Tag Archives: travel

Looking Back to Look Ahead

Posted on by

Since this class is on social media, I decided that my final blog post would be brief narratives about some of the Facebook posts I made about Molly over the past year. I hope you enjoy Molly’s pandemic story!

One of the highlights of my time with Molly during the pandemic was having her teach me how to paint during our extended spring breaks and the creation of our basement art gallery, which I blogged about a few weeks ago: Creating a basement art gallery during isolation.

On March 17 our trip to Germany to visit Molly’s brother Sam was cancelled. On the day that would have been our last night in Munich we had a German-themed dinner to mark the day. Little did we know that the rest of our trips would also be cancelled, Sam would lose his job due to COVID in November, and he would be hired back in March 2021.

At the end of March, it was time for Molly to go back to school in the new remote learning model. She had a very short school day for the rest of the year and she managed to fill her days with new activities and hobbies she learned about from her friends and online, mostly from social media.

 

In April, my neighbor, Carolyn Bertsch, captured a photo of Molly on her scooter and she wrote a short piece in our local paper titled A new normal. At this time, we were just getting used to being at home and social distancing. Molly has remained diligent in being safe and I am proud of her.

Early on Molly amazed me by keeping busy with activities and crafts. She taught herself how to cook, bake, bead, sew, you name it. I loved it when her activities included me. Several times she put string wraps in my hair and they looked quite unique. Friends and family were also impressed with Molly’s ingenuity.

Fortunately, we were able to retain some of our traditions. Every May 1st Molly makes May-day baskets filled with candy for her neighbor friends. Just because it was a pandemic didn’t mean she couldn’t continue the custom of dropping off the baskets, ringing the doorbells, and running off.

Molly learned all kinds of cool trends on TikTok, and we were excited to try some of them out. Who doesn’t want to try out spaghetti tacos for Cinco de Mayo? Fried ice cream was also on the menu during the pandemic, which is one of our favorites.

For Mother’s Day 2020, Molly gave me the greatest gift of all—a rhetorical message of love and humor! To this day, this message makes me smile.

As the weather warmed up, we developed a newfound love for our bikes. We biked all over our community on bike paths and through the woods. One evening Molly and I got caught in the rain. We were almost home and the rain felt great and reminded us we were still alive and capable of feeling the water soak us.

Summer arrived and Molly’s arts and crafts continued. She sewed face masks and made clay creations. Molly taught me how to make beaded daisy bracelets. As time went on, we expanded our beading creations and made necklaces and rings as well. She also made us bucket hats that were adorable. I can’t wait for summer to arrive so we can wear our hats out in the sun. As soon as my graduate program is over, I am looking forward to more beading with her.

On August 10, 2020, Molly’s grandpa, Michael Chappell, died in a hospital in southern France due to COVID. We are waiting for the day we can spread his ashes among the vineyards and for some closure.

Even though we were living in a pandemic world, summer seemed to fly by. In September Molly started seventh grade as a distance learner. On her first day of school, we went to her school on our bikes and waved at the kids who were participating in hybrid learning. I wrote about Molly setting her room up in my very first blog: Finding a place to love during the pandemic.

Thanks to social media, I find out about special days devoted to pizza lovers, wine lovers, national puppy day, AND most importantly National Daughter’s Day! I was happy to take part in that celebration.

As fall progressed and COVID-19 spread and got worse in many places in the world, our trip to Bavaria and Tuscany on October 1 was cancelled. Molly and I celebrated, or mourned, with an Italian-themed lunch to mark the day and to remember the fun days we enjoyed in Italy the summer before.

Molly did a good job setting her alarm to get up for school even with the distance learning schedule. However, some mornings she fell back asleep. It was hard to get mad at her because the distance learning format allowed for down time in some of these classes, especially in her homeroom.

