Local Tourist

My parents just left after a visiting for a week. Living in San Diego, we have the opportunity to have family and friends stay with us 5-10 times a year. We enjoy these visits tremendously and make sure everyone realizes before they come that we can’t always drop everything and entertain them. We still have to work and carry on with our lives but everyone has a comfortable room, their own fully stocked bathroom, and can borrow a car if needed.

For some reason, this visit made us realize more than ever that we need to be better tourists in our own area. We always say, “We need to walk on the beach more” or “why don’t we come here more often” when we visit local spots with our visitors. This time it seemed to be more of a real desire, not just something to say.

Balboa Park and its world-class museums, Coronado and the incomparable Hotel Del, the world famous San Diego Zoo (we’re members for crying out loud), the glider port at Torrey Pines, that little Mexican restaurant we love on the coast highway in Leucadia, our beautiful Carlsbad beaches – all ignored and underappreciated until someone visits.

We love living here in Carlsbad – we made a conscious decision to stay when many of our friends moved elsewhere years ago. In this economy we all need to refocus our thinking and make an effort to spend more locally. What better way than to be a local tourist?

Everyone is evaluating what they spend and why. We can decide to spend locally – when we decide to spend. So, we may not get back to Italy this year. We may not get to Spain next year. We’ll just be local tourists and enjoy reminding ourselves why we chose to live here in the first place.