What does your locality have to offer?

What does your locality have to offer?

We had one couple exchange with us from Arizona. Their kids (now grown with their own family) lived in NJ and they wanted to be near enough to them for them to visit for a week. They asked us and we had no problem with it. We said, “Sure.”

We exchange for a month with them one summer.

For us, Western NY has some of the most beautiful summers any locality could want. They wanted to get out of Arizona during the “Hot” monsoon season (as do most Arizonans!).

We like to hike, play golf and my wife hadn’t experienced the Desert Southwest Monsoon season before, so it was an exchange made in Heaven.

The funny part was, our exchange partners planned to take a week driving to Montreal & Quebec City. Montreal is about a four-hour drive and Quebec is another two hours from Montreal.

The last week before we were to return to our respective homes, we were talking on the phone with them (you always want to touch base with your exchange partners at least weekly if you are exchanging for an extended period of time (more on that in a later Story). So we asked, “How was Montreal & Quebec City?”

They said they decided not to go.

We asked, “Why?”

They floored us! They said they were having so much fun in Buffalo that they didn’t see a need to go to Toronto, much less Montreal or Quebec City.

Go figure.

That is the beauty of exchanging, particularly for an extended period of time. A month in this case.