredibly lucky and experienced a week of near-perfect sunshine.  We also had no idea how lucky we were to take such a holiday given the brewing situation in the world at large.  I'm writing this a few months later, and looking back at this holiday now, I feel more grateful for it than ever.  We're currently in the throes of the coronavirus, but back when we took this trip it was just becoming a hot issue in the world beyond China.  We were paying very little attention to it in the news at the time.  It just wasn't a concern yet as it was mostly confined to certain areas well away from us then.  There were small signs of caution, but nothing anyone was worried about.  On arrival we had our temperature checked, but nothing else was said or done.  We had no idea that the world was about to practically fall of its axis into Covid-19 oblivion, which really got going as we were returning back to London.  We enjoyed a completely worry-free holiday, and for that I'm especially grateful given all that has happened since.  Also in the vein of being as lazy as possible, most of these are phone photos.  A note for my future self as well as anyone else who cares. 

Our resort was a dream . . .

Stephash crew

After dinner hammock sesh

Beach Rouge ladies

Our one and only excursion off-campus was a fun-filled day on a chartered boat to explore the small northern islands of Mauritius: Gunner's Quion, Flat Island and Round Island.  It was a fun day of swimming, snorkelling, island exploring and boating.  The water in Mauritius is so gorgeous, and some of the best snorkelling we've done.  Some of the group got pretty seasick, which was a bummer, but otherwise a really great outing.  

Girls go island hiking

Delicious island picnic

View of the resort on approach . . .

So the next couple of photos were taken on arrival into Mauritius at the start of our vacation.  It was an eventful journey.  Midair from LHR to JNB BA ridiculously rebooked our entire group on a slightly later connecting flight out of JNB to MRU because they thought we would miss the original connecting flight.  It's a long, stupid story that involves a lot of missteps by BA and a lot of resulting headaches for our group.  And mostly it resulted in 7 missing bags of the 8 bags in our group.   So when we arrived 7/8ths of us only had the clothes on their backs.  While I was grateful my bag made it, I felt a tad guilty/bad that I was the only one who had my things.  So we had to stop at a random, and fairly overpriced clothing store on the way to the resort to pick up some basics to make it through the first whatever many days we'd be there until our bags arrived.  It was an adventure and not how we wanted to start our vacation.  Gratefully the bags arrived on the second evening so not too much was spoiled. 

"Beach boy"