I'm On The Sad Side of a Nowhere Town...

Tomorrow afternoon I will journey towards Lake Chelan, the vortex of Memorial Day Weekend. This 3-day weekend is cherished to all college students: either the first weekend of summer break or the last weekend of celebration before finals. Now if you're from Washington State, you may have heard of Lake Chelan. It's a small town, with a nice lake, and it's in a rainshadow... so no stereotypical Washington rainy weather.

Although this will be my first road trip to Chelan for Memorial Day, it is not my first time being there on this infamous weekend. Yes, it's true, Chelan is my home town, people actually live there between September and May. This will be a new perspective completely... but I am going to indulge you on a few of the things I observed as a local in a tourist town.

HOW TO BE A GOOD TOURIST:
1. Do not ask "Do you have a high school here?" The population is 3,000, not 3.
2. Do not forget your basic driving rules. If there are four stop signs, the person who stopped first goes first, DON'T JUST FOLLOW THE PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU.
3. Throw your garbage in a garbage can. Those are the cans that generally have garbage in them. Not to be confused with the grass, lake, or street.
4. Just don't be stupid. I understand the vacation mentality, but that's not an excuse to cause fights, jump headfirst into shallow water, or vandalize local property.

Chelan is a small town. My high school had about 300 kids in it. There is literally 2 streets with business on them, and recently the addition of a Wal-Mart and a Starbucks was a local scandal. There are no fast-food restaurants and the nearest mall is 45 minutes away. Our popularity for college students is the sunny weather, the 55 miles of lake to boat and jet ski on, and the "omg it's so cute" quality.

But to a local, it's not cute. It's the same 14 streets you've driven on your entire life.
It's dreadfully boring. There's a putt putt course and a bowling alley, but that's all. If you're 21, you have 5 bars to choose from.

Chelan's appeal in the "nature" category is obvious, but the "activities" are limited, and it's a mystery to me. I am going to make this trek to see friends that I grew up with, but if I had no history there, would I still have gone?
Who knows. Not me.

Pray that Luda can make it! She's been overheating a lot lately and it's going to be plenty warm out!