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Travel guide and guru Rick Steves travels to Europe every year around this time, but the COVID-19 pandemic is keeping him home in Edmonds for the first time in 30 years. He doesn鈥檛 mind it though, despite graciously refunding thousands of European vacations, because he鈥檚 learned how to cut onions.

Photography app gives virtual WA travel experience while in quarantine

鈥淚鈥檓 doing fine. I feel like I鈥檓 almost cheating the pandemic living in Edmonds. I鈥檝e got a wonderful quarantine partner, so I鈥檓 not lonely, and right now I鈥檓 at home exploring places where I鈥檓 steep on the learning curve,鈥� Steves said.

One would think that such a traveled man would know a little bit about everything, but Steves says he can鈥檛 cook.

鈥淚鈥檝e sort of made a point of not knowing how to cook my whole life鈥� he chuckled as he explained. 鈥淚鈥檝e been in this house for 10 years and I鈥檝e honestly never turned on the oven until this crisis.鈥�

But now, he鈥檚 tossing handmade pasta like chefs in his favorite country, Italy (you have to use olive oil or it鈥檒l stick together), and has discovered a newfound love for onions.

鈥淚 have never felt the sensation of a serrated knife cutting through a nice, crispy onion until now and that鈥檚 a beautiful thing. That鈥檚 a beautiful thing. And I would not have had that had it not been for this crisis.鈥�

Steves is just trying to find the beauty of being kept at home, but is quick to acknowledge the privilege of living in a region like the Pacific Northwest and has, as of late, taken up advocating for local businesses at the mercy of landlords who are not giving any breaks during the pandemic.

鈥淚鈥檓 very sadly impressed by how we鈥檙e often able to ignore that, be blind to that, and deal with our own problems. We have serious problems, I have serious problems. I鈥檓 trying to keep 100 people on a payroll with no revenue. But there are people around me and there are people south of the border who have far more difficult situations. And right now for anybody to do anything but try to help their neighbor during this crisis — I don鈥檛 understand anybody who tries to profit at the expense of anybody during this crisis. I don鈥檛 understand.鈥�

True to his word, Steves and his employees are working on refunding all 24,000 tours that had been booked for this year.

鈥淭his year was going to be our best year ever, and we鈥檝e been working full time just to process all those refunds. We鈥檙e doing it in a very straight and generous and clean way. There鈥檚 no credit, there鈥檚 nothing like that, it鈥檚 just everybody gets all their money back.鈥�

If that鈥檚 not enough on his plate, Steves recently for The Edmonds Beacon imploring the reader to imagine a traffic-free downtown core. His vision calls for a block in each direction of the Main Street fountain to be off limits to cars so that it feels more like an Italian piazza, where locals and tourists alike can wander freely and shop and eat at their leisure.

His idea could help jump-start the Edmonds economy post-pandemic. He explains that shops and restaurants could double capacity while maintaining physical distancing by spilling out onto the sidewalks and no cars would be in the way of patrons.

鈥淲hat makes Edmonds a good place to live is the vibrancy of our downtown and the community spirit. And if we lost that, and if all these businesses go out, and the only thing that survives are sales outlets for giant corporations, our community is going to be less for it.鈥�

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Steves believes his businesses will emerge from this pandemic. While he has already reduced payroll, and plans to further reduce payroll into 2021, he鈥檚 committed to not laying off any of his employees and continuing to provide them healthcare.

鈥淩ight now, it鈥檚 all hands on deck. We鈥檝e got to look out for each other. As a business leader in my town, I鈥檓 trying to do that the best I can.鈥