The four days our family spent skiing in Michigan’s UP probably spoiled me for life. It really is that great.
https://imgur.com/a/wqr6r4K We were supposed to be heading to an area near Minneapolis on the MN and WI border, but the late January thaws and rain had us plenty spooked. Skinnyski.com trail reports for areas where we’d made hotel and state park cabin reservations contained words like “icy and dangerous” and “don’t bother” while weather reports were showing mid-30s in the afternoons and a dearth of fresh snow on the horizon.
We were scheduled to leave Saturday morning and at T-7 days, we were butting up against last-minute cancellation rules. Sure the weather could change between then and Saturday but did we want to risk it? We’d been thinking about this trip for months and planning it for weeks. We’d already invited parents, divvied up the planning and meal prep duties and even begun to pack. Was is possible that we’d just write this whole adventure off?
Nope. Not a chance.
Instead we called up our relations and said; “hey, the weather isn’t cooperating and about a week ago we bumped into some folks at our local trails who told us that they ‘love going to ABR and Ironwood it’s just wonderful have we heard of it?’, to which we replied politely ‘sounds great’ while thinking ‘that’s an awfully long drive folks’ and then we just sorta forgot about it until a few minutes ago and we looked it up and it does look like magic—BTW, what do you think about cancelling all our current plans and heading up to Ironwood MI instead?”
For this trip it would be our kids, us, and one set of parents. Now these are some intrepid folks! We normally downhill together with them in Colorado—for a tradition of spring skiing as often as we’re able to, which is every few years. And we know they’re interested in XC, they have their own skate gear and like us they get out with some regularity. At this point, they peeled off to do their own research while we inquired about which dates were open at ABR as well as the trails and hotels in the surrounding area. These are not folks to be thrown off-kilter by a change of scenery, in a few hours both families had both done their research, reconnected to run through the logistics, and created a new set of plans. The trip was still on!
Two nights in hotels and two in a cabin would remain—but much else was quickly scrapped and rebuilt. Some COVID restrictions on the available eateries and our own preference to establish distancing meant not just one but both hotel nights would be via an ‘instant-pot’ room, and in addition, we were swapping electrical amenities at the cabin in MN for a wood-burning stove at the cabin in MI and thus we tinkered with our meal-plan one last time. Our clan does love the good eats associated with home-cooking so the meal plan encompassed a variety of fare from delicious white chili which was premade, frozen, and easily warmed up in the ‘instant-pot’ which is about as “no fuss” as it’s possible to be après-ski to the fire side of the menu featuring thick pork chops and hardy vegetables made in cast-iron over the wood stove. What’s more this all went off without a hitch. There were just a bit of leftovers thrown in which fit a lunch-shaped hole created on day 3 when we intended to pick up some pasties on our way into ABR and the cabin portion of the trip but forgot.
Whether hiking, car-camping, or cabins sans running water—honestly any time preparing a meal away from home, we do a literal ‘walk through’ of the meal as it will be made under those conditions. Not saying that always avoids disaster, but it helps! Lest this become a “tell all”, I’ll just say that I’ve needed to borrow a lighter from a boat-full of fishermen while grilling burgers over a single burner propane stove after kayaking into the the sand dunes of a WA state reservoir and also eaten cold, luckily pre-cooked, brats on an IA river sandbar after arriving via a canoe with a fuel bottle topped by an adaptor for an MSR Whisperlight which of course was incompatible with the Dragonfly stove I’d packed. An example of this method would be; “start with two pork chops in this pan with a pat of butter, turn them with this spatula, and when the first batch is done it will get cut on this board with this knife and served right away—then we start another pair so people can have seconds”. This gets turned into a list—that if everything goes correctly, gets checked twice. We consider the complexity of toppings, how many burners are needed concurrently in addition to whether things will arrive smashed or spoiled. And from there…we make it work!
Inspiration for the food was that we’d be outside most of the day and wanted something warm and hearty, something wintry that felt cozy to consume. Soups, stews, roast veggies, sausages were deemed easy to transport and cook. And delicious. I personally toyed with Nordic dishes for the sheer poetry of it but didn’t trust myself to a first-time-Lefse experience “on the road”. We ate those shortly after returning home. It may be telling that I’m eating some Swedish Meatballs as I type this!
With all that planning and backstory you may be wondering whether there was indeed an actual ski trip? I can tell you there was. And it was glorious.
