summer vacation (40/100)
When I was growing up, my parents were adamant about leaving home at some point during the summer, preferably to visit a different country. Since we lived in the Caribbean, these trips were sometimes exotic — to places like the United States, Canada (where my Dad has family) and once, Europe — but more often than not, they were quick trips to neighbouring islands. It was important to them that my sister and I see more than our own people — to negotiate our way in places where we looked different or might not speak the language.
This is a tradition that Marcus and I have tried to replicate in our own lives, especially since both Marcus and I are immigrants to the United States ourselves. We made a goal that our daughter Alex will have seen 18 countries by the time she’s 18 years old — a stretch goal, for sure, but luckily, we spent two years as a family in Trinidad ourselves, and so were also able to take Alex to some neighbouring islands when she was very young, and rack up a few countries. Also, living in Houston, Mexico is an easy flight, as are several Caribbean islands; we try to go in the off-seasons, usually for just a few days, so that prices aren’t crazy. Alex is 16 now, and we’ve generally kept on track for her goal — it was beginning to look like we might be able to make it. At the beginning of the year, we began thinking about where we might go during this summer, that was nearby.
And then coronavirus hit.
To be honest, we’ve made the best of our summer: because Alex is starting to think about what she wants to do after she graduates high school, she signed up for virtual summer camps at various universities that she’s considering — and while virtual camps aren’t ideal, she was able to get a feel for schools that we might not have been able to afford to travel to (like in England), even if we weren’t on lockdown. But still: because we’ve been generally taking lockdown seriously, the three of us have been staring at each other and our four walls for coming on 7 months now.
Then Alex’s school decided to delay their start for a few weeks. And as soon as that happened, I said, “Okay, THAT’S IT. We’re finding a place to go, just for a change of scenery.”
We were determined to look for a place that was easily drivable (to avoid flying, or having to stop at crowded highway stops), and inland, rather than the beach (it is hurricane season in Texas, and why risk going to the coast when we might have to evacuate their and our home?). And we decided it was important there was a pool, since we don’t have one. We wanted it to feel like a vacation.
And so, here we are: a piece of land with an exceptionally modest house on it, but an exceptionally delightful pool. Last night, I got in a pool for the first time in many years (I'm not much of a pool person, preferring the beach), and I have to admit it was peaceful and glorious. I’m actually working on this vacation (I’m holed up in the pool house as I type), but Marcus and Alex are giving the pool a good workout while we’re here. I’ll join them this evening.
And we all feel particularly relieved.
