FOUR YEAR HIATUS

TOP: South Carolina x's 2 (2014), NOLA x's 2 (2017), Miami (2018)
MID: NYC (2019), Key West (2022), Woodstock NY (2022)
LOWER: OBX (2022), Vegas (2023), (Nashville 2023)

If there is one thing I know to be true, it is that once my travel buddy hubby and I decide on something, it is in the past and not the direction we are going. That was until Donald Trump (Part Deux) happened.

Thanks to his executive orders, we decided to unexpectedly cancel our trip to Red Rock Amphitheater, and tour Colorado this summer. That said, in the back of my mind I felt there may be hope in the cross-border travel department.

I was hopeful that severe looming tariffs and general uncertainties may get settled amicably between our countries. And our personal choice to boycott American travel may see reprieve. Well, the announcement yesterday that they will move forward no matter what, has proved me wrong.

So, it is official. For the next four years, we will not cross into the United States and spend any of our hard-earned money on their soil.

Now, some may say that won’t matter, as we’ve only spent a little over $50,000 USD in the last decade in cross border travel into the United States (which includes the two years of being grounded for COVID). BUT, according to the National Travel and Tourism Office, Canadians spent $20.5 billion in our next-door neighbours’ yard: last year alone.

I will share that I am not a political person trolling to have my opinions heard. I have my beliefs and outside of trying to get my husband to engage in the dialogue, I generally keep my thoughts to myself.

As I have written here before, I save for the ability to scratch my travel wanderlust itch every single week. And 99% of our travel choices are made via a deal I have sought out that makes sense at the moment I click the BOOK button.  

That said, when trying to re-plan my husband’s milestone birthday in July in Canada it's presented challenges. Even though it is only the end of February, we’re simply late to the planning party. Outside of a long weekend in Old Montreal, I feel I may need to bribe him to stay home and renovate the cottage.

In doing do, we are extremely committed that all items will be manufactured by Canadian companies. 

I was terribly bullied as a child. I feel this is a time, just like in my tween-hood, where we need to hold our heads high, prove our strong resilience, and leave those doing the bullying in our rear view mirror. (An ode to the fact that none of my bullies ever so much as graduated high school.)

Even worse, I hate that I have to entertain this orange bully in my home for more four years, rather than the fifteen minutes they say he was entitled to a little over eight years ago.