The BEAUTY of

Remember those “win-a-prize” game shows where the toothy-smile clad host would offer the contestants a “Free Trip to Hawaii” if they could just guess the price of a can of corned beef. Well, I grew up in Hawaii, and I always wondered what would happen if I won the trip. It seemed like a silly prize when from my bedroom window, just outside Honolulu, Hawaii I could see Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. Less than 20 minutes away were the Dole Pineapple fields, and for the 17 years I lived on the island of Oahu, I’ve always lived in walking distance of the beach.

Still, as a kid, my family rarely went to any of these fantastic places that were easily within reach for us to experience.

Life in Central Oregon can present the same quandary. Tumalo Falls is just up the road. The delight of a weekend in a quaint mountain lodge is just 20 minutes away. A float or stroll along the Deschutes River is a short walk from my house, and yet, it’s rare that I make the effort to experience all that is offered locally.

“That’s the blessing and the curse of living here,” said Alana Hughson, CEO of the Central Oregon Visitors Association. “We have thousands of amazing options just at our fingertips.”

Though people think that COVA is a resource solely for visitors, locals are beginning to discover the absolutely free vacation concierge service they offer.

“Many people do their hunter-gathering of information online now, but we find sometimes people like a living breathing person. The people on our team are locals, people who have been on the Paulina Plunge, who have ridden the trails around Bachelor. They get no fees, no commission. We’re just here to find out what’s your passion and help you build an adventure.”

While the idea of staycations first hit the mainstream as a way to save money, people are realizing that there’s more to staycating than just the monetary benefit.

“I think more now than ever, instead of coordinating a complicated seven- to 12-day trip, people are more enriched to have multiple shorter trips a year,” said Greg Willitts, president of FivePine Lodge and Spa in Sisters. “People are looking to get away for shorter amounts of time every two months or so, a long weekend, a few days, and those are normally happening at home.”

Less than 30 minutes from Bend or Redmond, FivePine offers inexpensive weekend stays to locals and packages that include movie tickets, spa or dinner gift certificates, and full use of the campus’ athletic club.

“The local market is a huge portion of our business,” continued Willitts. “People are just seeking romance, to plug and play, reconnection and relaxation, and they’re realizing that they don’t have to go far to get that.”

But for those seeking more active relaxation, Central Oregon has always been about getting outdoors.

“Everyone knows what a beautiful place [Central Oregon] is to recreate,” said James Jaggard, general manager of Wanderlust Tours, “but we tend to take for granted the place we live, wherever that is.”

While some people are motivated enough to hit the trails on their own, Wanderlust offers ways for locals to experience parts of the area they might not get to otherwise.

“We have a lot of locals come out,” continued Jaggard. “Instead of feeling like they have to be the guide and do all the research, they can just come and enjoy the experience. … And our garages only hold so much gear, so we help people do things they may not have the equipment or the skill for. Maybe you don’t have a canoe or the equipment to go caving. We can show you new parts of Central Oregon that you didn’t even know you were missing out on.”

Still, the hardest part of living in Bend (or growing up in Hawaii) and enjoying all of those awesome places is braving the tourists. When growing up in a vacation mecca, you learn to avoid tourists, their cluelessness, their sappy idealism. But if you’re going to enjoy the virtues of staycating, you’re just going to have to get over that.

The purpose, the joy, of the staycation is to begin to THINK like a tourist. They’re relaxing. They’re having fun. They’re not worried about their jobs or the laundry or picking up that thing by that time before that other event when you have to drop off so and so, and then handle such and such.

Tourists can and do relax because they’re not at home.

So, the first thing to do when staycating is stop acting like you’re at home. Relaxation is not a task; it’s a state of mind.

“You drive by the roundabouts every single day. You’ve seen the breweries a million times, but maybe you’ve never been on the Deschutes Brewery Tour or taken the Roundabout Art Route,” said Tawna Fenske, PR & Communications Manager of Visit Bend.

“I get asked all the time about what the best things in Bend are, and I always say Drake Park. Locals forget that it’s in our backyard. There are over 70 parks within the city limits, people forget that they’re there,” continued Fenske. “The Turkish baths at McMenamins, Juniper Pool is neat and inexpensive and great for the family… Goody’s does factory tours and was named by Frommer’s as one of the nation’s top ice cream factory tours. We forget this stuff.”

Fenske regularly writes a blog at www.visitbend.com/blog that gives tourists insight on what to do in Bend, but that same website is a great resource for locals who are looking to rediscover their own neighborhoods.

The cliched staycation image is of the family setting up a tent in the backyard with flashlights and hot dogs cooking on the grill just a few feet away. But that works because the family got the spirit of staycationing right — to do something different and to see the world (even if it’s in your own backyard) from a different vantage point.

That, after all, is what vacationing has always been about — changing your point of view. And whether or not you can see Pearl Harbor or the Deschutes River just outside your window, the point is to relax a little and enjoy what’s around you.