Wanting to cater to all three generations of participants, we shifted day 1 south by one hour to take advantage of an indoor water-park in Minocqua WI and, if possible, a bit of time at the nearby Minocqua Winter Park Nordic Center. Ski time was actually on the bubble under the assumption that we’d get plenty more later, and due to some errands and a desire to call in to a school extracurricular activity being our “plan A”. Respectively the errands were quick and we were unable to be log on to the school event, thus freeing up those hours of daylight. Skiing was had! We found Winter Park really nice and large place up there with well groomed trails and firm snow. Maybe a bit on the light side as sections of fallen needles ground into the base had to be worked around. This was a good warm up ski for everyone. And that was also something on our minds leading into the excursion. Local conditions for us had included multiple inches of snow early in January and we were coasting on that. That snowfall produced a week of great skiing, a week that was pretty good, and a week of “well, that’s why we’re taking this trip” snow also. Nonetheless, having this snow allowed us to get in just a ton of time on skis relative to most years. So we were feeling prepared. Possibly too much so. The parents had been able ski recently in northern MI and we all were wondering how well conditioned we were—knowing that we’d normally ski for a bit and then do something else. But on this trip, we’d have the majority of the day to ski if we wanted to.
Everyone did well and was having a great time. Shortly into the ski I started to feel some pain in my hands which must’ve gotten cold in the parking lot as getting the kids ready and tromping around to buy passes took longer than anticipated and it was fairly cold. My son, aged 9, was struggling a bit for balance and grip, and although the team was doing well, I tried a few sprints but ultimately found the need to return to the car for a mid-weight pair of gloves. Of course by the time I was back to the car my heart rate was up but being stubborn I jammed on the thicker mittens and struggled them into ski straps that just barely accommodate Swix star split index finger mits. Being warm was nice, but as always it wasn’t long before I was too warm and swapped back. Luckily I caught up with the team as I’d spent the prior 15 minutes wondering if that was going to be possible under the circumstances. Overall the ski was on the short side and we capped off the outdoors part of the day with a bit of tubing. Technically they were used as bumper cars. Standing on the windward slope coupled with the lowering sun cooled us down and it wasn’t long before we were saying goodbye to the first of the new ski areas.
From there we drove a few minutes back to town to that indoor waterpark. This should probably have triggered a bit more of a COVID alert—it was quickly apparent that we were in the minority viewpoint and there was a certain frisson to jumping into a pool with a large number of people. I spent a short time in the indoooutdoor hot tub and encouraged the kids to swim for their money’s worth. The highlight of this leg of the trip was definitely using the ironing board as a table – this is a trend that would continue – something we spontaneously developed as an immediate response to scalding hot bowls of chili served in thigh-burning paper bowls. Also, just chatting and catching up while encouraging the youngsters as they worked through math problems and a challenge to synthesize haiku from randomly supplied seed words.
It snowed overnight and on into the morning and the room had a balcony. While frigidly cold, it also provided a place to watch tiny flakes drift down from an Adirondack chair while sipping an orange and apple juice blend through a tiny straw. We make do. Day 2 quickly became blindingly bright and clear as we arrived at our second new ski area, the Wolverine Nordic Trails in Ironwood MI proper. We did the Wolverine Loop [4.7k] a few times before and after lunch. The kids have classic skis which doesn’t stop my daughter, aged 12, from frequent transitions into skate. The missus and I have skis for both disciplines, while the parents skate exclusively. From the parking lot this trail goes immediately and steeply up along Lookout Ln. We found this segment challenging as youngsters struggled for grip. Significant elevation throughout the route gave us all reason for pause. The snow conditions and overall temperature here were excellent. Quite a bit of clothing was packed, a fact that would become more relevant at ABR when we had to schlup it on our backs, and indeed a narrow range of this was worn.
It was here that my daughter really began to shine. Recently our family had watched some ski technique videos as our family worked to practice proper striding technique after a history of shuffling exclusively. One thing is common with excursions with kids—and that’s the duration and intensity of activity need to be carefully monitored and it’s easy to bite off more than they can chew. So I’ve always planned for a leisurely 1 hr ski. Or perhaps we’d push it and go for 2 hours with some type of break or snack in the middle. For us, the transformation of her ability level was really notable. For the first time she was really leading the group and had to use her maturity to look back and see if we were still in in sight.
