If You Can't Beat the Tourists, Join 'Em

I hate tourists. I hate them in NYC where they stand in the middle of Midtown, necks craned, staring in awe at the Empire State Building and blocking your way to wherever you're going. I hate them in DC where they stand on the wrong side of the escalator on the Metro and slow your commute.

I say this because tomorrow I am going to be a tourist. I am going to do all the Fourth of July tourist-y things just because I can. Because I'm here. I'll go to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, I'll have a barbecue, I'll camp out on the National Mall and watch the fireworks. I'll end the day hot and sweaty and gross and will say that I'll never do it again. I will probably provoke scorn or pity or laughter and teasing from the real DCers.

For once, I will be a tourist. But day after that, I go back to hating them.