CategoryRoad Trip

Traveling in 2020

As someone who started this year out on a trip in a foreign country I couldn’t have imagined that while I was enjoying New Years Eve in Quebec, Canada less than 3 months later a pandemic would take over the world. This pandemic also known as the Corona Virus, COVID – 19 or to some just the Rona now is still full steam ahead. In the past few days they have released a vaccine but most have yet to receive it. Above is me making a quick stop at the Crowne Plaza in Seattle to park my car before flying to Chicago in December 2020.

New Year’s Eve’s Eve in downtown Quebec, Canada.

Last year I went to London and Paris in January and then back again with my Mom in October. I had so many plans like others to see new parts of the world. Thailand was very high on my list. Now I don’t know when I will be able to visit a country like that again. There are quite a few options on my list but all will have to wait until 2021 and beyond. I have spent all of 2020 in the United States. January, February and March were spent flying to Seattle from Chicago and then back in quick trips. April was a 14 day quarantine with my husband Scott who finally came home from deployment. May I packed all my stuff into a Uhual UBOX and headed out West to live on Whidbey Island. June, July and leading into August was my longest stretch without a flight. I flew back to Chicago in August to have surgery and 5 days later came back to Whidbey Island. At some point I needed my car that was still at my parents house so I hopped on another flight to Chicago, drove south to St. Louis where I picked up my friend Melissa. We then took a wonderful road trip across parts of the United States I had never seen or heard of. Badlands National Park is hands down my favorite stop on the trip. When you Google where that’s located you will see it’s very close to a Corona Virus hotspot known as Stergis.

Badlands National Park

After being home for a few weeks I felt like I wanted to travel somewhere else. With my options limiting me to the United States I decided to visit a friend in Dallas, Texas for the weekend. And finally my last trip of 2020 was back to Chicago to help my parents decorate for Christmas since I won’t be traveling there for Christmas. With all that traveling most would assume that I contracted the Corona Virus at some point along the road. I’m happy to report that I have been lucky enough to stay healthy this whole time. That could only happen

Windy City LIVE

The historic Chicago theater across the street from the studio.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the set for Windy City LIVE and also be in the audience for the show. Whether you are a resident of the City of Chicago or a tourist visiting YOU can also do the same thing! I have been in the audience for shows in the past but man has the game changed on how it all works! First of all is that its all done via an app that you download called 1iota. Weird name I know but my Aunt Linda told me about it when she was here in Chicago visiting family. She has used it to be in the audience for various shows in the Los Angeles area. To download the app just type the name 1iota in the app store and it should come up. Once you register you can see all the different cities and shows.

After you get a notification that you have a reserved ticket for the show you will arrive and wait in line until 11:30am when they start the process to get people checked in and through security. You are allowed to bring your camera and take as many photos as you would like. They actually encourage it for their social media. At 12:30 you are then led into the studio and seated by the shows staff. I ended up sitting in the front row but I will say that studio is pretty small and the audience can’t be more than 75 people.

The shows director I’m assuming then comes out and talks to you for a bit, he is trying to make the audience feel more comfortable and looking happy to be there. The hosts come out and read a short 15 second monologue to talk about whats coming up on the show. We were there for about an hour and a half total but they also asked at the end about us staying to film another segment for a show at a later date. They ask more in the hey … your sitting here and we are going to film this and your not really going to leave until we are done. I say that because I want you to know that you are on the show and production staff’s time. If you would like to know more about the process you can also check out their website here for more audience info. 1iota.com/show/388/Windy-City-LIVE

 

Whidbey Winter Ferry

I have been taking the Clinton – Mukilteo ferry more often and the photos are gorgeous! The ferry ⛴ is my favorite subject these days. This is 1 of 6 images in a series. All 6 are the same image just with slight edits. One of the 6 is CAMERA RAW! Can you spot it?