We paused for a cheese and cracker platter along with egg-salad sandwiches for lunch and the missus and I swapped to classic. I’m personally more comfortable with sustained effort on classic and feel I’m beginning to develop a stride. Still, I found myself actually laboring to stay in contact with my daughter. On this loop as the group was a bit more tired, and we’d left behind grandpa and my son, we pushed our pace. Much faster than morning rates. The snow was softening a bit and really singing. It was a great time of stretching wings, feeling the glide, and also letting go on some downhills to rely on our step turns and really minimize the snowplow except where we found 90 degree turns at the bottom of hills. This was our longest and quickest family run of the whole trip and we got good and sweaty doing it! We met some folks with very young kids at the trailhead and chatted for a bit. They were familiar with the area and excited about showing their grandkids the ropes there. Always love those ultra short skis. We sure didn’t start our kids that young! Being 3yr apart in age, we’re able to hand down gear and that’s worked well so far.
Before we left, we took some time to play in parking lot snow mountains and then it was time for hotel number 2. With this place being smaller plus it being Sunday—we were the only people there. The only folks in the pool, the only folks at the check-in desk, the only folks in line for breakfast the next day. Now this is what we’re talking about!
A red lentil dal provided warmth and nourishment as the temperatures dropped outside. Not exactly a Nordic dish, but a stalwart for us. From the mid-20s the prior two days, we were looking forward to low-teens the next two. Since the morning would be single digits with a notable wind-chill we knew we’d need to get our stuff into a sled and out to the cabin at ABR. So, we made sure the cars were appropriately organized and items that wouldn’t be coming with us were clearly understood or segregated and those that were would be made easy to grab and transfer over. Morning dawned pretty quickly and we finished organizing the gear plus stuffing in some breakfast and headed to the other side of town.
Really from the moment we drove past the ABR sign and entered the property I could feel a building excitement. We donned masks and the grownups went inside to speak to the proprietors, get maps, and make sure we were clear on the logistics. We learned there was no skiing on the trails <0900, that jugs and water plus fire-starting bundles available in the nearby shed. Day parking area, overnight parking area just beyond by the green fence. Pulks available for each cabin. That was good because by that point we’d figured out that the unmodified jet sled in the trunk of the van wouldn’t come into use as the hills leading to the cabin were a bit steeper than had been considered. A conclusion of business, and with that—we were parked.
I’d packed an external frame pack which is pretty voluminous, a jet sled we elected not to use, and a 5 gallon plastic rectangular carboy for water. While they had gallon jugs I thought it would be easier to stash one unit—but the weight was starting to seem daunting so we only did 3 gallons. Somehow this managed to leak a bit in transit, through the vent hole presumably, but not onto anything that needed to be dry. By using the sled for our unit and borrowing a second we were able to get most of the communal gear loaded up between these and my pack. Everyone had packs with their personal gear mostly moderately sized hiking packs. I don’t know about you, but I can ski okay with 20lbs in a ~30L pack. What I can’t do so well is skate with a pulk in the 50+lb range and a big 80L pack adding about 30lb more besides. Thank goodness for bulky light stuff I guess. So, that was a struggle. The second trip was a lot lighter overall and I didn’t have the pack further overbalancing me. Hopefully I gamely lugged our gear, but I probably whined about it a bit. Just a tidge anyway.
From there, we unpacked our gear—which thankfully fit pretty darn well. I figured there were a lot of things that “a 6 person cabin” could actually mean, but the floors were nice, the table was large, the mouse-turds were not too hard to cleanup or avoid, the floor mat for boots was just big enough, the coat pegs and shelf held what was required. We cozied up for about 30 minutes making a home for our things, lit the fire—and settled into a routine.
We’d ski for a half hour to an hour, return to the cabin, swap members in and out of the party, change techniques and gear. We’d learn the stove and keep the fire going. We’d cook a meal, get way too hot, and open a window. It would start the night completely clear, and then we’d wake to drifting flakes and a dusting of snow. Every trail would be pristine.
While we’d packed tights, an outer layer, insulated pants, a shirt or two, fleece, an insulating layer and outer coat, a variety of gloves, mittens, and hats—I found myself wearing pants, wool socks, a t-shirt, and a windshell. The same stuff, constantly.
