“There is so much to remember and organize,” she said as she sat on a bench in the departures terminal, refreshing her email feed every few minutes while awaiting the outcome. negative for his coronavirus test. “It’s very stressful, but I know it will be worth it when I see my children and meet my grandchildren,” she said, her eyes filled with tears.
Reyna Martinez, from Ensenada, Mexico, crossed the Tijuana, California border with her daughter for the first time in two years. She said she used to cross at least four times a year to see friends or go shopping. On Monday, she was on her way to Long Beach, Calif., To visit a friend. “Who knows if they could shut it down again,” she said in Spanish. “I was worried if I didn’t go now I might miss something. So here we are.
In Canada, Judy and Wayne Peters were packing their cobalt gray BMWs for their 1,520 mile trip south of Kelowna, British Columbia. They own a manufactured home in an upscale RV park in Yuma, a town halfway between Phoenix and San Diego.
Hundreds of thousands of Canadian “snowbirds”, mostly retirees, flock to the United States each year to spend the winter.
Now that pandemic travel restrictions have been lifted, thousands of people are already en route to Florida, Arizona and California, among other hot destinations, with campers and boats in tow.
“It was a mild winter here so it worked in our favor,” said Peters, 69. “But we can’t wait to find a nice warm environment, with our American friends.”
Miriam Jordan, Matt Stevens, Niraj Chokshi, Kevin Armstrong, Michael Paulson and Max Rivlin-Nadler contributed reports.
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