The Great 2020 California Road Trip (1/7) – Heading Out During COVID

In a completely unprecedented move, our family packed a rental car in mid-August and drove down the Pacific Coast Highway.

2020 was supposed to be a kickass year for vacations. Plans made as far back as May 2019 were the definition of perfection, with many of our favorite flights, hotels, and destinations carefully stringed together. And then COVID hit, and we spent the next couple months cancelling itineraries of our dreams, all while wiping tears from our eyes.

An eternity later, my kids and I had been “working” and “distant learning” within the same confined space for five months. The question of mental health problems wasn’t if but how severe. As this point, we were desperate to get out of the house. With the cancellation of our 13th leisure flight of the year, we decided to keep the vacation days on the calendar and go somewhere. Anywhere.

Options weren’t abundant during the pandemic. Border closures, quarantine requirements, and generally perceived health risks on flights meant the world was no longer in our backyard. Petting elephants in Chiang Mai was now as impossible as taking a selfie in Pyongyang, and we couldn’t even visit our young nephews on the East Coast without recklessly breaking a few rules.

There was one silver lining: San Diego Zoo, our original plan for spring break, remained reachable without needing to enter an airport. We didn’t enjoy driving to SoCal but this was a time of desperation. Although the appeal of San Diego itself had dampened (like everywhere else) due to the closure of many things, there had to be enough stuff between SF and SD to keep us entertained. As such, our family’s Great California Road Trip was born. We mapped out an route where we’d spend 7 nights in 7 different hotels across California, dividing up the trip so we wouldn’t spend too much time driving on any given day.

For completeness, we headed north to San Francisco as our first destination.

We could have taken one of our lightly-used cars, but we wanted to fully commit to the vacation mindset. Thus, we rented an SUV. A road trip within our home state during the pandemic involved more logistical unknowns than a multi-city excursion in Southeast Asia during normal times. As such, we packed a ton of “just in case” supplies.

Hong talked me out of renting a sports car… and we’re so glad she did

This polar bear greeted us as we finally made it to the San Diego Zoo

The destination wasn’t new to us, but the journey was. PCH was as beautiful as we were led to believe, and we were glad to have finally checked it out.

At this time, COVID had claimed over 150,000 American lives, and Southern California in particular was experiencing a peak in infections. While we believed in our ability to manage a safe trip with all necessary precautions, it was inevitable that the pandemic weighed heavily on everything we did and did not do.

Many tourist attractions (such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium) had been closed for months, while others (like the San Diego Zoo) implemented capacity control on top of common-sense safety measures. Restaurants that remained open could only offer take-out and limited outdoor dining. But what really made the road trip tricky was bathrooms. In the good old days anyone could have simply hopped into a gas station, Starbucks, or McDonald’s, which conveniently covered the U.S. map. When all of them shut their doors in the name of fighting the disease, we had to be a lot more diligent in our route planning and creative with our bathroom solutions. Our “Great California Road Trip” could have just as well been known as “Where To Pee Around California”.