On Halloween Molly made plans to meet up with her friends, but when we arrived, they were not wearing masks or social distancing and she did not want to go in. That is the weird part of the pandemic, you don’t want to offend people, but you want to stay safe. The hosts were very nice and understanding. We had a modified Halloween celebration at home and Molly even did some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. I know she is planning to spend lots of time with her friends once they have all been vaccinated.

Throughout the pandemic, Molly has had her cat, Poppy, at her side. The two are inseparable. They have an amazing relationship and seeing them together brings us all joy. Poor Poppy will be lost without Molly once she returns to school next fall. It’s nice to see that someone benefited from all this stay-at-home business.

This blog isn’t Molly’s first time helping with my graduate work. Last semester I worked on a gender equity group project and we conducted panels with groups to share stories about gender equity. Molly gathered an amazing group of girls to help our group out with the girl’s panel and we were impressed by their contributions. The full recording of the girl’s panel is available for those who may be interested.

Just a week after Molly’s brother Sam turned 24, he lost his job at a resort in Germany due to COVID. Unfortunately, Sam got COVID on his long journey home; however, he was asymptomatic. He had to isolate for a few weeks but when he came home, Molly made a Welcome Home sign for him. The reunion was bittersweet since Sam had to leave his friends, job, and lose his freedom. Luckily, Sam was offered his job back and he returned to Germany on March 21, 2021. The country is still shut down and we are hopeful the vaccines will roll out there and things will get better. We had four months with Sam, and I think Molly appreciated having her brother around.

Molly’s oldest brother Teddy and his fiancée Kaitlyn, along with their Chiweenie Lucy, were able to join us for two months over the holidays. Molly made several ski trips with her brothers, and it was nice having the whole family under one roof for that time. Molly helped us orchestrate a holiday greeting on TikTok.

My kids got downhill ski passes for the season so that they could ski together and Molly could also meet up safely with her friends, who also like to ski. Molly skied several times with Teddy, and when Sam arrived in Minnesota, he joined them. When Teddy went back to Philly, Sam and Molly skied together.

In January, Molly became a teenager. She has spent 1/12 of her life social distancing from friends and family. That is hard to grasp at times. Many other kids see their extended families, participate in team sports, and go to school. To quote Molly when I interviewed her for my last blog, “getting the vaccine will be a game-changer.”

Thank you for reading my blog throughout this semester. I wanted my work to document a time in life that will hopefully be behind us soon, but at the same time I want to remember what we endured, especially Molly, who was only 12 when this all started. I believe her experience will help her navigate the future and everything that comes her way.

 

 

Spring Break 2021: A Throwback to Spring Breaks of Yesteryears to Sustain a Distance-Learning Student

Posted on by

In this post I am going to relive some of the great trips Molly has taken with our family over past spring breaks. I will provide a narrative of where we visited as she helps me reconstruct this throwback post of travel. This week is spring break and by sharing this blog experience with her I hope to help support her during the final quarter of distance learning in seventh grade, which starts April 5.

Every year I look forward to spring break. I have planned some amazing trips to Hawaii, Paris, Bavaria, Prague, Venice, Barcelona, and Southern France. When the pandemic struck in March 2020, my trip to Germany, with Molly to visit my son Sam, was cancelled. Spring break took on a whole new meaning as we watched the world shut down. Spring break 2020 was extended as educators scrambled to figure out how to teach students distantly. Selfishly I thought of how that extra time would have been great if I had been on an exciting trip instead of stuck at home. At that time, I would have gone if I could have, but looking back I feel a lot differently now.

As the year progressed, Molly and I came to terms with the lack of travel and we found new ways to entertain ourselves. We also learned to use the travel memories to comfort us as we spent a majority of our time at home. We enjoyed photos, planned travel-themed meals, painted travel pictures, read about travel, watched travel videos, and talked about travel. Throughout the pandemic Molly seemed content that her travel-full life had come to an end and when I asked her about traveling, recently, she told me that she has gotten used to it and she is okay staying home. She said she did not want to be that person traveling during COVID. Such wise words from someone so young.

