You’ve come to visit, now what?
Okay, friends/relatives have come to visit. Great. It’s so good to see you. Now what the hell am I going to do with you? Why is it always so hard to find things to do with out of town guests?
Don’t get me wrong, Vancouver is the best place on Earth (you don’t really think I’d live my whole life somewhere that sucked did you?), but the concept of showing someone around always causes my mind to blank. What about the aquarium? No, too dorky. The art gallery? Too boring. Shopping on Robson St? Cousin Steve would rather run out into oncoming traffic than endure that. Hell, I even find myself vetoing things I’ve never done, and thus can’t make an informed decision about, like hiking the Grouse Grind, just because I think it might involve too much nature. It’s like suddenly dating your city again, where you look too closely at all the features that attracted you here, and suddenly you’re nitpicking them about that cowlick, faint odour of cheese or habit of playing with their forks at the dinner table.
It’s that pressure to be perfect, the “look, my city is so freaking awesome that living anywhere else is just a waste of space”. Why do we do this? Chances are Great- Aunt Bessie is just happy to see me, and my living room, a cup of tea and some chocolate digestive biscuits would make her happy as a clam. I don’t have to spend a week’s salary on that boat cruise around Stanley Park. But I want her trip to be memorable!
The worst part about this is that I completely fail to take into consideration that my loved ones might actually know what they want to do already. The wonderment of my company might have been what brought them out here in the first place, but that doesn’t mean they want to spend all their time with me playing tour guide. God knows, when I’m the visitor I’m constantly trying to make sure I’m not imposing on them too much, while still seeing all the “must-see” attractions listed in my Rough Guide.
Aargh. I know I’m not alone in this. So what’s the perfect solution?