Words can barely do justice to the devastation that has unfolded across Los Angeles this week amid the raging wildfires that have erupted everywhere from Pacific Palisades to Pasadena.Entire neighborhoods have been wiped off the map and residents have lost a lifetime of treasures.At last count, the death toll from the unprecedented four-day fire event stood at 10 and more than 9,000 structures have been destroyed or damaged.The Biden Administration has swiftly responded to the climate change-driven crisis. The president visited California on Wednesday and later vowed that the federal government will cover 100 percent of the disaster assistance costs for California for the next 180 days.“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense to contain these fires,” Biden said. “We’re doing literally everything we can at the federal level.”The president has sent 400 additional federal firefighters to the state and more than 30 firefighting helicopters and planes. Canada is also providing firefighting aircraft.While all of these measures and promises have brought comfort to California, Biden only has 11 more days in office. And President-elect Donald Trump has taken the opposite tact, roundly criticizing California officials for the fires and spreading misinformation and falsehoods that have since been debunked.In addition to the Biden Administration, the travel industry has provided an outpouring of assistance and support for Los Angeles and its impacted residents.Local organizations such as the Hotel Association of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board are pitching in, as are international, national, and regional tourism industry operators including Airbnb, Delta Airlines, Internova, and Signature. Here’s a closer look at what’s unfolding.
We took our kids on an overseas trip when they were little. We should've waited until they were older.
26.12.2024 - 15:59 / insider.com
My husband and I lived in Canada in our 20s, and couldn't wait to return a decade later.
Some of our happiest memories were of living in Banff in the Rockies, meeting other young people, going on epic outdoors adventures, and exploring Canada's national parks.
This time around, though, we had our 4-year-old and 8-month-old kids to take with us. On our overseas adventure, we planned to visit my brother in Vancouver for his 50th birthday and road trip across British Columbia and Alberta.
After our grueling 17-hour flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Vancouver, we hit the ground running. In total, we spent 10 days exploring Banff National Park in an RV and went on a road trip throughout Hope and other parts of Canada.
We had great moments along the way but we learned some tough lessons, too.
On our first trip to Banff, we had zero responsibility. This time, we had two little people to care for — and they came first.
I realized pretty quickly that having young children hindered us from doing some of the things we used to love in the area.
Before we arrived, I had naïve visions of being able to go on epic hikes with the kids strapped to our backs. In reality, they didn't want to traipse up a mountain (on my back or otherwise).
Instead, we took short walks with a stroller and made lots of stops along the way to look at butterflies, pick flowers, and eat snacks.
One night, our housemates kindly offered to look after the kids, so my husband and I snuck away for a cocktail at the restaurant I'd worked at a decade earlier.
Two sips in, they called to say our baby girl wouldn't stop crying, so we rushed back to their place as fast as we could. All in all, having young kids meant we had a very different kind of travel experience.
Banff wasn't quite the same the second time around, largely because we were in a new stage in life with different priorities: our young kids.
Looking back, it would've been better to wait until our children were both older to take them overseas.
I'd hoped that our 4-year-old son would at least remember this trip, but he's now 9 and a lot of those memories have faded. Sometimes I'll ask him about Vancouver or a particular lake we visited in Canada, and he'll just give me a blank stare.
He was just a little too young to appreciate the privilege (and expense) of traveling to another country. I'm confident if we took him overseas today, he'd remember it far better, as I still recall trips I took abroad with my family when I was around his age.
We now have three children and our youngest is a toddler. So, at this time, we're just focusing on exploring our backyard and taking domestic vacations in Australia .
In a few years, though, we'd like to take the kids on
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