Jun 28 2008
Being a Tourist at Home
With fuel prices making travel significantly more expensive this summer, many people are choosing to skip the summer vacation and stay at home. If you’re one of these people, there’s no reason you can’t relax and see some new things anyway. Everywhere there are towns with hidden gems - historical museums, rivers perfect for canoeing, community theater troupes and more. Perhaps your own town has some of these hidden gems, or maybe there’s a place just a short drive away that’s new and different. Take a fresh look at what your area has to offer - it might be more than your realized!I live in a little beach town along Lake Michigan, which is kind of like being on vacation all summer long. I’m at every festival and event. It’s funny, because people who were raised here say they never go downtown during the summer because of all the tourists. I just can’t understand that - I love doing all that touristy stuff. I pay more for the ice cream that’s right by the water, I bring my lawn chair to listen to music at the park and eat free popcorn while my kids chase one another around the fountain and I go to the busy beach in town rather than the hidden one in the country. I grew up in a town about the same size, but without the tourism trade, and let me tell you, it was BORING. Now I live in a place where there’s some sort of event going on every weekend throughout summer, and you can bet I’m not going to avoid it just because it might be a little crowded. This weekend it’s the art fair - I can’t wait!
2 Responses to “Being a Tourist at Home”
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I just moved from one coast to the other and now I’m in a desert. We’re 40 minutes from the nearest town and it seems there isn’t much online about places to visit. It has made me want to venture about with my camera and start my own site.
But then there’s the gas prices…
I think many of us forget that we live in an area tourists visit! Now that I live in a different country, I find myself appreciating the tourist stuff of my homeland when I’m back there. It’s so interesting to discover hidden things that you walked past for 20+ years and never saw until you read about them in a tourist guidebook!