{"id":508,"date":"2009-08-08T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-08T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=508"},"modified":"2021-01-07T19:47:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T00:47:40","slug":"touristdar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=508","title":{"rendered":"Touristdar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I blogged before about gaydar, so today I am blogging about “touristdar.”<\/p>\n

What is “touristdar” you ask? Well, you can not find a definition in Wikipedia, or in a dictionary. But you know what it means: simply identifying people you see on the streets and public transit of Washington, DC, as tourists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is easy to identify the people who compose one of the strongest economic engines of our nation’s capital. Begin first by those who stand staring dumbfounded at the map of our Metro transit system. I, too, have stared at maps of transit systems when I have traveled somewhere. However, there seems to be an unwritten rule that one has to stare at a DC Metro map with one’s mouth agape. Honestly, I haven’t seen anyone stare at the map with their mouth closed! LOL!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then, of course, due to the heat and humidity in August, the requisite clothing is comfort for the climate: shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops or sneakers. The vast majority of tourists are so attired. I understand why. It’s hot out there! (However, they might find hiking boots more comfortable, because, after all, they are hiking throughout the city!)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Another way to tell that you’re looking at tourists is that they travel in herds, mobs, gaggles, or clumps. Seldom do you ever see a tourist by him or herself. They are usually in groups of four: two adults, and two absolutely wrung-out, bedraggled, tired, and cranky children. The parents have that tired, wrung-out, bedraggled look about them, too. It is not easy trying to fit in visits to a million things in a few days. Pity the tourist who brings children requiring strollers on these visits. Kids that young won’t get anything out of a museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There truly is so much to see, much of it free, in Washington. But it’s sad that people try to fit so much in during such a short time. I hear them on the Metro complaining that they spent three hours at one of the 19 Smithsonian attractions in the city, and only saw a fraction of the one they visited. They had to waste a lot of time in lines and dodging other visitors that they had very little time to see the exhibits on display.<\/p>\n

Finally, our tourists seem to wander without much of a plan. Then they encounter a long line somewhere, and just get in it and wait — not realizing that another equally attractive sight is open with no queue.<\/p>\n

I will summarize with some hints from a local:<\/p>\n