Friday Five Tourist Edition from RevGalBlogPal

posted by reverendmother ... It seems like this topic has been done before, but I can't find it in the archives, so......

I am downtown on retreat this week. Most of the retreatants are from out of town, so I get to experience this place through the eyes of visitors. So in the spirit of tourism:

1. What is one place you make sure to take out-of-town guests when they visit? (you can be vague to preserve your anonymity if you like) Well my only visitors have been family so they get to go to church. :) Or they get to tag along with whatever we're doing, piano recitals, whatever sport is in season, maybe shopping at the mall if we're lucky, however, there are outstanding museums, zoos, professional and semiprofessional sports, amusment/water parks, public parks, golf courses, outstanding musical venues of all kinds, dance, theater, etc. available. I really want to take my sister to the art museum in the same county because she has seen it in professional resources and would like to see it live but we haven't managed to work it in yet.

2. When visiting another city or town, do you try to cram as much in as possible, or take it slow and easy? Most of the time, slow and easy because the rest of my life is usually crammed. But we are going to NASA in Houston soon, that will be the cram version.

3. When traveling, where are we most likely to find you: strolling through a museum, checking out the local shopping, or _________________? This is usually driven by my mother trying to educate my kids: we've been to Fantastic Caverns close to Springfield, MO, we went to Mansfield MO where Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House books, we've been to Arrow Rock MO, and, driven by my kids alone Big Splash in Tulsa, OK, and the Tulsa Zoo multiple times. My step-dad paid for us to go to the Royal Gorge in Colorado. While on that trip we went to Six Flags Denver and the Colorado Springs Zoo with my college roommate and her neices and nephews. Dinner after Six Flags with them is one of the favorite memories for my kids. The day after Six Flags we went to the zoo and The Entertainer felt horrible. I ended up taking her to the ER. And we began the joke about needing an ER passport so she could get a stamp for every ER she visited because she's been in the ER more than once on vacation. We also went to Paloduro Canyon for "Texas" while we were out traveling.

4. Do you like organized tours and/or carefully planned itineraries, or would you rather strike out and just see what happens? If I'm with a large group, like with church people on a Holy Land tour, I want carefully planned itinerary. If it's my family the schedule is driven by the amount of time and what we want to do. I prefer laid back unplanned. Or if there's something particular we want to do or see, I want to do that early in the trip so I can relax and do only spur of the moment things later in the trip.

5. After an extended trip, what do you find yourself craving most about home? I really like my bed. I can sleep fine other places but I like my bed. And I like my TV with my stations and my shows when I want them thanks to DVR and my stuff where it belongs instead of all in one little space.