For us UNC would have been the most expensive option as daughter has some great merit offers elsewhere. So had she been accepted it would have been a tough decision. She does not want to wait for the longest of long shot offer off of the wait list. So we are moving along from UNC
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Wow, that campus is locked up tight! On the plus side you know they take precautions seriously. Positive thinking for Los Angeles. Hopefully we get this under control.
Iām a major rule follower as well, especially when it comes to Covid, but I have to get S21 up to Lubbock to see Tech so that he can make a decision. Itās a 5.5 hour drive from us, but a quick 1 hour 15 minute flightā¦the flight won out lol. Coupled with my husband being a commercial pilot, weāre taking the standby option and will do a quick dame day in and out trip. If we drive, it will mean probably staying overnight and then also dragging the twins along and I donāt want to do either of those right now. I plan on wearing a double mask and hopefully it will be an empty-ish flight that will allow for distancing between passengers.
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I would spend up for N95 masks or the closest equivalent.
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My older kid has had to fly back and forth to college and flights have been fairly empty. However, sheās traveled at off peak dates. At this time of year, it shouldnāt be too bad.
We donāt live within a reasonable driving distance of anyplace that my D has applied to, except for our in-state safety that she already knows quite well. And her schools are spread out all over the country. So I have no idea what we might do. The idea of flight hopping all over the country over Spring Break is not appealing. Nor is a road trip that would probably involve over 2,000 miles in the car. Darn COVID!
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Regarding flying - Iāll just say itās been very mixed. Weāve been surprised at just how busy airports in general are and my daughter said her flight home - granted Thanksgiving week - was pretty full. Although Southwest was still flying at 2/3 capacity leaving middle seats open, so at least she wasnāt sitting next to anyone.
On the way back I paid for United Economy Plus and the entire Economy Plus section might have had 10 people so she had no one anywhere near her. Now from exit row back it was completely full including middle seats.
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We havenāt eaten inside a restaurant since this all began. D18 has flown and I joking/not joking sprayed her down with Lysol before I hugged her. We donāt want to be part of the problem and give it to someone!!!
With that being said, weāve been to Disney, and our kids work at a ski resort. So they are exposed almost daily. They wear masks and we stay away from everyone and will test when needed.
Everyone has their level of comfort and feeling and being more cautious isnāt going to hurt anyone.
We want D21 to see her #1. It means we wait until her job is done and then we will wait at least 10 days and test and then drive 12 hours. That is good enough to get us to Massachusetts. If needed we will drive a campus instead of walking. It stinks- I hate Covid!!!
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Silver lining: depending on the particular route, it seems like flights are not hard to get and/or are relatively inexpensive even with short notice. It goes without saying that there is a lot of playing things by ear, but we will wait and see what March brings before setting up any trips, barring any weird miracles among the top choices before then (likely letters seem unlikely lol).
Planning would be more convenient if more colleges would actually announce decision dates. I really, truly hate not knowing until the moment that it happens when it seems to me that they probably know at least a few days in advance.
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Iāve been looking at flights at the end of the year, hoping we can sneak in a vacation when the kids get home from college. The airlines are banking on resuming normalcy because some of the flight prices are astronomical.
@jeneric we also havenāt dined inside a restaurant since this started but planning to go to Disney in a few weeks. Weāve canceled two international trips because of COVID, so we thought maybe staying domestic and going to the happiest place on earth may take the sting out of everything being canceled for the last year. I am worried about Disney and will walk out if Iām not comfortable. How did you feel being in Disney?
Congrats! I think I was one of those who encouraged you to consider LMU early on. Itās a great school. My D20 was also offered the Presidential last year and another nice surprise was that when we got the financial aid package, they stacked on a $2k early action discount. So be on the lookout for that little extra!
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Weāve been to Disney parks twice- in August and September. At that point they were really limiting attendance. We also went to Disney Springs in December. There is very good mask compliance in the parks. We used the app to order food and brought wipes- it was just like when the kids were toddlers! Always ate outside, which was a bit of a bummer since we couldnāt go to some of our favorite restaurants. Felt very comfortable.
