Do you ever "play tourist" in your own home town?

[Buckalew11]

I'm 10 minutes from the Smokies so yes, I play tourist kinda often. I'm trying to do more of it this year though as I am appreciating these mountains and the beauty and all there is to do here more and more. People travel for hours to come here and visit and I'm minutes away.
As a kid, my parents played tourist when we moved here (cause we were kinda tourists, lol) but those times were a lot of fun. We owned a motel so we could give guests a lot of info about the area.

 

[lovegrumpy]

Yes we do that's one of the plus sides of being in the military. We're only there for four years so you have to play tourist. So far the best spot has been DC.

 

[usd2bmd]

Do you ever decide to spend some time seeing sites or attractions that your city or town is noted for, but usually visited by tourists from out of town?

We live in Buffalo, NY and recently took a guided tour of our City Hall, which is considered one of the greatest, architecturally, in the country. Also, the other day we spent time in a neighborhood called Elmwood Village (one of the best urban neighborhoods in the country) as we often do, but this time we took the camera with us and took some pics of the architecture and of some streetscapes.

Of course Niagara Falls is only a 20 minute drive away, but we seem to only go there when showing it to out of town visitors.

How about you? Do you ever appreciate what your town has to offer, instead of taking it for granted like so many of us tend to do?

We live just outside of Buffalo in a northern suburb and often during the summer I will take a day during the week off and my daughter and I will go exploring. Elmwood village is a favorite spot of ours, but we also do things that neither of us has done in many years (many more for me). Like the Science Museum, or the Zoo.

I work virtually on the water so I take advantage of the waterfront in the summer. This summer we plan to do the art galleries and Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin Complex.

I guess you could say we're "Talking Proud"!!

 

[PigletsPal2]

Do you ever decide to spend some time seeing sites or attractions that your city or town is noted for, but usually visited by tourists from out of town?

DH and I are Maryland natives. When we got married, we had VERY little money, and we were asked to be in my maid-of-honor's wedding in Texas two months later. So our honeymoon was technically in Texas, but we took four days after the Memorial Day Monday to visit all the free Washington DC tourist attractions that we had never visited, in spite of living within ten miles of them.

We've also lived in nine different overseas countries, and we made every effort to experience the culture of these countries. We knew a young military family in Madrid who were PROUD of the fact that they had not left the base (Torrejon was a US AF base back then) in the three years of their assignment to SPAIN! How do you live in Spain for three years and not see Barcelona, Seville, the Costa Brava or even downtown Madrid?!? We even offered to take them to local sites, but they weren't interested. How sad.

Queen Colleen

 

[Planogirl]

I do occasionally. Just a week or so ago I toured the historic park in downtown Dallas. I had no idea that there so many interesting old businesses and homes there.

A few years we went with some out of town friends to the Sixth Floor Museum. We really should have done that many years earlier.

 

[sasywtch]

We don't have a lot but most kids here go to Sutter's Fort and the Capitol during school years. I go to Old Sacramento and the train museum. I've been to the car museum. We are not much of a museum town.

Tourist here would also include Apple Hill, Lake Tahoe, Virginia City and San Francisco. Been to all however, San Francisco I have yet to do most of the touristy stuff there. Have done wharf with bread bowl soup, Ghirilleli, Golden Gate, Lombard St but have not ridden a cable car or gone to China town. I did drive by the pretty ladies this last time though!

 

[disykat]

Not so much now, but when the kids were smaller we made a point of getting them to many of the area sights. They're often surprised though that many of their friends haven't been those places.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Given the number of folks who on this board who consider St Loius a destination, I do think we maybe tend to take a few things about our area for granted. We have done most of the known attractions, but never really considered them the kinds of things that would draw in visitors from other states - unless they happened to be passing through.

I used to go to Forest Park all the time with the kids when they were little, it is one of my favorite places. I want a bike rack so I can go biking there.

I need to go to the City Museum. I have never been there.

When we lived in DFW, I went to all the tourist areas. I think I went to the 6th Floor Museum 3 times and Fort Worth Stockyards several times.

 

[indimom]

um, a mere 6,000 people live in my town.

it's safe to say I've been in every building there is to enter here.

The only time you could call it playing tourist was when we went to the grand opening of our new historical society.

I've been to nearly every museum and sports event Cincinnati and Indianapolis have to offer though.

