Travel Tuesday - Home Tourist-ing

I think I mentioned on Sunday (though I'm not going to go back and look) that I had a really good weekend.

A great friend of ours was in town from New York City over the weekend. She'd never been to the Twin Cities, so it was up to Christopher and me to show her around. We had just over three days to show her everything that makes us happy about the Cities. And I think we did really well.

Why do I think that? Well... For one thing, I found myself getting really excited about showing her places that I like to go to. We took her to eat at Black Sheep Pizza in Minneapolis, and we took her shopping at The Golden Fig in St. Paul. We took pictures with the Peanuts statues in St. Paul and the Mary Tyler Moore statue in Minneapolis.

And I truly found myself excited to show her each of those things.

I pointed out my old apartment. We showed her Christopher's office (from the way cool observation deck of the Foshay tower - which neither of us had ever been to in the past). We went to brunch and I pointed out my oral surgeon's office across the hallway from the Egg & I. (Okay. Maybe the last of those isn't quite as interesting as the first two.)

But it wasn't just the "out and about" things that made it great.

Just being home and hanging out felt different. For 3 full days, I really didn't think about work - at all. I didn't worry about what I should or shouldn't have been doing. I truly let myself just enjoy my time.

It was amazing. I think that, for the first time ever, I truly understand the reason why people talk about how much they enjoy "staycations." Although, I guess that it might be hard to have people come from out of town each time I want a little down time. But maybe I'll start working on that.