Ever notice that when you live in a city, you never do any of the tourist stuff unless you're playing host to someone who's never been before? I lived in Boston for 8 years, and all of the Boston-based tourist activities that I did -- Bunker Hill, the Freedom Trail, the U.S.S. Constitution, etc. -- I did when I was a kid growing up in Connecticut when my parents took me up to Boston, or when we'd go to Boston on school trips. Once I lived there, I never really did anything tourist-y to see the town, and my friends and I never hung out at any of the tourist spots. (Well, except for Faneuil Hall, but that's because there were some bars there that we used to go to.)

My mom grew up in New York City. She spent 25 years there. But until five years ago -- 25 years after she'd moved out of New York -- she'd never been up to the observation deck in the Empire State Building and she'd never been to the Statue of Liberty. For those who only visit New York, those are some of the first things that come to mind when thinking about things to do, but they're not so forefront in the thoughts of the city's residents. I wonder if you asked a group of New Yorkers if they'd been to either of those places -- as tourists, not on business, at least in the case of the Empire State Building -- how many would say yes.

I've been a resident of Los Angeles for six months, and I haven't done a single tourist thing since I've been here. There was that one time I saw a movie at the Mann's Chinese, but the decision to go there was fairly "functional" since we were going to see Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and the Mann's Chinese was one of the few theatres in the area that had both digital projection and Dolby sound. Aside from that, I haven't been to any museums and I haven't been to any "tourist" places since I've moved here. Everything tourist-ish that I've done in L.A., I did when I was visiting here and interviewing for jobs. I almost feel like a real resident, since it seems that only real residents don't do tourist things, they just find new bars and restaurants to hang out at.