During this year’s spring break, we wanted to take a short trip out of town and a few days beforehand an article about Arizona’s beaches showed up in my newsfeed. Despite my years of living in Arizona, I wasn’t even aware Arizona had beaches (except at Big Surf, which I’ve never been) so I read the article with interest and discovered that Lake Havasu was only about three hours from our home.

So the planning began. We’d stay one night in Lake Havasu with three B goals: Boat, Bridge and Beach. Although we were only there for less than 24 hours, we managed to do all three.

Although older articles captured scenes of wild spring breaks in Lake Havasu, this year Arizona universities all cancelled their spring breaks due to the COVID-19 pandemic so those scenes didn’t materialize when we were there.

We checked in at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Lake Havasu, which was located at the entrance to London Bridge, then walked to the area near the water and rented a platoon. I hadn’t made any reservations because I wasn’t sure what our timing would be like but it just so happened that the stand we visited had a boat available for the next hour before it closed so we took a ride around the lake. The weather was perfect and it wasn’t crowded at all. The views included some of the city’s lighthouses as well as someone parasailing.

After returning to the dock at 6 p.m., we walked across London Bridge, which was built in the 1830s over the River Thames in London, England, before being dismantled and shipped to Arizona after it was purchased by chainsaw magnate Robert P. McCulloch, Sr., the founder of Lake Havasu City. The bridge was rededicated in Lake Havasu City in October 1971.

We didn’t eat in any restaurants since spring break was over Passover so we had matzah pizza in the room and watched “The Goldbergs” then took another walk near the lake after dinner. I almost forgot we were in the middle of a pandemic because there was a musician performing at one of the restaurants and the patio was filled with people not wearing masks. We kept socially distanced and the hotel required masks and followed other CDC guidelines, but outside it felt like a pre-pandemic world.

With not too much to do at that point, we headed back to the room and watched part of one of the “Spider-Man” movies and ate a Passover cake we brought.

The next morning we walked across London Bridge again to London Bridge Beach, where we walked along the lake to the beach. The younger boys went into the water, although it was pretty cold. It was fairly empty with lots of extra beach chairs so we relaxed and enjoyed the view for awhile before heading back to the hotel to get ready to check out.

After we checked out of the hotel, we walked over to the tourist information center, to learn more about the history of London Bridge.

Next we loaded into the car and headed home. It turned out to be a really nice 24-hour trip!