Disney Springs was a different story. There were groups of people who would walk around without masks and you got the feeling it was to make a statement as you absolutely needed one to enter from the parking lots.
We will go back in April for D18ās 21st b-day, so I wouldnāt hesitate- we will also isolate when we get home. Thankfully drinking around the world is an outside activity! 
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@H0llyw00d and @jeneric Same here, no indoor restaurants, no plane trips, except when we had to take my daughter to school and qurantine with her in NY for 14 days last August - that was not fun. My other daughter we sent on her own back to Texas without us. It wasnāt safe for us and if we took her then we would have had to quarantine in our home for 14 days in IL and not been able to leave and I was in the middle of PT appointments post surgery and I wasnāt going to lie about any of it.
We cancelled a family vacation in December, and my husband and I were supposed to go on a cruise to Portugal last June. Hoping we will be able to make some of it up when things are back to ānormalā.
Lots of college visits cancelled, and 100% not eating inside any restaurants. We order in, curbside or cook. Donāt even go into grocery stores or target, etc unless we have to like when something is just continuously out of stock. Not taking any chances. Just got vaccinated this week and while I feel more secure about that, Iām still not going near people or doing anything crazy.
If everyone followed the rules, we could get past this sooner than later, but then again, people didnāt and thatās why weāre still here feeling like itās never ending.
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D21 and I would love to fly from Seattle to see Hamilton during her spring break the first week of April. Ticket prices are good. I keep hoping for the rules to change for NY state. Right now, a negative test before leaving, then a 4-day quarantine, then another negative test. Thatās not do-able for us. (Itās tempting to fly into one of the contiguous states, then drive into NY.)
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Fly to Newark then drive over? Makes sense. Everythingās legal in Jersey.
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Hartford, CT is the closest. Not that Iāve checked.
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@jeneric Thank you for the update. We will be prepared with wipes, extra masks and Iām not too shy to tell people to back up if they get too close 
My daughter and I flew to Florida back in December to take care of my parents and drove past restaurants with tables very close together and a packed bar where not a single patron had a mask on.
@srparent15 I saved up a ton of vacation time in 2019, because 2020 was supposed to be my year of travel. My husband and I were supposed to go to Spain for our 25th Anniversary, we were supposed to go to Aruba with my daughter and her friends as their senior trip, and I was hoping to take another trip for my 50th Birthday. Canceled, Canceled, Canceled. I was fine reminding myself that things could be much worse and to be grateful. I spent a ton of time walking the COVID puppy, doing some outdoor projects and even enjoyed the beach and seeing people outside from a distance. This cold weather is wearing me down from being so isolated. Thank goodness for CC!
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We just booked a condo at the beach the first week of March! About 5 hour drive so not bad. We havenāt been out of town since early August when we rented a house in a remote mountain spot and did a lot of hiking.
Weāll cook and eat take out and walk on the beach. Maybe rent bikes. S21 will have remote school and hubby and I may be working some, but Iām hoping to take some days off.
If we do any college road trips, itāll be later in March or in April. Lot of moving pieces and all TBD!
PS ā I am self employed so I have a lot of flexibility, but for my DH, it seems like 100% remote work has turned into 100% days working. (Well, not weekends.) He even worked between Christmas and New Years which he usually doesnāt. I think he took 5 days off the whole year? Yuck.
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Itās been quite a while (almost 30 years), but I had two close friends go to LMU and spent quite a few weekends there. Beautiful campus, nice dorms (actually from what I remember, some of the nicest Iāve seen), nice area. They both had a great experience there.
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@AlmostThere2018 I can relate to your DH. Feels like Iām always working. I had 24 carryover days of vacation and then the year starts fresh with another 28 days of vacation. Thereās just no way to take 50 days of vacation a year. 
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Is Broadway open again in the spring?