Apologies for our recent absence from the blog! Chris and I have made the difficult decision to cut our year-long travel in Japan short. 😢 There were many reason leading us to this decision (perhaps a topic for another post), but here are the two main reasons:
- First, there were many travel restrictions in Japan making trip planning extremely difficult. 😷🦠
- Second, sitting at home in the hot and humid Japanese summers is not particularly enjoyable. 🥵
With that, we booked our flights and journeyed back to Canada earlier this month. In case you missed our latest YouTube video on Flying during COVID-19, check it out below!
This post summarizes our 14-day self-quarantine experience in Canada! If you're returning home to Canada, this may give you a good idea of what to expect during COVID-19.
*DISCLAIMER* Please note that everything mentioned in this post and in our videos is of what we experienced. Please refer to Government of Canada's website for official COVID-19 and travel information.
Flying Domestically After Entering Canada
Our final destination (place of isolation) was the town of Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island. Originally, we had planned to fly directly into Vancouver and take the ferry to Nanaimo. HOWEVER, we found out it was possible to take a connecting domestic flight after our international flight. So, we ended up booking a connecting flight from Vancouver to Nanaimo.
This option was great as it was cheaper and logistically easier to arrange our pick-up, BUT it made us a bit uneasy knowing that if either of us were carriers of the virus, it could easily spread on the domestic flight! This is why avoiding all non-essential travel is critical, even within Canada!
Thankfully, no confirmed COVID-19 cases came out of either of our flights. (You can find out whether you were exposed to the virus on a public transportation device online!) It's important to note that the government is no longer actively notifying passengers that have taken flights with confirmed COVID-19 cases. It is the travelers' responsibility to check and report any symptoms.
Use of Private Transportation
As mandated by the government, we drove back to our place of isolation in our own car. Chris' family kindly brought two cars to the airport so that we were able to drive ourselves back. After reaching our destination, the car was thoroughly disinfected!
Our Place of Self-Isolation
We self-isolated in Chris' parents' loft above the garage. We had our own bathroom, and a personal chef for the two weeks (in other words, Chris' mom cooked for us 😋 and catered to our needs for two weeks - IT WAS GREAT!).
We kept ourselves occupied by setting up the room with working stations, playing with Lego, and mowing the lawn. Below is a little GIF of our International Space Station LEGO build!!
Calls from Government of Canada
During our 14-day self-isolation, Chris received 4 calls from government officials to check in with our quarantine compliance. They called and specifically asked if he have any of the COVID related symptoms and if he had been isolating from others.
Strangely, they never called me. We suspect it may be because we put down the same address and phone number so they didn't think it was necessary to check in with me. My other theory is that they didn't know how to pronounce my legal name so always defaulted to calling and asking for Chris. 🤷🏻♀️
Post Quarantine Life
As of July 20th, we are FREE!! We celebrated by driving down to the beach with our new unicorn floaty. 🦄😊🌈
Over the remainder of the summer months, we will be doing some hiking and camping on Vancouver Island. Check out our plans here!
