Location Taken: Banff, Alberta, Canada
Time Taken: June 2010
Sometimes I wonder what it’s like living in a tourist town like Banff, one where all the shops are themed and there’s a gorgeous mountain visible all the time.
I mean, do you just ignore the view after a while or do you occasionally stop and say “man, am I glad I live someplace this pretty”?
I haven’t actually lived anywhere with overly fantastic scenery, though there is a touristy spot in town. And well, while usually I just accept it as part of normal life, I do occasionally stop and admire it. But it’s not one that has too much of a seasonal pattern to the tourists, so it’s quite different in that respect from most tourist towns.
Though my Grandma does live in a seasonal tourist area, along the shores of Lake Michigan, so I do see some of how that sort of thing affects the locals. A lot of the stores shut down in the off-season, and the streets become empty. A surprisingly large amount of the town just leaves, as well, heading who knows where. That’s probably what it’s like in Banff during their off-seasons.
Well, if they have an off-season. After all, they’ve got summer visitors coming for the hot springs and scenery, and winter visitors for the skiing and the like. And since the town is literally inside a national park, there’s always people like me visiting in the odd times of the year, hoping to avoid the crowds.
Maybe they have no real off-season.
Maybe that’s why they go to such efforts to keep the town looking all pretty and thematic. Get the odd-season people to visit just for the architecture and the like.