Leaving the cabin warm each interval allowed me to easily use poly stretch liner gloves without feeling the need for something heavier and made it a toss-up on whether a cap would be needed as it was consistently around 14F but sometimes calm and sometimes breezy.
There’s a variety of difficulties to the trails here which is admittedly hard to appreciate until you’ve been on each of them! And with so many, it was a challenge to feel we’d seen anything like a significant portion in two days. Some of the standouts were Memory Lane, which we’d managed to miss on day one as we’d instead sniffed out part of nearby Popple Flats before ending up on the rear section of River Trail behind Sandpoint cabin where we were staying. Once we finally discovered Memory Lane, we found there was an effigy of Bernie Sanders in his now famous ‘mittens’ pose outside River House where we stopped for pics and selfies—although I’m pretty sure the laminated cardboard face was Biden, but the snow seeping in made it just a bit hard to tell. Bard’s Bump was great too and treats you to some serious ups and some rapid downs—we did this one without the kids. Hemlock was a surprise standout and we needed to encourage our daughter to wait for us as was becoming increasingly more common. This single lane classic track takes you through the dense parts of the forest and past a looming rock pile of beautifully stacked boulders with weeping icicle beards. We had to leave the grandparents out of this one due to their skate gear. Just when I thought I might know where I was going (I never carried the map), I took a solo trip out to Blueberry Bluffs for my penultimate ski and thought I’d take the ‘Cold Feet Shortcut’, but took a wrong turn onto Meadow Ridge, and despite map postings out on the trails, another wrong turn onto Cherry Dairy which I can only assume was my last wrong turn for at that point I’d found myself instead at the main trailhead and recognized the first segment of River Trail by sight, as I’d been lugging stuff up and down it all this time, and finally arrived home again duly chagrined and just barely ahead of the dark. Trying to take this trail quickly with zero stops has cemented its place as the most difficult section of the trip. I was skating, was tired, and slipping into pretty poor form. I think my son would have liked it though. His favorite spot appeared to be the path leading down from the cabin to the trails. Sandpoint cabin is on a hill. He’d strap on his skis at the top then just go straight down. Straight across the trail, and straight into the puffy powder in the meadow. I walked. Let’s say I looked at it a few times and was happy to leave it to him that for me would’ve been an ignominious snowplow.
We skied. We cooked delicious food, ate great deserts, had some warm tea cocktails and figured we probably weren’t going hungry. We played in the cabin and drew and had board games. And before we knew it, those last two days were up and it was time to grab the sled and take the slightly lower volume of stuff—by one sled’s-worth—back to the car. This time via the snowshoe trails with grandpa. These winding trails in the early morning light were beautiful and I’d contend it’s a bit easier to tow the sled on foot making me doubly glad to have experienced them as well. That put us on the roads just a bit earlier than we might’ve done and this time we remembered to stop for pasties. A long drive? Sure. It couldn’t have been more worth it. Thanks to ABR for having us. Thanks to my family, each and all of you, for coming. You know it’s great when you haven’t yet quite left and you’re talking about wanting to come back and do it again!
I’m not much of a reddit commenter. But as I live only a few hundred feet from where Camp 210 once stood and have made Bellingham my permanent home, I’ve been trying to digest the wide spectrum of perspectives regarding our homeless crisis. In this doing I can’t help but feel we’ve let passions and ideology compromise our ability to respond effectively - and rationally - to this problem as a community. Bellingham is a smart place with smart folks, and most people, I think, come from a place of good faith. But this discussion really doesn’t seem strongly centered on proposing solutions that are long-term sustainable, and more often than not diverts to arguments of competing ideologies - many of which aren’t rooted in objective realities. This is clearly counterproductive. We need to set our sights higher and build a better solution.
I can’t really make a post on this subject short (apologies),
so the TLDR of it is that we need to focus first on the problems we have the tools and means to *actually* solve - and then circle back to see how we can devote our resources to mitigate problems bigger than our community. This goal is based on the following mindset:
1). Ideology doesn’t solve problems. Abstract systems effectively designed to
perform functions solve problems.
2). We get the society we invest in.
3). What good things we build end up building us.
-----
To start, I think we can agree that our homeless crisis is caused by a combination of three factors (each made worse from COVID): mental illness, drug addiction, and economics (housing costs/lack of livable-wage employment). There are easily enough homeless people in Bellingham to comprise significant numbers in each category, and each is caused by different factors.
