Summer fun: Be a tourist in your own town

Here's a great way way to savor the last bit of summer (and save gas, too):

Get your calendar and pick a vacation day to be a tourist in your own town. Set your itinerary, pack your camera, sunglasses and wear something that makes you feel like you’re from out of town—maybe a t-shirt emblazoned with your city’s name. On this day, only do things that a tourist would do (e.g. don’t do laundry or cook from home!). Inspire others: post your ideas of what you plan to do for your at-home vacation as comments on this blog.

Here are some of the "tourist dates" our family has gone on:

-Take a "penny walk". You'll need two pennies. Start at home, flip the pennies; if the pennies don't match go straight; two heads go left; two tails go right. Do this everytime you arrive at a corner. You may end up walking in a couple of circles (but hey, doesn't that help you feel like a lot tourist?). It's fun having no idea of where you'll end up. See everything with fresh eyes and stop to enjoy some of the places your pennies bring you (a park, a beach, a little shop, a different neighborhood...). Don't let yourself get too lost to return home!

-Spend the entire day at Como zoo instead of buzzing through in a couple of hours. See every animal. Arrive early to get good seats and catch the Sparky show. Picnic and treat ourselves to ice cream novelties. Watch the giant tortoises long enough to see them move about and have their snack. Wander the conservatory, pick out which flowers are our favorites. Walk through the Japanese garden and ask to see the Tea House. Maybe even go on the old fashioned merry-go-round or some of the new rides at the adjacent amusement park.

-Leisure about at a waterpark on a really hot day. Arrive early and leave late. Go down the big waterslide a million times or so until a stranger points out that you wore through your swimsuit from sliding down so many times (yes, this actually happened--luckily I had a big towel and a spare swimsuit!). Get gigantic freezees that melt before we're even half-way through eating them, making a mess that is easily remedied by hopping into the pool.

-Nature hike to Minnehaha Creek. Look at everything as though we haven't seen it countless times before. Spend hours looking for fish and then trying to catch crayfish in a tiny container. Watch it for a little bit and then let it go.
-Walk over to Minnehaha falls, view it from every angle and take pictures.

For more ideas of touristy things to do, visit your town's tourism website. In Minneapolis, it is: http://www.minneapolis.org/

How will you spend the day as a tourist in your town? Post your ideas as a comment to this blog for others to enjoy!

Universe Changers: Community

Universe Changers: July topic

Community
Where do you find community in your life?
How do you make community? How do you build and sustain it? What does it look like? What does it do for you? How is it a window into your life?
How do we see our community of Universe Changers? How would we like to see it?

Whether or not you can participate in a Universe Changers circle, you can join in the conversation by posting your comment on this blog. We'll look forward to hearing from you. For information on Universe Changers, click: Universe Changers! (sponsored by the Minnesota Women's Press)

Isn't Summer Supposed to be Easy? Tips to help make it so.

In PCF's July newsletter, I shared a couple of tips for helping summer to be easier and am posting more here. I hope that you'll share your tips by posting them as a comment:

-Mulch, mulch, mulch. Who wants to spend time weeding?

-Here's a tip you might find a little weird but want to try: If you've ever stayed in a hostel, you probably used a sleeping sack. It is very easy to make one. Take a twin sized sheet, fold it the long way and then simply sew it along the bottom and up the side about 2/3 of the way. Waalah! A sleep sack is at the ready. When I was a young lass having just returned from my travels, I lived in a very hot apartment. I liked my room to look presentable but didn't like the work that came with it. My roommates were in awe that I kept my bed made every day (at least in the summer). Little did they know that my bed stayed made because I was sleeping on top of the covers in my sleep sack. Each morning, it would take me just seconds to tuck the sack and pillow back under the covers at the head of the bed. I'm thinking I'll try this with my kids. It won't solve their messy rooms but a made bed makes a room look cleaner than it really is. In cooler weather, I suppose you could use a sleeping bag but then you'd miss pulling up the warm covers. I told you the idea was a little weird!

-Speaking of beds and kids... If you have a child at bedwetting age, try out this useful tip (I believe I saw it in a parenting article). Make the bed twice. That's right, two layers. Mattress protector, fitted sheet, top sheet, another mattress protector, fitted sheet, top sheet. Why do this? When your little one has an accident in the middle of the night, you just peel off the top layers and have fresh sheets ready to go. With the sleep deprivation from when my children were really young, I wish I'd known about this tip much earlier. It's no fun making up a bed at two in the morning.

-Use the previous day's folded newspaper as a breakfast placemat. Spilled milk or coffee stains just get absorbed into the recycling. Okay, this isn't something you'd want to do with company over for brunch. If you have kids, use the comics for more fun and to encourage them to read while they enjoy a bowl of cereal.

Happy summer! I hope you'll share your tips!