BE A TOURIST IN YOUR OWN HOME TOWN

SATURDAY, June 17

One of the classes I instruct in Travel Writing is called "Be a Tourist In Your Own Home Town". We tend to forget that you don't have to go abroad to some exotic destination to see some pretty intersting sights. And as lots of tourists come here to your own back yard you can always write about it for them.

I realized this a few years ago when I was assigned to work on the "Trips and Tours" section of the A.P.A. Insight Guide for Vancouver and Environs. I had five weeks to take myself on numerous field trips and write short blubs about them for the travel guide. It was exhilarating and fun and I got to see lot of things I might otherwise have bypassed.

This week I have a guest in town from Germany. My friend Patrick is a world traveler and since we met four years ago he's made several trips to Vancouver. Each time he comes he wants to see new and different sights. So this time we're making a trip to the lovely Okanagan Valley in the Interior. First we'll visit my sister in Peachland, by Okanagan Lake. Then we're going up to Vernon by Kalamalka Lake to see my friend Rosie. There are lots of intersting things to see in the OK Valley including the many wineries and several pioneer sights. A year or so ago I wrote about the O'Keefe Ranch (there's a blog here about that famous place.)
And the trip to the Interior is beautiful, through mountain scenery.

When we return next weekend, we'll take the ferry over to Vancouver Island to visit cousins in Victoria. Then we've been invited to their summer home on Thetis Island, one of the many Gulf Islands.

There will be lots to write about these adventures. So if you are not informed already, check back and find out what you're missing!