Escape!

Travel allows us to escape routine and dive into a world of adventure, new sights, smells, sounds and tastes. Travel inspires and broadens the mind.

However, in a weak economy, leisure travel tends to be the first luxury to be slashed from personal budgets. These days, more people are having "staycations" close to home.

San Francisco is a good city to have a staycation because it has so much to offer (museums, theater, shopping, restaurants, photogenic locales, etc). I often like to visit the touristy corners of San Francisco myself. This week I picked up one of those monthly Where publications that highlight all that the city has to offer in terms of entertainment, sightseeing and attractions.

I'm always amazed at how they can write new content on a monthly basis. The July issue of the Where magazine for San Francisco has the new King Tut exhibit at the De Young Museum as its cover story. I can imagine North Beach being a nice place to chill out. I could pretend to be a tourist, get a coffee at one of the many Italian cafe's in North Beach and just people watch or read a newspaper/book/magazine and while the hours away doing nothing. Ahh...