Molly’s first spring break in 2008, as a three-month old, was spent road-tripping to Washington DC in a snowstorm. We toured the sites at Williamsburg, Jamestown, and DC, while enjoying the warmer weather. Since then, Molly has been to DC a few times and she remembers the highlights. Molly’s favorite thing to do in DC is visiting the monuments and the Smithsonian museums.

In 2009, as a family, we went to Germany, Austria, and Italy. Molly was only 18 months old and she does not remember her first trip to Europe but she loves the photos.

In 2011, when Molly was three, my husband Paul faced a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan so we took the family on a European spring break trip to Prague, Garmisch, Munich, and Venice. Molly loved the gondola ride and eating pizza on the canal. Traveling can be hard work and Molly had a hard time flying and it took her a few days in Prague to regain her strength and energy. In Garmisch, a beautiful Olympic village in Bavaria, we stayed at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort where her brother Sam currently works and lives. Just outside of Garmisch, is  Neuschwanstein Castle, the famous King Ludwig castle copied by Disney for Cinderella’s castle in Disney World. In Munich we visited the Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, strolled through museums and art galleries, and went to the Marienplatz to see the world-famous Glockenspiel.

Molly in her stroller on Charles Bridge, Prague

Upon Paul’s return home, in 2013, we took a family spring break trip to Barcelona and Southern France. In Barcelona we met up with my oldest son, Teddy, who was studying abroad at Oxford University through St. Cloud State University. Molly loved seeing Teddy but once again she suffered from jetlag and it took her a few days to return to normal. In Barcelona we visited La Sagrada Familia cathedral, Park Guell filled with Gaudi’s sculptural buildings, and Monserrat Monastery on a mountainside, which was only accessible by cable car. We drove to Southern France and stopped in Figueres, Spain, home to artist Salvador Dali and the Dali Museum. In Southern France we visited with Grandpa Chappell and we took day trips to the ancient villages complete with Roman ruins.

In 2014, our family spent spring break in San Francisco where we visited Alcatraz, China Town, the Golden Gate Bridge, and we rode the streetcar. Molly loved walking along the oceanfront and seeing the sealions. We spent Easter at Golden Gate Park, home to Hippie Hill.

Spring break 2016 brought us to Honolulu, Hawaii, where, we climbed Diamond Head volcano, strolled along Waikiki beach, visited Pearl Harbor, and swam in a waterfall at Waimea Valley Park. We stayed at Hale Koa, a resort dedicated to military members and their families. Molly loved playing at the beach and swimming in the waves with sea turtles.

We love Germany so much that we went back over spring break in 2017. This time we visited Prague, Berlin, Bacharach, and the Berchesgaden area. In Prague we visited the Old Jewish Cemetery, the Old Town Square, and the Charles Bridge. Molly took her first Uber ride in Prague and she told me years later that she had no idea what was going on because I told her get in the car without explaining anything. In Berlin we went to the Holocaust memorial, the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, and what is left of the Berlin Wall along with the Wall Museum – Checkpoint Charlie. We stayed in a rundown accommodation and believe it or not that was memorable to Molly! Bacharach am Rhein is a medieval walled village along the Rhein River, and we spent time checking out the village and surroundings. The highlight for Molly was a Niederwald-Seilbahn cable car ride. For me it was Riesling gelato. In the Obersalzburg area we explored the Berghof remains, which was Hitler’s house on the mountain that was bombed in WWII and then later the Germans had the Americans destroy it. We also went into an underground bunker at the Documentation Center.

Berlin Wall

In 2018, our spring break destination was Paris where we explored all the wonderful sites and museums: Pantheon, Notre Dame, Musee du Louvre where we saw the Mona Lisa, Versailes Palace, Sainte-Chapelle de Paris with its beautiful stained glass, Musee d’Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Musee Picasso Paris, Sacre-Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, Musee de l’Armee and Hotel des Invalides, and Musee de l’ Orangerie. There was no shortage of things to do. Molly remembers how I was almost pick-pocketed on the subway. My son confronted a young girl and she denied it and ran away when the door opened. There was also an incident where an older woman tried to get money from us for a ring she found—one of the oldest cons. Molly also recalls getting lost in the Eiffel Tower, which was scary for her at the time, but now she looks back and she thinks it is funny.

