I often have to travel for business, flying to places like New York, Boston, and LA to conduct training or do consulting.
There’s nothing I dislike more than flying in like a broken business schmuck: 10:15PM, dark night shuttle to Ford Focus rental car, check into hotel, flip through cable channels until passing out, 9AM meeting, 4:30 PM fight through traffic to the airport.
Soul-crushing.
Instead, I like to show respect to the great American cities by showing up a day early and knocking around for a while. While about semi-directed and allow myself to be surprised by it. Asking for directions, but not all of them. Then back to the hotel and get ready for work the next day.
This week I had such a day in Laguna Beach.