holiday visits to god-awful hometowns

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowling
Movie theater
Bake xmas cookies
Escape room (they're everywhere now)
Random restaurant you loved as a kid / teen
Board games
Pottery painting place to paint mugs for grandma and grandpa
Walk the indoor mall
Local college basketball game
Random museums - even the smallest of towns have some weird museum
Cooking class
Walk at nearby nature preserve

Need more?

All these! We have to visit a relatively boring small city to see our relatives too. No city with a Metro nearby. We try to see a movie in the movie theater, get a massage, find a nature trail, visit playgrounds (if the weather is nice), go out to dinner at the one or two places that are actually good, do a puzzle, see a show at the local live theater, go to the mediocre sports events it has, go to an antique shop, etc. We try to do things that are all easier to do in the suburbs than where we live in the city--including random shopping if need be. My mom loves to go to places like Marshalls--I'll just suggest we go. She has fun. It's fine for me. Gets us out of the house.

Pretend you're a tourist (google "things to do in X city") and you may be surprised what you find. Even places a small drive away may be worth it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me guess.. you are headed our way...

Loudoun?
Fairfax County?

This was what I was thinking too. DC is the only US city that I know of that calls their transit system “Metro”

Plus, some of the outer burbs are downright depressing. But there is generally stuff to do. My kids could spend hours at a super H Mart

Many DCers call all transit systems the metro...hard to remember every city's name

[Anonymous]

Eat at chain restaurants and go to the mall! My kids love hitting up an Applebees when we're in nowheresville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I saw God awful hometown in the title, I immediately thought of small poor towns in the middle of nowhere, not a suburb with metro access to a big city. Realistically this has to be either Chicago or NYC given she didn't say DC and this is DCUM. Or is OP making up a story to stir the pot? Because why else be so cagey with where her parents live? Just say Naperville or whatever Chicago suburb. Come to think of it, what city big enough with a metro to the outer suburbs far away is also a transfer (not direct) flight away? If OP meant light rail, places like Dallas or Denver are usually direct flights.

Just spend time with your folks. Play games. Talk about old days.

Naperville has a lively, picturesque downtown. It has to be some ugly industrial village with no sidewalks. Definitely sounds like Chicago though.

[Anonymous]

Where is it? So curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me guess.. you are headed our way...

Loudoun?
Fairfax County?

This was what I was thinking too. DC is the only US city that I know of that calls their transit system “Metro”

Plus, some of the outer burbs are downright depressing. But there is generally stuff to do. My kids could spend hours at a super H Mart

Insult those areas all you want, but there are few parts that are isolated or unsafe in the way OP describes, much less neighborhoods that aren't accessible to every possible form of family entertainment, dining, and retail on the planet, even if it's not the vaunted culture of DC.