I'm such a curmudgeon. Tourists may be good for the economy, but they're so annoying.
Then, at 9:37pm, I queried my twitter peeps for travel suggestions:
Where in New Brunswick/Nova Scotia should we go in August? By car, via Maine. With 6yo.
There is some deep irony in the fact that within the space of a few hours I went from hating tourists to wanting to be one.
The Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax has a great kids' tour with a touch tank at the end -- lobsters, sea urchins and sea cucumbers, oh my! Hopewell Rocks is great too, if you haven't been there.
ReplyDeleteTourists: can't live with them, would go bankrupt without them.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in New Brunswick. I've never been there, but spend lots of time in maine. Bar Harbor/Acadia is beautiful!
Perspective is everything.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am in NYC as a tourist I promise not to be a slow-walker. I am by nature a fast-walker (even when gawking at ny). Maybe because I was born in ny, even though I did not learn to walk until I moved away.
ReplyDeleteIt's the inconsistency that makes us interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnd keeps us humble.
What Gwen said.
ReplyDelete;-)
Oh my GOD! Are you coming HERE?
ReplyDeleteHalifax is lovely and has a kick-butt Children's Museum, there are all sorts of museums and parks and stuff - where are you going?
I can send URLs! Do you have a Doer and Dreamers Guide?
I still love the line "If it's tourist system, why can't we shoot them?" :D
ReplyDeleteI just got to work late because a tourist stopped me @ 7-11 asking for direction to D.C.No matter where I've lived, except in college, it's always been in tourist towns.
One of my favorite brother-in-laws (I've got at least 5) had a t-shirt that read "Welcome To New York. Now Go Home". I feel the same way every time I come home and take the girls downtown.
Tourists wear "I Love NY" shirts IN New York and wander around gawking and wondering how they're spotted as marks for everyone from the "Going out of Business" camera stores to the folks handing out flyers in Times Square. Here in D.C. Metro they're the ones who don't get you stay to the right on the Metro escalators so people can rush up them on the left side.
You're not going to be a tourist, you're a TRAVELER. Travelers respect their surroundings, learn the area and try to blend in and look like locals. My family are travelers to the point where I've been stopped for directions in cities I was just visiting for the first time!