Mona Lisa at Louvre

The last spring break trip we took was in 2019, and just Molly and I ventured back to Hawaii. Although we spent most of our time at the pool or beach, we ventured out to see the Honolulu Museum of Art and Iolani Palace. We also took a whale watching cruise and swam with Nani, the dolphin. Molly’s most memorable time on our last spring break was swimming in the ocean and seeing fish in the ocean.

Swimming with Nani

Scattered between spring break trips we had adventures to Philadelphia, skiing in the Poconos, Orlando & Disney World, New Orleans, Toronto, the Upper Peninsula, NYC, the Jersey Shore, Los Angeles, the Black Hills & all the SD sites, Italy, and Iceland. My aunt pointed out to me this past week that one year in Molly’s life is about 1/10 of her entire life and that’s a long time. As soon as it is safe and possible, our first trip will be to Germany to visit Sam, her brother. In her 13 years of life, Molly has had many experiences that I hope will continue to sustain her while we stay at home.

Creating a Basement Art Gallery During Isolation

Posted on by

We love to travel. 

Basement Isolation Art Gallery

Basement Isolation Art Gallery

Molly has been all over Europe and the US, and when we first heard of COVID-19, Molly and I were in Philadelphia visiting Teddy and his girlfriend Kaitlyn for a birthday ski trip for Molly’s 12th birthday in January 2020. When Molly and I landed at MSP on our flight back from Philly we were near the International arrivals and I told her we should move outside to wait for our ride. She asked why, and I explained COVID-19 to her. At that time, it appeared to be only in China but I was being cautious because we had some international travel coming up. That week in school when Molly’s teacher asked if anyone knew about COVID-19, she was the only student who knew about it and where it originated.

We had no idea how serious the COVID-19 situation would become.

The first trip I had planned was to Germany to visit Sam on March 17, 2020. As our trip approached, Paul decided to come with us in case we were isolated or quarantined at either end of the trip. We were glued to the news as the pandemic unfolded. Two weeks prior to our trip, Teddy and Kaitlyn went to Germany and got engaged. They were fortunate that their trip was not cancelled and they made it home without incident even though they were there when the WHO upgraded COVID to a pandemic. Our trip was cancelled on March 13, 2020, and we settled in to sheltering at home thinking it would last a few weeks. The second trip I had planned to Germany and Italy was cancelled on October 1, 2020, and our plans to go to Iceland in August 2020 never got off the ground.

For the first time in Molly’s life, we had no plans to go anywhere.

She adjusted well right away, and we were both on extended spring breaks as our schools were busy planning on how to return to studies remotely. Molly taught me how to paint on canvases with acrylic paints. Molly and I painted many masterpieces that were inspired by our trips to art galleries and museums. Molly also taught me how to make this iMovie and we documented the grand opening of our gallery on Facebook.

As our painting collection grew, we came up with a plan to display our paintings in what was to become our basement isolation museum.

As the months passed, we painted new paintings to add to our museum. In the summer and at Christmastime we encouraged the rest of our family to join us and add masterpieces to our gallery.

Through art and creativity, Molly made the world a little more beautiful one masterpiece at a time. We talked about the galleries we visited throughout the years and our favorite pieces. Molly spent hours pouring through art books and Pinterest for inspiration and ideas and to learn about techniques. Molly plans to study art restoration in college, and I think she has a good foundational start in this important work. Recently Molly told me that she misses visiting art museums, that she thought she took the opportunities for granted, and that she rushed through the galleries not spending the time she should have taking in each piece. I told her in the future we will go back and spend as much time as she needs to see each painting. Painting is one of Molly’s many talents, and in future posts I will share more of those talents.

Basement Art Gallery