The Difference Between Living There and Visiting There

Last week, the family and I decided to take a drive up to Duluth and head up the North Shore for some fall foliage spectating and hiking. This is not a new adventure for us as we do it every year. We take a tour around Duluth, check out Canal Street, pick up smoked salmon at Russ Kendall's, and pick a few state parks to go hiking through. I love it!! I absolutely look forward to every fall for our little get away.

However, I realized that as much as I love going up there in the fall and checking everything out, I would probably shoot myself if I ever lived there. What a God Awful place to live!! I can only imagine how barren and desolate of a place it is in the winter. Not to mention you are even further north, where it is colder longer. The area was built up around mining and logging, so career opportunities leave something to be desired. All this combined with the lack of Vitamin D could quite possibly make me go insane.


After putting the North Shore into perspective of visiting compared to living, I realized many places are like this. Take Mexico for example. They have beautiful beaches, tons of activities, snorkeling, yummy drinks with umbrellas, and cheap souvenirs, but I wouldn't ever want to live there. The cartel runs rampant, you can't flush the toilet paper or drink the water, small children are put to work selling Chiclets to tourists, and many of the people have a standard of living far below what me or my family has become accustomed to.

And the list just continues. Africa has safaris but if you live there you might get AIDS. Greece has beautiful architecture and sightseeing but if you live there you might want to reconsider seeing as your country is about to be bankrupt. Then there's Afghanistan and they have well...nothing, never mind Afghanistan but you do get my point most places are better if you just visit them.