Silver Wedding Anniversary

Going Our Way: Free at last (sort of) to take a trip to Cuba

Why: 20th wedding anniversary trip while the kids are at camp

When: June for five days

Budget: $5,000

“We love traveling with our four kids, but this adventure is for the two of us. We really want to see Cuba before it goes commercial. We like being with locals, walking around, hiking, sightseeing, eating and listening to live music.”

Like many Americans, Jamie and Kirsy Blietz were thrilled when the Obama administration eased travel restrictions to Cuba for U.S. citizens in January. So thrilled, in fact, that the Silver Spring couple decided that the formerly forbidden island would be the perfect setting for their 20th wedding anniversary celebration next June.

No doubt it would. But amid all the hoopla about U.S. citizens now being able to travel to Cuba legally, it’s important to keep one thing in mind: You can’t just pop over for a visit the way you can to, say, Jamaica or the Bahamas. The United States’s financial embargo against the island remains firmly in effect, meaning that all American visitors must travel with special licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Students, aid workers, full-time researchers, journalists and a few other categories of travelers qualify for the licenses. Tourists do not.

Of course, many Americans have skirted these restrictions for years by flying to Cuba from Canada, Mexico or another third country. A Treasury Department spokesman emphasized that this practice remains illegal and that violators face civil penalties and criminal prosecution on their return to the United States.

The new “people-to-people” provision, which allows U.S. citizens to take educational or cultural tours with a licensed travel provider, makes things easier. “Any U.S. individual may travel with one of these licensed organizations,” the spokesman explained in an e-mail, “provided they comply with all terms of the license — most importantly, that they engage in a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in Cuba.”

Translation: No lolling on the beach all day. But all the P2P itineraries we checked include visits to basic tourist attractions and, more to the point, allow for downtime each day, when participants can wander around on their own. To date, more than a dozen companies in the United States have been granted licenses, and dozens more await approval.

Georgina Swan — Silver Wedding Anniversary

I realise I’ve been a little quiet over the past week – some of you may already be aware that writing isn’t all I do! I also love to draw. As words haven’t been coming so easily to me over the past seven days, I thought I would share one of my recent illustrations with you instead.

I drew this for my Mom and Dad’s silver wedding anniversary. I rarely buy greetings cards as it is more cost effective – and of course much more thoughtful – to make my own! I was three months old when my Mom and Dad got married. Mom wore a vibrant red two-piece with opaque white tights, and my Dad accessorised his grey suit with massive NHS-style spectacles and a chunky black watch. So 80s! When I stumbled across a photograph of them in their get up, I knew I had to replicate it as a drawing. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Silver Wedding

Wedding Anniversary Idea Book

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