Sharing your city with tourists


If you live somewhere with beautiful winter weather, like Phoenix, Arizona, you're gonna have to share your city with tourists. And how you deal with these people will determine if you're gonna be happy, or miserable.

The photo at the top of this post is from the 1940s, but you could time-travel back to the 1800s and all of the way up into modern day and see the same thing. If you grew up in Phoenix, and have lived there all of your life, this probably looks unremarkable, but to tourists it's lovely.

And since I've been sharing the beautiful cities that I've been living in since 1977, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, I've developed an understanding with these people, and also with the locals who can never seem to get used to tourists.

Speaking for myself, I've always been able to see what tourists see. I wasn't born in Phoenix, or Southern California, and I never tire of the warm weather in the winter, the palm trees, etc. And although I haven't lived in too many places in my life, I know how it feels to be a stranger in a strange land - not knowing how things are pronounced, not just kinda instinctively knowing which way the freeways go, and what they're called, that sort of thing. I've always tried to never come to a complete stop in the middle of the road while looking at a map, but I know what it's like to be looking for a sign that says "north" only to find that it only says "Pasadena". I had no idea where Pasadena was, I just wanted to go north!

If you're someone who just absolutely hates the influx of "snowbirds" into Phoenix every year, I have a suggestion for you - become a tourist. Go see the things that they've traveled hundreds, maybe thousands of miles, to see. Go to a garden of desert plants, and maybe try to see it through their eyes. Get off the freeway, and get out of your car and put your feet on the ground. If you're wondering "what in the world they're looking at", maybe you'll see it. 

I live in an amazing place that most people can only dream of, and if they're lucky, they can visit. Share it with me.


Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!

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