Bellingham is not in a position to solve America’s mental health or drug addiction problems. Yet it is in a position to address our local economic problems, and that’s where we should focus our efforts first and strongest. Not just to make a real difference for those who we are in a position to best help,
but also to reduce the scope of our homeless crisis - ultimately extending our resources to mitigate other factors as best we can.
While the causes of mental illness and drug addiction are nuanced and complex, our economic problems are straightforward. They are caused by a lack of high-paying jobs/careers, a lack of affordable housing, and a lack of municipal development (or even permission) to facilitate the former two. And of all the ways Bellingham’s government and city council deserves blame, I hold them most guilty here.
Bellingham’s managers have simply failed to exercise the requisite imagination, foresight and responsibility to steward our city’s economic basis, with the consequential result undermining the stability of our working class - many of whom are now barely scraping by and often at risk of homelessness themselves, even after working multiple jobs. These are the people who make our city. Beyond powering our food and beverage scene, they play our music, create our art, and make our community vibrant. Not only do they deserve as much compassion as anyone - especially since they’re investing so much of themselves to stay afloat - they should be our *first* priority as a city, and the first focus of city management should be to work for them and
raise the floor so that our working class thrives for long-term future.
There are no shortage of strategies the city could engage to make this happen:
First, city government needs to incentivize companies to come to Bellingham and provide high-paying jobs for local residents. It’s true we can’t force companies to come here, but there are plenty of tools at our disposal: tax credits, waivers for zoning, land-use restrictions and permit fees, as well as land leases (or land grants) under more favorable terms that we can employ to attract businesses. Bellingham is a smart place and there’s a wide array of industries we can thrive in: from software, to manufacturing, to consulting, to financial tech, to environmental stewardship, to tourism, to creative sectors. Yet something like 80% of our local economy is service sector, and I think the single largest private employer is an organization that makes bible study apps. With the intellectual firepower Bellingham brings to the table, that is outrageous as an understatement.
I believe this is largely caused by a not-so-quiet effort among city management (and some older-generation NIMBYists) that are plenty happy to have inflated housing prices due to a fresh crop of loan-subsidized college renters every year, and aim to keep Bellingham held back to some caricature of a bygone era. I have harsh news for holders of this perspective: it’s a pipe dream.
Bellingham was just rated the 3rd best community for remote work in the U.S., we’re an hour from world-class skiing, live within walking distance of beautiful hiking and beaches, and are a short drive from both Vancouver, Seattle and several national parks. I lived in Boulder, Colorado, and then Carbondale, Colorado (near Aspen) and in both cases saw the median house price go from ~$500K to ~$1M in less than 5 years. Bend and Asheville are close behind them. Bellingham is equally as cool as any of those places, and the word is already out. We’re going to grow - rapidly - whether we want to or not, and people with means and remote workers are going to move here and buy property.
There is no legal or social framework that can stop this from happening. Our only option is how to manage it mindful of the working class already here who are at risk of being priced out of the community they help build. That starts with bringing employers to Bellingham, and city management needs to do their jobs and make every effort to see that result delivered - or give up their seats for people at least willing to try.
Second, we need to provide quality housing to Bellingham’s workforce on a basis that is both affordable and
permanent. There are several methods we could employ to deliver this:
A). We could replicate the
wildly successful housing lottery that was implemented in Aspen, Colorado. In this case, a municipal authority buys/builds a portfolio of apartments and houses which it
sells - not rents - to working-class members of the community at a subsidized rate. This is so they
own a piece of the community and have actualized interest in the community on the same scale as a wealthier homeowner, including building equity that they can use to accelerate their financial growth
. Municipal loans/bond programs can be created to fund this initial purchase, and secondary funds can be established to help with down payments and buffer against defaults, along with limits placed on flipping houses for a profit and income caps to ensure that the program isn’t taken advantage of. The Kulshan land trust, I believe, performs a similar function. But we need something at a massively increased scale at the municipal level to provide opportunities for affordable housing ownership.
