Does Everyone Do This Weird Thing on Vacation?

Totally!! And in all the places my created family (far flumg now) live and we also helped each other look for homes when they were moving!!

Yep every time.

I honestly have never done this while on a vacation before. I definitely imagine what it would be like to live in the area and what kind of life I would be able to build. I love how you all are so adventures and look at life through eyes that see many wonderful oppertunities!

We do this!! I think it’s indicative of a larger commitment to seeking beauty and wonder, no matter where you are. I remember a kid living in Chicago, and listening to all the adults complain: about the traffic, the people, the politics, etc. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t see how incredible it was, the beautiful the old brick apartment buildings, the sneaky parks, the boulders at the end of the pier. I’ve lived in strange places since then, from tiny town Oklahoma to northern Canada. Everywhere there is charm, and I fall in love with something unique about each place. It helps to make me feel contented about my place in the world, no matter where that is.

Following one year of marriage, my husband & I went so far as to buy the tiny fixer-upper that we looked at while on honeymoon.

Yes, we did this on vacations. And then thanks to covid we ACTUALLY made the move and now live in Bretagne France. Highly recommend :)

who doesn’t do this?! over the years i have to learn to be careful with my wild imagination and my (beloved, yet dangerous) certainty that even as a single mother at age 40…I can go/be/do anything I want when I grow up.
(i actually hope that never goes away… and if I am being honest, that my children are taking note.)

I’m looking at the new layout on a Mac and there’s a huge ad on the left that covers part of the page and makes it impossible to read, anyone else getting this?

We do this SAME thing!! Love it!

Mendocino is an unbelievably charming place. I am born and raised here in California and its one of those hidden gems! So lovely that you discovered it.

My friend and I (mid 20s) once stumbled on THE BEST toy store on a trip. It was massive and even had a slide. We had so much fun being kids again and demo-ing the cool toys. So now I will see if the city I’m visiting has an extravagant toy store. Also like to check out book stores, but thats more “ouu” and less “woah!”

We definitely have done the “what would it be like to live here” thing and even looked at house listings. This doesn’t apply to domestic travel but a weird thing I do if I travel internationally is pick up toothpaste from a local store—even major brands like Colgate have completely different flavors in other countries (even just to the north in Canada!), and for some reason, I just find it interesting to try new flavors. Weird, but there you go—you asked!

My husband and I do the same thing! I always wanna know how much real estate costs where we’re traveling. Another thing we always do when we go to non-city destinations (most of our domestic trips are to national parks, outdoorsy places) is check out the local Walmart lol. It’s especially comforting for my husband who’s a homebody and is most comfortable with what he knows.

Yes everywhere I go!!

My partner of sixteen years and I have a contest when we travel – first person to talk about moving there looses!

I hadn’t before, but we fell in love with a new town on my birthday trip in 2019, and as of March 2021, it’s our new home!

Omg. Why do people care so much about a change in your site? It’s fine. It’s pretty even. Holy crap, ignore all the comments and congrats on the redesign. I’m sure it was a lot of work.

(And I will say I like the ads better on mobile. Less disruptive)

Grocery stores! Will always check out grocery stores in other countries/regions. Inevitably find new exciting snacks. Also love seeing what other countries have in their “American food” sections – usually there are a few items that give a good laugh hahaha (two shelves of items which include three flavours of Fluff?! amazing).

Also love going for a run! If staying in a city, going out early in the morning is ideal – get a lay of the land when it’s still a bit quiet, see things opening up – like the city is stretching as it wakes up. Also a fun way to experience big parks or other greenspaces in/around the city. You might not want to dedicate hours to walking around somewhere, but 30-45 minutes running can cover a lot of ground!

Yes, my husband and I definitely do this! Also, I just want to say that as a Mendocino resident I’m stoked to see mentions in two posts. Cheers! <3

We always look up a swimming pool. Hotel pools don’t count; we look for leisure centres or community clubs, except in Budapest where we went crazy with baths and went to 2 over a 3-day trip! It’s nice to go where the families go (and we started this as young scruffy backpackers) and most of them are pretty old and historical while being crazy affordable.

(Come to think of it, we totally plan trips to where the cool pools are. This website has been our lockdown armchair travelling: https://historicpools.org.uk/)

Not so much that I look at houses, but I do become a peeping Tom. Several years ago my daughter and I took a trip to London in late December and early January. We had a six block walk from Victoria Station to our B&B and in the late afternoon it was already dark. It was a largely residential neighborhood and even had a typical London square of houses with a private garden in the center. We made that walk more slowly every evening looking through lit up windows just to see what the interiors looked like. We weren’t really trying to see the people…..just how they decorated their homes.
Several years later I bought a book called “The Three Thousand Mile Garden “ about a London gardener corresponding with a U.S. gardener. As I read it and looked at the photos, I realized that the London garden was the same one my daughter and I had walked past two-six times a day during that trip. Such a coincidence! You don’t really travel unless you learn how people live in your destination.

Oh Yes! Totally doing this…usually when I return I will scroll the internet for houses in a place that I liked! (I have to confess..I also love browsing real estate listings in my own town… as a hobby!)
I’m definitely keeping in mind this idea of open houses on vacation;) I would totally love that! Hope this will be a thing again soon: vacation in some other place / country, open houses/ dream places etc…… (haven’t had a vacation for…ever?!)
So thank you for this post that made laugh and..made me feel less weird, Ha!

Thank you for all of the work you put into COJ, I’m sure jumping out of the normal site was a major decision not taken lightly. But I agree with the few comments I was able to see.
It’s a little too busy? Magazine-like less community-like? But maybe this is exactly the direction you are looking to move to? If so, we will deal with the changes and navigate accordingly =)
One kink:
When I click on Older Comments, I’m taken to “Write a Comment” I see there are 130 comments as of now, but only 10 show. The comments are the best part of COJ.

And maybe someone else has pointed this out but at least for me it’s hidden somewhere in the universe =)

We used to do that every time we travelled, our catchphrase always has been ‘I could live here!’. And then, on our last weekend trip two months ago we randomly biked past an open home, popped in, fell in love, made an offer and uprooted our lives. No regrets.

next vacay, we are going to open houses! great idea!