Touring Your Hometown

A friend from high school is visiting me this week for a few days. Tomorrow, she's off to visit another high school friend who happened to land in the same area. It's a great part of the country (in fact, it's an Awesome Part of the Country), so it's a nice vacation for her.

It is for me as well! Today we toured my campus. It's a beautiful campus. Lots of beautiful trees and some really interesting buildings. But this is maybe the second time I've taken the trouble to walk around the grounds, peek into some of the beautiful buildings, and go on those tour things into some of the historical landmarks. The last time I did this was when I was on vacation, spring break of my 3L year. During that day, I did more touristy stuff around campus and town than I did in my entire LL.M year. What's up with that?

It takes a visitor to make you visit your hometown. You go out to eat at the really nice restaurants, you go to museums, and you just generally look at your town in a new way. It's kind of cool. I wonder how many law professors actually take the time to tour and experience the entire campus (if their school is affiliated with a larger university). Many seem to stick with just the law school building. This is a sad, limiting experience.

Not that I'm one to talk. I barely explored my campus last year, though I did make it to two performances at the art center. And after living here for a year, I'm finally heading into the City to go to a museum (much as I love art, I really need to make more time for it) and one of the big botanical garden parks.

Go explore! Tomorrow, while she's gone, I'm going to run up the fire trail and around the hills bordering campus.