What do people do for fun in big cities?

[Bluesmama]

[quote=Toyman at Jewel Lake;13279847]OK, so this is the wrong forum for this, but there might be some response. I find rural life is always busy and never boring. From taking a walk around the property with the dogs, cutting and clearing brush and timber, cutting firewood, building and maintaining outbuildings and home improvement projects, seems like there is always something to do. For fun, go down to the lake and go fishing, swimming or a canoe ride, jump on the ATV and explore some new back country, pick up the bow or rifle and practice (or hunt). Get a bonfire going and have a barbecue or cook samores. Grab a backpack and go hiking for the day/week. Take your pick.quote]

A lot of what you mention here is accessible to city dwellers. In most cases, it's only within a short to a few hours drive to lakes and swimming holes for the activities mentioned here. The caveat, are crowds.

Portland, Oregon boasts Forest Park's 40-mile loop of hiking-biking-equestrian trails that are within city limits! This is an actual forest with terrain, not a manicured park. However, this is pretty unique to us. We don't use it. (I stopped 'real' hiking when my health changed.)

I live in the burbs of Portland, so I can't claim to live in the "big city". But I'm not an overly-active person, anyway. I like more arts 'n' cultural stuff more than my husband does, I like festivals and street fairs, movies, walks, book stores ~ esp. those with coffee shops, and we occasionally go out for a game of pool. I'm strictly a fair-weather biker, so I don't hop on the 2-wheeler much.

I tend to a garden quite a bit. We go for drives when we can swing it.

But I grew up on a farm and it's in the plan to go back. I thought farm life was boring as hell when I was a kid, but getting away has helped me to appreciate simple things as well. Chances are I'll be "gone" a lot when we're back to rural living again. But I'll appreciate the bike rides along the canal at the end of the property, little community functions (and I plan to get to know the townsfolk again), and some unique cultural functions that I still enjoy. It's a short drive to the coast, or Yosemite, or even the Bay Area when I find myself getting bored with too much simplicity.

During winters I'll probably hibernate like I do now. NOT a winter person!

[beachmouse]

DC's Museums were always rotating exhibits so by the time you finished one circuit through them, it was time to see what new things they'd put out.

I'm also a fan of minor league pro sports in middle-sized metro areas. For $5, you can picnic on the lawn beyond the outfield fence at many a bush league baseball park. $10-$15 gets you good visibility seats for bush league ice hockey.

[mistyriver]

Portland is an awesome city...I love it. If I ever had to live in a city again, I'd choose Portland or Seattle out of anywhere else. I love the urban neighborhoods like "Ramona Quimby-land"...Klickitat street and the suroounding area.


[quote=Bluesmama;13297483]

Originally Posted by Toyman at Jewel Lake

OK, so this is the wrong forum for this, but there might be some response. I find rural life is always busy and never boring. From taking a walk around the property with the dogs, cutting and clearing brush and timber, cutting firewood, building and maintaining outbuildings and home improvement projects, seems like there is always something to do. For fun, go down to the lake and go fishing, swimming or a canoe ride, jump on the ATV and explore some new back country, pick up the bow or rifle and practice (or hunt). Get a bonfire going and have a barbecue or cook samores. Grab a backpack and go hiking for the day/week. Take your pick.quote]

A lot of what you mention here is accessible to city dwellers. In most cases, it's only within a short to a few hours drive to lakes and swimming holes for the activities mentioned here. The caveat, are crowds.

Portland, Oregon boasts Forest Park's 40-mile loop of hiking-biking-equestrian trails that are within city limits! This is an actual forest with terrain, not a manicured park. However, this is pretty unique to us. We don't use it. (I stopped 'real' hiking when my health changed.)

I live in the burbs of Portland, so I can't claim to live in the "big city". But I'm not an overly-active person, anyway. I like more arts 'n' cultural stuff more than my husband does, I like festivals and street fairs, movies, walks, book stores ~ esp. those with coffee shops, and we occasionally go out for a game of pool. I'm strictly a fair-weather biker, so I don't hop on the 2-wheeler much.

I tend to a garden quite a bit. We go for drives when we can swing it.

But I grew up on a farm and it's in the plan to go back. I thought farm life was boring as hell when I was a kid, but getting away has helped me to appreciate simple things as well. Chances are I'll be "gone" a lot when we're back to rural living again. But I'll appreciate the bike rides along the canal at the end of the property, little community functions (and I plan to get to know the townsfolk again), and some unique cultural functions that I still enjoy. It's a short drive to the coast, or Yosemite, or even the Bay Area when I find myself getting bored with too much simplicity.

