Post-Shutdown Travel. Eight Cool U.S. Options.

By Erica and Karen

We were both vaccinated a while ago, when the guidance of what that really meant was muddled. So we kept our masks on, and did not have lunch dates, even outside. Eventually, we concluded that outside meals with a couple of vaccinated friends was a risk worth taking, and recently we have come to believe that we can actually do just about anything—though actually doing something like eating indoors feels illicit, and we wonder when we will be brave enough to venture into a theater.

The next big thing for us is travel. We would love to go somewhere far away and experience the thrill of a totally new environment and culture. Of course there are many places we still would not think of going, because they remain in the throes of this dreadful plague. So we will likely stay in the U.S. for a while.

Luckily, there are so many places we want to see in our very own country. And some of them are almost as unknown to us as many other countries.

• Alaska is suitably far away, so much so that it seems like another world. We’ve always wanted to cruise the Inside Passage. And taking a sightseeing train might be pretty fabulous too.

• In another direction, there is Hawaii. Volcanos—Born of the Fire, Born of the Sea. Otherworldly flora and fauna. Gorgeous beaches. Sounds pretty perfect, especially after a Northern winter.

• Texas is intriguing. We’ve spend some (business) time in Dallas and Houston, but never in Austin. The East Austin Hotel looks right up our alley. And since it is a start-up city, we should feel at home. (No, it is not the best city in America, New York is, but we still want to go.)

• If we were feeling giddy—and we are, a bit—we might go to historic Las Vegas. (Yes, it has a history, and it is a strange one.) Paris in Vegas might be entertaining. Might not. But seems we should see the place at least once. And one of our friends told us to get up early and go see sunrise over the Hoover Dam, which sounds very special. We like sunrises and dams.

• We’ve always loved Chicago, but haven’t been in a while. The river, the pizza, the skyscrapers, the Bean, the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art—they’re all amazing. (If you want to read a really atmospheric book about the Chicago World’s Fair before you go, The Devil In The White City is fabulous.)

• Washington DC is a place we have both lived at various times, so we know it well—sort of. It has changed. Vibrant new neighborhoods we would like to explore have sprung up, some near the Anacostia River, some in a transformed downtown. Lots of amazing museums, of course, like the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the spectacular National Museum of African American History and Culture. Seeing new and old museums and sites will take time. Maybe we will rent an apartment for a month and set up a southern Lustre HQ.

• Except for D.C., we are not that familiar with the South (thought one of us lived in North Carolina for a bit.) Savannah, Georgia might be a good place to start. Bed and breakfast in an historic home sounds excellent. We have fantasized about Savannah’s beauty and history, and being there would surely give us Northern women a new perspective.

• As would a visit to Montgomery, Alabama. We have wanted to see the new Legacy Museum, and other civil rights sites. We did not realize that F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived here, too. A pretty guesthouse might be the perfect command center.

This country is so vast and varied. Our options seem infinite. Exciting even to think about it.

Will you go somewhere? Where?