 

[NHdisneylover]

YES! We have moved many times, and I find that EVERY place has wonderfully fun things to do and places to visit. We are always surprised by how often we hear "oh that is a nice place, I went there on a field trip in 5th grade" or some such, when we tell locals who have always lived there what we are up to

Right now (and hopefully, finally, very long term) we live in a MAJOR tourist area anyway. We make a point of going to many places (Heidelberg Castle, Scwhetzingen Palace, etc) at least once a year, both because they are fun and because I don't want us to forget how lucky we are and start to take things for granted.

 

[HeatherFeather]

All the time. Another military family here and I hate having lived somewhere and NOT done the tourist things. We are leaving FL in July to move to Monterey, CA and I just finally made it to Gatorland. It was totally awesome and I am so glad I went. Another cool thing I am glad I did was going to see the mermaids swim at Weeki Wachi Springs. Also loved the Dali museum in St. Pete as well as going to Tampa Bay Rays and Buccaneers games.

 

[worm761]

I am just starting to. I have found a few websites that help. I really familydaysout.com to find places.

 

[minniecarousel]

All the time. Another military family here and I hate having lived somewhere and NOT done the tourist things. We are leaving FL in July to move to Monterey, CA and I just finally made it to Gatorland. It was totally awesome and I am so glad I went. Another cool thing I am glad I did was going to see the mermaids swim at Weeki Wachi Springs. Also loved the Dali museum in St. Pete as well as going to Tampa Bay Rays and Buccaneers games.

ooohhh...you will love Monterey! Carmel is my favorite little town. You will like the lack of humidity after Florida. You'll need to get used to the fog and wearing sweatshirts in the summer.

I live close to San Francisco, but rarely go there. I have done the cable cars, downtown, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, AT&T Park, The Presidio (including the Walt Disney Family Museum), Golden Gate Park, The Golden Gate Bridge.

We go to Napa and Carmel every few months.

Nuthin' to see out here in the 'burbs.

 

[sasywtch]

Was it Carmel that has the little shops and the main little street that ends at the beach? We walked down there and saw dolphins swimming.

Monterey, the best thing we saw was the guy with the little monkey doing tricks and just looking down into the water and seeing the flourescent fish (don't know what they were called but they were just swimming by). I'd also take a drive up north to the big trees. Gotta have the picture of your car going through the tree.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Do you ever decide to spend some time seeing sites or attractions that your city or town is noted for, but usually visited by tourists from out of town?

We live in Buffalo, NY and recently took a guided tour of our City Hall, which is considered one of the greatest, architecturally, in the country. Also, the other day we spent time in a neighborhood called Elmwood Village (one of the best urban neighborhoods in the country) as we often do, but this time we took the camera with us and took some pics of the architecture and of some streetscapes.

Of course Niagara Falls is only a 20 minute drive away, but we seem to only go there when showing it to out of town visitors.

How about you? Do you ever appreciate what your town has to offer, instead of taking it for granted like so many of us tend to do?

I do. I live in Los Angeles, and there is so much here. When I was younger, my parents would show people around whenever they came to town, and I've continued doing that (including some of my DISer friends). I also enjoy exploring when I am by myself, too. A couple of weekends ago, two coworkers and I took one of those Hollywood sign tours, and enjoyed it so much upgraded to the Hollywood tour. We had fun doing it.

I also drive to the areas outside Los Angeles to explore.

 

[ChristineNic]

Not often enough. If the weather cooperates, I'm going to drag DH to somewhere fun this weekend. We've been in South Florida for three years and have been to Fort Lauderdale beach once, Miami Beach once and Key Largo once.

 

[SanFranciscan]

Not often enough. If the weather cooperates, I'm going to drag DH to somewhere fun this weekend. We've been in South Florida for three years and have been to Fort Lauderdale beach once, Miami Beach once and Key Largo once.

You sound like me! I have lived in Orlando for just over two years now but have seen nothing beyond suburban Orlando. Well, the whole area is suburban sprawl; but you know what I mean.

Sadly much of what stops people from enjoying their own cities is the desire to not be seen as a tourist. I found this thread here after starting one about the often irrational dread of tourists in a global economy which is ever more reliant upon tourism as the leading industry. Anyone who has ever worked in the tourist industry for even a couple of months has heard customers eager to tell all within earshot that they are not tourists. The fact that locals will refer to an attraction as a "tourist trap", often said with a sneer, may explain why even tourist workers who know several languages and so forth are still looked down upon as "unskilled labor" and paid accordingly.

I am glad to hear that the responders here are enjoying their local sights because you really don't need a passport to a distant and expensive location in order to have a nice vacation in a world very different from your everyday world.