During winters I'll probably hibernate like I do now. NOT a winter person!

[brightdoglover]

Does Cambridge count as "city?" 100,000 people and right across the river from Boston.
I liked the life of the mind and the cosmopolitan feeling of all kinds of people around, and the rather dramatic intelligence and interesting work of so many people around Cambridge. I never saw the appeal of downtown Boston or any area that seemed based on money/stuff/status. I liked that there were no families in huge swaths of Cambridge- I think it had the highest percentage of single-person households in the state. Like a big town, I liked walking to the bookstores, driving only three miles out to the next town for my job, having co-workers from all over the world.
And I think eating out is great fun. If I had one-tenth of what I spent in restaurants until age 39... There were always interesting movies, or plays, or lectures. I went out to hear music a lot (never took a drink until age 30- just didn't like it- didn't see the fun in "bars.")
Then I got tired of the many issues involved in condo ownership- crackhead co-owners, absentee owners, group financial issues. And I was envying people walking their dogs in the morning. My job is/was a gorgeous property of old trees and historic buildings, and I wished I lived among trees and fresh air with dogs. So it occurred to me, MOVE OUT. I now live 25 miles northwest of Cambridge (as I still think of it), have my little dream house in a formerly rural town that is still down to earth (great farms down the road) and I have multiple old mutts. Beautiful conservation land areas, a pretty lake. Twenty miles door to door to my job, no traffic due to third shift.
I still like to go to odd restaurants in town sometimes (again, Cambridge, not Boston) but find it hard to peel myself out of my house in the woods.
I know a lot of divorced women in their 50s/60s (nurses) who spent a hunk of their lives in suburbs, raising kids, and they absolutely want to live in a small condo in a walkable small city and go to all the things of the mind that I mentioned. Reverse migration.

[T. Damon]

So, just what do city people do for fun and entertainment, enquiring minds want to know.[/quote]

I'm with you I just can't find a thing that would interest me for a moment in a city, ever. NOT!

Really? This is the most inane post I have ever seen. Let me ask what the heck a farmer or rancher does to keep busy and entertained because there can't be a thing to possibly do in the country could there?

Just say you hate the city and love the country and be done with it.

[arctichomesteader]

I find myself bored to death in towns/cities...can't do hardly anything I like in a city (other than have a vegetable garden, but even there, it's smaller than I want, I have to worry about human vandalism rather than just critters, and I can't grow grains, etc., due to the lack of space), have to leave the city to do them...

[marmac]

What do people do for fun in the big cities ?

Why is this even a topic in a forun called-----" Rural and small town living " ?

Maybe we should have questions here about the Health Care bill, the war in Afghanistan, the national defecit etc

[cokatie]

If you grew up in a city as I did, and have worked there, it can sometimes be like a small town. I can guarantee you that I will bump into someone I know by Penn Station or Times Square. It happens all the time to me. As for what to do - to me the list is endless. There is nothing better than taking a bike ride along the Hudson River, playing tourist and going over to Ellis, Liberty or Governor's Island, there are tons of small museums and the large ones are always rotating their exhibits. The bars and lounges have up and coming bands/singers - and before a concert at Madison Square Garden, a big/well-known act/band might be doing a practice set in some small hole in the wall. Each neighborhood has various specialities for shopping - that leads to endless window shopping. The NY Public Library is just amazing and a great place to spend a rainy afternoon. The list really goes on - but I think it comes down to whether or not you feel comfortable in a city. And by the way, I am currently growing peonies, wild flowers and tomatoes! And they are THRIVING!

[roots'nbulbs]

Originally Posted by Bayarea4

My husband and I live in San Francisco. We take walks, go out for coffee, window shop, browse in bookstores, work out at the gym, dine out, have guests for lunch or dinner, go to museums, see shows or concerts, go to the park, go to the beach or go to the movies. I'm never bored for a second. There's always something going on in the city, so if you have nothing to do, it's your own fault.

Will wonders never cease? How interesting that you just described my life, mostly, out here, in the middle of nowhere.

I'm 50 mi. out, from a University town, (farm, retail, retired teacher) and live on a lake. Pop. about 2000.

Sometimes, I'm frustrated, but bored??what's that? You and I: lots in common.

[Randomstudent]

There is plenty to do in cities, though I imagine it would very depending on which city you are in. When I lived in one I enjoyed the terrific theater, museums, the great quantity of affordable and unique dining, as well as the public festivals and open markets.