Be a Tourist in Your Own Backyard

We are all creatures of habit and follow busy routines, when we finally do take some time we may not think of our home town as being anything more than where we work and/or sleep. A few years ago, my family and I were in Montreal, where my mum grew up and where her family still lives, I asked if we could go Mount Royal. For years I would see this Mountain in this big city, with this glowing domed building, it always peaked my curiosity. As we walked around the grounds of St. Joseph's Oratory and admired the views of the city, I asked my dad why we had never visited this place before. He said, "I don't know, I guess you just don't think to visit places that you see every day."

The ROM at FNL

Here are some tips to become a tourist in your own backyard:

1. Learn the history of your Community
          Lots of towns or counties have a historical society or museum that you can visit and learn about the history about where you live. There might be a real famous bloke who's house still exists that you can visit.

2. Go online

          Find community event listings for festivals, fairs and celebrations happening close to home. There are lots of things going on, if you just to a little digging to find it.

3. Have a visitor

          Invite a friend from out of town and show them the sites and maybe they can return the favour.

4. Stop putting it off

          Stop putting off going into that tourist attraction/garden park/event just because you see it every day and it's always there. #Rain isn't a good enough excuse either.

Be a tourist in your own backyard!