Suppose you had a couple coming to visit you for several days, about your age, who had never been to your house, or to your part of the country, and you knew you would run out of things to talk about after a day or two. How would you entertain them? .. Is there a special establishment, or landmark, you would visit? Personally I would be at a loss off the top of my head, but that's probably because I don't have much imagination about those things, haven't done much visiting myself, and it scares me to think about it.
@Nancy Hart Come now, your nonchalance might be transparent mostly, but not to me! Who are they, how long might they stay, will you be alone with them, what is their relationship to you, and finally, but far from least important, what brought this all on? Frank
Sorry @Frank Sanoica, but you would be wrong. No one is coming. However, I've gotten an invitation from a couple several times and I've declined. IF I ever accepted, I would have to return the invitation. The prospects of that would keep me awake at night, so it won't likely happen. lol I did entertain a couple once for two nights staying at my house. They had two very small children, and one of the children insisted on picking up all the kitchen rugs and looking under them, while we were in the kitchen. So much for sweeping things under the rug.
It really depends on the people. I have had some very independent houseguests over the years that were content to amuse themselves or had people to visit and places to go in the area. I always enjoyed those folks the most because we would get together for coffee in the morning and a recap of their adventures over a drink in the evening. I've had other houseguests that were a little on the clingy/needy end of the spectrum. With those folks, I would try to find a project that would keep us all busy and ultimately benefit me or I would just try to go about my daily routine and let them join in or not as they chose. These days I would rather pay to put someone up in a local hotel than to have them stay with me in my little apartment. I'm just too old and set in my ways to deal with people 24/7. I need my quiet time to recharge my batteries. If you think that these folks would be difficult or uncomfortable to entertain then I would say leave them off of the guest list, life is just too short to worry about cleaning the house and entertaining people that you have little in common with.
Let's put it this way, with my personality, I could be "the Host of the Year" and wife and I would have no problem finding entertainment as a Hosts. But, that would be much more "finding entertainment" in Colorado rather than here in northeastern Florida. Sorry Florida.
No problem finding something to do for visitors in London.... but I agree with @Beatrice Taylor , I prefer to put visitors up in a hotel these days..., I can't be doing with all the extra hard work..
Well, since I know so much about Colorado and the surrounds states, I'd be like a tour guide. The only people we know that have ever seen a Bull Elk or Cow, is us...…...no family or friends. Not nearly as interested in that stuff as we are. But, yes, I'm definitely a "talker" and, after a couple of drinks, wife is the same way. She can REALLY open-up.
Yes, and if you haven't seen these people for 30 years, you need some backup plans. As a child I was taught that it was impolite to ask a house guest how long they were going to stay. I think people are a lot more sophisticated about these things than they were back in the horse and buggy days when I was involved in overnight visits. Back then it was so difficult to get anywhere folks would stay as long as possible, because they might never be able to return. It seemed like the length of stay had to be proportional to how long it took to get there. Ha!
We do not have any kind of a guest bedroom, so it would be hard to have someone stay here, and we have to completely shuffle everything around before we can make a place for anyone to stay, and we really do not have anyone who would be apt to come and visit us in any case. When Ina came out to visit, we had only talked on the phone and messaged online, so we had never even really met each other before she came out to Alabama; but we all got along great, and we did’t really have any problem with visiting for the days that she was here. There are some nice places in Huntsville (like the Space and Rocket Center) where we could have visited, but we mostly just sat around and talked together, and went out to eat a couple of times.
@Bill Boggs: Dear Mr. Boggs, I made a screen shot of your comment to save, because I value your opinion, and I knew you had a tendency to hit that old delete button. I wish I could think fast on my feet. I wouldn't need so many backup plans.
Thanks for the compliment, however, don't kid an old kidder. If you can't think on your feet you don't have to sit long before the brain kicks in and you have a solution. You are three stages ahead of most off us. Not all of us know we need a back up plan or how to produce one. Later gater.