Plan Ahead

• 1). Dedicate a notebook to discovering your town. Include a calendar of events you would like to attend with the times and costs.
  
  
• 2). Get your town's Sunday newspaper for several weeks before your "discover my town" staycation week and go through the arts and entertainment, leisure and travel sections. Circle events that appeal to you. You might find cooking demonstrations, festivals, farmer's markets, pet shows, home and garden shows and theater performances
  
  
• 3). Cut out the information from the newspapers and paste it into the notebook.
  
  
• 4). Decide on your favorite sports and cruise the newspapers, TV programs and the Internet for events for that sport. Cities and towns often have their own websites that announce special events. Make notations in your notebook.
  
  
• 5). Get a map of your town. Circle the parks, lakes, recreation and leisure areas on the map. Keep the map in your notebook.
  
  

Exploring

• 1). Select your first destination or event. Do this by choosing what you'd like to explore first or by randomly picking the event.
  
  
• 2). Attend the event or explore the destination. Take photographs. Describe the event: the good and the bad; what you liked and didn't like. You could even give it a rating from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest and best. Paste the photographs in your notebook with the descriptions. That way next year you'll know whether to attend or pass it by.
  
  
• 3). Every day or your staycation choose another event. After that week is finished continue to choose a new destination or event every week or two weeks, whatever fits your budget and schedule. By the end of the year you will have discovered your town.