B). Tiny house villages have been advocated, and I am a big supporter of them. But many of the options I’ve seen proposed fall short in design and construction methodology - namely building them from scratch, which dramatically increases per-unit cost. Instead of funding ad-hoc structures, we could engage modern methods of prefabrication to drastically slash costs and increase scale of how many permanent shelters we can build. Companies like ICON, Madi and AVFrame offer prefabricated structures at a far lower price point than custom construction - within the range of $10,000-$20,000 per house, less at scale. Bellingham spent $5 million+ to overhaul the high school and basecamp for temporary homeless shelters. That’s the equivalent of 500 tiny houses at $10K per house, or 250 at $20K. Camp 210, at its height, had fewer than 200 people.
C). The glacial pace of waterfront development notwithstanding, Bellingham could commission the development of luxury, city-owned waterfront condos that are rented out at a premium, the profits of which could be devoted to Bellingham’s housing fund.
D). The city could create supplemental funds (and resources) in cooperation with local credit unions to allow our workforce more flexibility in buying private homes. This could establish programs to allow a group of people to buy a house together and live in it like roommates under a joint venture, so they’d transfer their rent payments to mortgage payments with all of the tax deductions and opportunities for financial leverage that come with it.
E). The city can relax (if not waive) restrictions on ADU construction within their jurisdiction. The fees for building an ADU are ~$10,000 at minimum, with severely restricted zoning regulations, extensive land use applications, parking requirements, registration and municipal compliance regulations that make the process untenable. If it requires a marathon of red tape and tens of thousands of dollars just to get permission to build an ADU to alleviate housing shortages (which cannot be used for short term rentals under BMC), few are going to go through with it. Regulation for the sake of regulation helps nobody but those able to afford to jump through the hoops.
None of this is rocket engineering. It’s straightforward social responsibility - and it’s just as straightforward to fund:
- We could add a 2% service charge tax on every restaurant check that’s devoted to Bellingham’s housing fund.
- We could add a donation option on every credit card receipt in city limits to offer donations to the fund.
- The city could work with the county to offer property tax credits for donations to the fund.
- The city could sell bonds to initially establish the fund (and take out municipal loans that supplemental funding efforts would repay)
- The city could tax new construction with a 1-2% charge to increase revenue to the fund.
- As mentioned above, the city could develop high-value property that it rents at out as a premium to generate additional revenue to the fund.
These are all readily obtainable methods to help us support our working class and improve the economic basis of our city, which in turn frees up other resources to devote to mental illness and drug addiction more effectively through purpose-built systems that deliver targeted social services.
What we need now are leaders willing to take their jobs seriously and demonstrate a willingness to build the systems our community needs for a vibrant future. And the fact that this being proposed on a Reddit forum from some guy you’ve never heard instead of our city council of is proof positive that this isn’t sufficiently happening. For those of us looking to build something better for everyone, I’d encourage you to consider, discuss and share these ideas and help demand they are enacted.
Because we do actually get the society we invest in. And what good things we build really do in turn build us.
Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of your week.
Our wedding is scheduled for June 19th, 2021. We signed our contract with our venue last April when we could not have possibly known the pandemic would still be raging the way it is now, and only signed it due to their “pandemic clause” that would supposedly make postponement or cancellation easy breezy. At the end of 2020, once a substantial amount of money had already been paid, we reached out to see what our options were for moving the date or just cancelling the damn thing to elope.
Turns out, the pandemic clause only legally covers postponement or cancellation if the restrictions are literally so tight that we can’t have the wedding at all. Which isn’t the case where I’m located, weddings and gatherings can be held but with tons of stipulations. As it stands now, our only option is to cancel and lose all the money that’s already gone into the venue package (~$7500). My dad paid for this, and told us if we cancel we owe him that money back, which is understandable, but we just don’t have it. I used to work in special events, so obviously lost all my work due to the pandemic and am currently working a service job well below my station just to keep food on the table. FH also finished school for his career around the start of COVID and makes okay money but we’re certainly not doing as well financially as we would’ve guessed we would be when all this planning started.
I’m also supposed to be going back to school in September for a drastic career change, the program I’m hoping to get into is very intense and is going to limit my ability to work, so we’re already kinda strapped for cash seeing as we’ll have to move into a smallemore affordable apartment and sacrifice some things to make life work for two years while I’m in school. Adding a huge debt on top of that just doesn’t seem feasible or smart. I will also be going to school on my husbands remaining GI bill credits so ya being married is a time sensitive issue.
