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Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

Well, we did it. 

After more than two years without taking a vacation — beyond a day trip to the Twin Cities and a couple days of a stay-cation — we booked our tickets last night to see my family on the East Coast in March.

We had a trip planned to Florida in March of 2020, but that was canceled at the start of the pandemic. We also had a visit from my parents to Minnesota scheduled last summer, but that got canceled at the last minute because of a COVID scare in the office and because of the timing surrounding a surgery my mom had last year. At the time, we didn’t want to risk my parents driving all the way from Virginia to Minnesota just to get here and find out that I had to be in quarantine. They were literally already on the road a few hours away when we had to make the difficult decision to cancel the trip. 

Aside from the headaches of the pandemic and its effects on my vacation plans, being shorthanded at the Tribune this last year has also made it difficult to be able to leave the office on the days we lay out the newspaper. We’re still working through the kinks of this for when we’re on the trip in March, but thankfully we have a little time to get that figured out. 

I’m not sure what all our trip in March will entail — and what the airline industry will be like in two months — but the most important thing is that we’ll get to reconnect with family members we haven’t seen in a few years. 

Both of my sisters and their families, along with my parents, plan to meet in Maryland for a reunion of sorts. 

I’m sure there will be a lot of catching up, taking photos and I’m sure a few adventures, too. 

Whatever we do will be a great time, I’m sure. 

Now, it’s just fingers crossed that nothing stops the plans we’ve made. 

“The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing.” — Eva Burrows

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Wednesday.