I’ve seen most of the local attractions at least once, thanks to out-of-town visitors. But it is curious how often the prompt to see some famous spot is a visit from family or friends rather than your initiative. We get too hung up on our routines. That’s why, after living in Boston for many years, my first visit to the Bunker Hill Monument was when my family visited, and my father insisted on seeing it. I lived only a mile from the monument and was utterly stuck trying to find an excuse for never visiting. I dug out the most worn excuse of all – I’d just been too busy.
We sometimes don’t revisit famous locations and sights after the initial visit. We rate them high on the list of places to see but freeze them at where they were when we saw them decades ago. That’s why I last saw the Boston Science Museum about thirty years ago. When my sons included it on an itinerary of places to see on a “guys’ day out,” it surprised me.
I had been there so long ago that I might as well have been visiting it for the first time. It was just before Christmas; model railroads were part of their transportation displays. There was also a vast hanging globe of Mars. But I admit that since trains are one of my hobbies, I spent more time viewing those displays.
There may be things we have yet to visit locally, but consider all the venues you have seen, but not for a long while. Our lives move ahead, and we change; most museums and other sites have to also.
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It’s so true. I used to live near Niagara Falls but only went when someone from out of town visited.
This was a thing living in San Diego but since we lived a block from Balboa Park for a few years and had sons (my stepsons) we pretty much saw all of that, all the beaches, all that. Today at the supermarket I learned that San Diego is on the bucket list of the guy who brought out my groceries. I thought of how tourists “see” San Diego and how it was for me over 30 years. Kind of an interesting shift in perspective.
Didn’t San Diego just get flooded terribly? they may want to put the trip on hold for a while; the video I saw was pretty awful.
I don’t think that guy is going any time soon. Yeah, San Diego had some high tides a couple of weeks ago.
I visited Bostons Science center in October. Went on a Duck tour from there. Love Boston.