So, even though it’s hard to feel good about the decision, we are going ahead with the wedding. We simply cannot afford the alternative. We already downsized our guest list from over 100 to 50, which is still below the venue max capacity because it is pretty big. Everything will be taking place outside, despite the literal constant risk that Colorado weather will decide its time to snow in June or whatever. We’ve given up on having a dance floor, despite my fiancé being an ex professional dancer and being crushed by missing that at his wedding, and other things we wanted in order to stay safe. A lot of our friends/family have already been or will be vaccinated by the wedding because we have a lot of people in our circle that work in healthcare and we’ll be getting vaccinated and as soon as we are eligible and will encourage others to do the same but I don’t anticipate that everyone will be willing/able to do so by June.
I had Covid in November, by the way, and as a mostly healthy 26 year old woman, I was sick for over 30 days, almost went to the hospital on a few of them, I now have lasting lung/breathing issues, got two bouts of shingles within six weeks to add to all my facial scars and lost fistfuls of hair for two months afterwards, so I’m more aware of the risks than some.
I’m so exhausted though. My fiancé’s family is GIGANTIC and not being very understanding about how much we’ve had to cut back due to safety. So we’re getting all this pressure to be less safe from actual family so they can all be there. And then on the other side, it’s like every person on social media or Reddit wants me to know exactly how stupid and reckless they think I am for going forward with the wedding at all, like going almost $10k in debt to my dad to start our married life is some small thing.
This is just starting to feel hopeless. We’re financially screwed if we don’t have the wedding, super judged for a myriad of reasons if we do. I just wanna be married to my husband. This day already feels like more of a hassle than a celebration. I’m having trouble connecting with it on an emotional level because it feels like literally everything I’m doing is wrong no matter what.
Sorry for the long rant I just had to get this all out somewhere and figured I’d find the most compassionate people here.
submitted by So my girlfriend and I live in a town that’s vaccinating everyone and their mother so we will have had both our shots and the 2 week wait period after the second dose by the time spring break rolls around.
We have basically been in quarantine with each other since we got together in March last year. We want to vacation in Colorado Springs and are wondering what the best restaurants and activities to do are.
We aren’t really up for mega long hikes so we are wondering what some good local and chain restaurants are and what are some good places a couple can go?
Where we live, there are virtually no Covid restrictions or lockdowns even though there should be. We’ve basically been at home for almost a year now. Are there any spots in Colorado Springs that are closed or heavily restricted?
Thank you all in advance!
submitted by I posted this as a comment somewhere here but the post got deleted for some reason. I was pretty proud of my work so I wanted to post it again because writing it out made me feel better and maybe it’ll make some of y’all feel better too:
“The vaccine will end this. A lot is staked on it.
Politically, Biden cannot fail to return the USA to normal life. It just cannot happen. Besides being not Trump, fixing covid is his brand. He and his admin would be ruined. This goes for many governors. My governor has pretty much charted an exit, and his admin uses the term normal. In summer. Normal period, not “some normal”. They reference ending restrictions when people are vaccinated. He’s a democrat and I’m sure many others are the same way as him.
Economically, it has to end. Even the masks. This is where the argument from people who believe the economic elite of the country somehow doesn’t want economic normalcy doesn’t stack up. Trading markets have consistently acted on news in a manner that suggests large economic actors want this to end and will push for it to end. Eventually, you cannot have a situation where half the country is making money and the other isn’t in part due to political differences (not saying it should be political but it is).
Scientifically, it will end. Track vaccines at
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/. Also, a pretty unbiased
model used in part by the CDC has herd immunity being reached in July or earlier. (It’s by some dude named Youyang Gu check out his Twitter too). Some restrictions will be lessened before then, as my governor (Colorado) and others have already stated. After immunity, there is no justification for
any restriction. Additionally, most serious scientists and manufacturers seem to think the vaccines will stem actual transmission. Not that this would matter with broad immunity anyways.
The tragedy here is the messaging. For some reason politicians have not buoyed their restrictions with language asserting that they are intended to restore the good life. This is quite frankly asinine and shows their ineptness as both leaders and self-interested officials. If they at least tied their actions to an end goal rather than to vagaries of “slowing the spread” we would have been saved a lot of this pain. I think (perhaps naively) they will pay politically for this. Public health officials aren’t elected and thus speak only of slowing spread; they don’t pay politically for poor messaging.
