What will YOUR coronavirus summer look like?

As summer nears, with an official arrival date of June 20, so begins vacation season. With communities working through the reopening process following the COVID-19 shutdown, many people are wondering what summer 2020 will look like.

In Maryland, for example, which began stage two of the Roadmap to Recovery plan on June 5, outdoor swimming pools could reopen at 25% capacity with strict sanitation measures. Though camping is permitted, some programs and certain areas of state parks remain closed. A number of popular annual summer events, such as the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s “Salute to Independence” concert at Antietam National Battlefield, have been canceled.

According to the Roadmap to Recovery website, reopening status varies with a few jurisdictions still in modified implementation of stage one, and all Marylanders must continue to practice social distancing and wear masks in indoor public areas.

Many would-be travelers are uncertain about vacation options in their own states, let alone those in other states or beyond. Some Hagerstown area residents have halted summer plans. Others have modified them, while still others are going ahead, as much as possible, with business — or in this case, pleasure — as usual.

Leslie Brenk, 51, of Hagerstown, and her family vacationed in early June in Calabash, N.C. She and her husband Bradley Brenk, 54, went along with their daughters, Morgan Brenk, 20, and Megan Newcomer, 31, and Megan’s children Tucker, 11, and Molly, 9. Bradley’s late father left a house for his children, and the family goes there a couple times a year.

“My only reservation about going was what we would do when we needed to stop on the way,” Leslie Brenk said, “like if we had to use the restroom and things were not open. And we sort of ran into that.”

The only restaurant they found on the way that was open for dine-in was Cracker Barrel, but no one wanted to eat there, she said. So they used those facilities, and drove through McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A to get food.

“North Carolina was pretty relaxed on the mask-wearing. It was not required unless the stores require it. It’s up to you,” she said.

Calabash is near Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Brenk said that state seemed to be “more relaxed than North Carolina.”

The family took the kids to play at a park one day in North Carolina and found that the park was open but the playground was still closed.

“The pool in our community was supposed to open, but that date was pushed back,” she said.

The Brenks spent time at Sunset Beach, N.C., where shops were open. Restaurants were outdoor dining only, but many did provide outdoor seating, she said.

Barbara Courter, 60, of Clear Spring, said her summer looks very different than she thought it would earlier in the year. Courter, a sixth-grade English teacher, organizes vacation Bible school for dozens of children each summer at the church she attends in Hagerstown.

“I love VBS and I usually start creating decorations in March,” she said. “This year I bought the kit to use and then everything changed.”

Since Courter knew the usual well-attended, hands-on version of VBS likely would not be an option, she created an online version called “It’s a Mystery to Me!” She will post a link to the Facebook page with the program on her church website at www.valleygrace.net by the end of June so families can participate at any time.

As for vacation plans, Courter had a special trip in mind that was thwarted by the coronavirus shutdown. Her son David A. Courter is a major in the U.S. Army. He has his wife, Emily Courter, recently had a baby, Margot, born in Hawaii, where David is stationed. Courter and her husband, Doug, planned on going to meet Margot, but travel to Hawaii remains limited.

“We have yet to see our brand-new granddaughter,” she said. “Hawaii is on lockdown until the end of June, so we’re just biding our time. We FaceTime continuously, but I really want to kiss those adorable toes.”

Sarah Elgin, 24, of Mont Alto, Pa., said though her family is not sure what to expect in terms of travel, they are moving forward with plans for a trip to the Outer Banks, N.C., toward the end of June. She, her husband William Elgin, 27, and their children go nearly every year with William’s parents.

“We’ll leave the day before Father’s Day,” Sarah Elgin said. “With the COVID stuff, I was a little concerned about traveling with young kids. I don’t know how Maryland is, but Pennsylvania shut down rest stops, restaurants, fast food, and you still can’t go in.”

On the road with 3-year-old Aleigh and 17-month old Aria, she said, the couple usually makes plenty of stops at such places for bathroom breaks, leg stretches and regrouping.

“It’s a six-and-a-half- to seven-hour drive without traffic. It might not be as simple as, ‘Oh, let’s pull off and go to McDonald’s, use the bathroom and walk around,’” she said.

Though the family lives only several minutes from Maryland, Elgin said, “Maryland is completely different than Pennsylvania” in terms of reopening.

“When we are driving from state to state, I’m not sure what that will look like for us. We’ll see how that goes,” she said.

Elgin also felt some sense of reluctance about the trip in part because her oldest daughter has asthma and the other has medical issues, and the family of four will be sharing a house with six other family members. She decided the risks were minimal, though, as her children have been spending time with those family members throughout the pandemic, and the house is isolated from others.

“My husband works for his family business. He works with his dad daily,” she said, “and my sister-in-law has girls around the same age, so we see them a couple times a week.”

Elgin has been strict throughout the pandemic about her family not interacting with other people, but that also should not be a problem on their vacation.

“We will wear masks if we go out, but overall it will just be us and family,” she said. “The beachfront house is in a gated community so it’s literally like our own beach in front of the house. No one else is going to be there with us.”

Elgin anticipates possible obstacles in getting supplies. The family usually packs some basic food and paper items, then shops for most of their necessary items after they arrive.

“The other issue we could be facing this year is that stores there are anticipating having a shortage of non-perishable foods and the ever-needed toilet paper and things like that,” she said.

Elgin said she is not going to stress about it. She’ll take what she can, she said, and figure out the rest when she gets there.