I have been fortunate during the COVID-19 pandemic to be able to travel to San Francisco from my home in Vancouver to visit my daughter and her family not once, not twice, but three times. As the pandemic has progressed governmental regulations have evolved to make travel not really more difficult, but certainly more inconvenient and have finally become nonsensical. Here’s the second part of my story.

Act 2

Emboldened by the ease of non-essential cross-border travel the previous summer, I returned to San Francisco for the Christmas holidays. The pandemic, which I had initially expected to last a mere month or two, was still going strong so my preparations intensified. I purchased a few K95 masks (which were not that easy to find right then!) and again took a COVID test a couple of days before flying. Once again this test was not required by airline or government.

This time the COVID test was an oral test. The nurse poured a small amount of salty water in my mouth and informed me that I had to swish for 5 seconds and then gargle for 5 seconds, three times. She helped me out by chanting SWISH-2-3-4-5 GARGLE-2-3-4-5. It was hard not to laugh until I had to spit the liquid into a little tube. Disgusting. I prefer the nasal swab!

Once again I found deserted airports, unfilled flilghts, and went for another COVID test in San Francisco, by this time my fourth. Good things these tests were free!

We had a small COVID scare in our house which sent us all to be tested, once and again after a few more days. Everyone negative thank heavens. I am now up to six COVID-19 tests, but who’s counting?

I had planned to return to Vancouver on January 4th, but when the Canadian government decreed that as of January 7th, all travellers would have to provide a negative COVID test to board the flight. I delayed my departure and went for another COVID test within 72 hours of the flight. The knowledge that everyone on the aircraft had tested negative was a comfort, though I stuck to my usual travel attire and back row window seat preference. Some passengers at SFO donned even more fashionable attire than I.

A word about cost. Vancouver and San Francisco treat COVID tests as a public health matter and cover the cost of testing. Nowadays however, at leaast in Vancouver, if you are getting tested for travel purposes you must pay $200 for your test.

The quarantine regulations were more restrictive following this visit. I was told I could be fined $1,000,000 and sent to jail if I strayed from my place of quarantine for any reason other than a medical emergency. I also had to report in daily on the new ArrirveCan app (what do people without smart phones do?), and lest I forget, I received an email every day reminding me. I even had a number for ease of tracking my potential transgressions. The app asks if you’re feeling OK, have no fevers or coughs – essentially a reporting honour system. I also received the usual two calls from provincial contact tracers concerned that I was managing while isolating, and a very stern robo-call from the feds reminding me that I would suffer severe punishment were I to break quarantine. It feels like our governments are playing good cop bad cop!

The problem these tighter quarantine restrictions created for me was what to do with my garbage. I live in an apartment building with refuse bins outside. What about my compostables? I settled on freezing them and was happy to reclaim freezer space 14 days later.

I missed the outdoor activity allowed last September though Vancouver weather in January is not as compelling as in the fall. And apart from the distasteful practice of storing my garbage in my apartment for two weeks, all in all I decided that cross-border non-essential travel was worth the 14 days at the tail end. Thus, when the opportunity arose to visit San Francisco a couple of months later, I didn’t hesitate.