The vaccine is the end of the pandemic because it
has to be. By definition. Even if it didn’t actually work (it does) it would probably still be the last effort and the end of the pandemic. Based on the paradigms that have been set up for what we expect out of covid control (whether you agree or not), they cannot goalpost shift their way out of a vaccine because the vaccine is the ultimate goalpost.”
We're heading to Winter Park at the end of February and trying to get a feel for what to expect. Never been to Colorado, but I've always heard great things. All adults and no kids on this trip.
How reliable is the shuttle around town? How important is it to stay near the WP resort? Is it better to rent a car to get into town from DIA or is the shuttle a good option? How difficult is it to navigate DIA? Are many restaurants or local entertainment open in WP? What restrictions are there for buying beeliquor around town? How strict are they about drinking beer on the lifts? Is it possible to buy food from any of the lodges with covid protocols in place? How difficult is it to buy weed around town? Is that encouraged? Frowned upon? Indifferent? What are the must do's while in town? Did we mess up in choosing WP over Steamboat or Copper?
I'm all ears on any insights you're all willing to share. I'm thrilled for a chance to experience something better than the southern california "snow" that I've done before. You guys are great!
submitted by In Level Yellow, counties or regions must be reporting no more than 175 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in a two-week period, the 14-day average positivity rate must be no greater than 10%... If you become sick or are exposed to COVID-19 while traveling in Colorado In Colorado, the local or state public health agency may issue public health orders to quarantine or isolate if you test positive for COVID-19, become ill, or are exposed to someone with COVID-19 while you are visiting. Colorado’s COVID-19 Dial 2.0 goes into effect Saturday, February 6. After meeting with local public health agencies, county commissioners, mayors, and city managers, as well as taking feedback via a public web form, the state will introduce a new version of the dial tool. Dial 2.0 will go into effect Saturday, February 6 at 9 a.m. Press release February 5, 2021. CDPHE confirms additional ... Colorado Travelers headed for Aspen or anywhere in Pitkin County longer than 24 hours must complete an online affidavit and provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test administered within the last ... The restrictions at issue here, by effectively barring many from attending religious services, strike at the very heart of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty.” Colorado had been allowing houses of worship to operate at up to 50% of their capacity, or up to 500 people. That’s only in counties with the least amount of COVID-19 spread; no Colorado counties currently fall ... On Dec. 30, 2020, Gov. Jared Polis announced that, due to a downward trend in Colorado's coronavirus cases, all level Red counties can move up on COVID-19 dial, to level Orange, effective Jan. 4,... Denver, Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Boulder, Broomfield, Jefferson and Clear Creek are among the counties that moved to Orange Monday. RELATED: Counties in Red on COVID-19 dial move to Orange Monday,... Colorado taking first step in COVID-19 exit strategy by loosening restrictions on restaurants, gyms and offices Plan could see people back in sports stadiums and nightclubs in spring, governor ... More counties and cities across Colorado are tightening COVID-19 restrictions as cases, hospitalizations and positivity rates continue to trend upwards. Several counties announced have announced ... Pitkin County, Colorado (which includes ski resort Aspen/Snowmass), requires overnight visitors to complete a health affidavit and provide a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival...
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. Camping is making a comeback in Colorado, just in time for Memorial Day weekend. But crews statewide are preparing campgrounds for a unique season because of th... 9Health Expert Dr. Payal Kohli weighs in on the latest COVID-19 numbers as more Colorado counties loosen restrictions. More local videos here: https://bit.ly... These "red" counties are now in Colorado's second-most restrictive COVID phase after the state created the new purple "extreme risk" category. https://www.9n... 15 counties, including Denver, will move to stricter COVID-19 restrictions to slow exponential growth of the novel coronavirus. More local videos here: https... Gov. Jared Polis announced that 10-15 counties will move to the next level of restrictions, which closes restaurants to in-person dining. 9NEWS YouTube Overr... With two positive cases of the novel coronavirus in Colorado, we sat down with Dr. Neal O'Connor, an emergency medicine physician with the HealthONE system in metro Denver. Watch our full ... Eased COVID-19 restrictions provide little relief to Colorado Springs restaurants Starting this Monday, counties in Level Red on the state's COVID-19 dial can move to Level Orange. Gov. Jared Polis made the request Wednesday following abou... Businesses in the personal service field like Alchemy Face Bar in Denver get a new start Thursday, as more COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed. More local vide...
