Life in a Tourist Town

real life horror-stories from Grand Marais, MN

It gets called a perfect little harbor town, or “our slice of paradise”. Grand Marais, MN is adorable, with nordic inspired architecture, sailboats in the harbor, and excellent access for outdoor recreation of just about every discipline.

Life in a tourist town is always especially different when you work in the tourism industry.

People on vacation (not all people but definitely some!) tend to adopt vacation brain.

Vacation brain is pretty much the mindset that while on vacation, you are entitled to a perfect week or weekend, often at the expense of other people.

For most people (myself included) this mostly just manifests in disappointment when something you were looking forward to doesn’t work out. That is a totally normal and understandable level of vacation brain.

For other people, it can look a little different. For context on the situation in Grand Marais, you can read this article here, which I will unpack a little more in a moment.

The Sea Caves Theme Park

When I lived in Bayfield, WI as a sea kayaking guide, we saw lots of fun vacation brain. I want to hyper emphasize that the vast majority of people are completely delightful and understanding of weather conditions when they’re out on a sea kayaking trip.

A minority, however, are not.

The Apostle Islands Sea Caves are kind of their own beast when it comes to tourism, partly because of photos like this.

People drive a really long way and shell out money to see the Apostle Islands Sea Caves. Sometimes, they don’t realize that it’s a trip that isn’t possible or safe every single day of the summer.

I talk about the hazards at the sea caves specifically here, and what can make this trip dangerous and occasionally deadly.

I think it’s interesting the expectation we sometimes have with trips like this and the outdoor industry. When on vacation, we tend to see outdoors as a theme park.

We expect to be shuttled safely on a calm sunny day out to the sea caves, and able to take photos, and if we throw our water bottle in the lake, don’t worry, there’s someone to pick that up.

I don’t know how much of that (and the associated shock when your tour still heads out in 1-3 ft waves and it isn’t easy and you have to work and sweat to get to the caves) comes out of tourism culture itself versus the way we present and talk about the outdoors on social media.

The sea caves are beautiful and everyone should absolutely experience them if at all possible— but they aren’t a theme park. You aren’t garunteed comfort or a “gram-worthy” experience.

Instead, the trip is more about learning respect for the lake, and what it means to meaningfully interact with your environment, and the give and take we’re meant to have and experience in the outdoors.

And it’s easy to fundamentally miss that when you come in with the expectation of a magical vacation.

But to come full circle, I guess that’s why I liked guiding so much. You get the chance to help people make that leap, from the sea caves theme park to the Lake Superior ecosystem and your part in it.

Grand Marais this summer

Grand Marias, Minnesota is a beautiful little harbor town on Lake Superior, with the Lake Superior waterfront on one side, access to the Sawtooth Mountains and the Superior Hiking Trail, and access to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

It’s a popular destination and for good reason. Here, like everywhere, there is a staffing this summer and sky high demand.

I had fully planned to focus on my freelancing projects this summer and prep for a larger project coming up in August, but I’ve ended up spending more time helping out at a local outfitter/outdoor retailer. I have a lot of friends who work there, and like everywhere, they are cripplingly short staffed.

Here, between the lack of staffing, abundance of tourists, and wildfire haze that casts orange shadows even at noon, anyone working in tourism is spread thin.

“The town needs tourism dollars to survive”

This is something I’ve heard from a lot of people, in just about every place with a portion of the economy based on tourism. Someone said it to me in the outfitter the other day, and it bothered me a little more than it usually does.

Don’t get me wrong— tourism does help provide jobs for people in places like Bayfield and Grand Marais. But “your town needs tourism” isn’t an excuse to treat retail workers poorly.

Everyone here is doing the best they can, but I think it’s also important to realize that for a lot of the people working in tourism in downtown Grand Marais, this isn’t their full time job. It’s a job they are working because if they don’t, their friends and family are going to suffer. They’re working that job because someone is begging them to come in an extra day or two.

Take me for example— I haven’t had a genuine day off in the entire month of July. I am either picking up a shift downtown, or working on a project.

Above is a screen shot from this article by Tess Allen. I think there’s a lot to unpack here, and a lot of vacation brain (entitlement) baked into that single sentence.

I’ve watched my partner work overtime every week this summer and be stressed out of his mind. I’ve watched my friends get yelled at and insulted by people on vacation. I’m working 25 hours extra a week to help them out. I know other people working 7 days a week for the same reason.

I am not thankful for the opportunity to serve tourists. That sentence is tone deaf, and clearly not written by anyone who has been working overtime all summer. There is just so much classism and privilege in those words.

So what now?

This isn’t to say don’t come to Grand Marais. Come, but visit intentionally, with a plan, and a backup plan. Your Boundary Waters trip might get cut short due to fires.

Your favorite restaurant might not be able to seat you quickly, and getting your Java Moose might take about an hour. Your usual picnic spot might be taken, and your favorite trailhead’s parking might be full.

You might want to have a campfire and have someone beg you not to— keep in mind if you start a forest fire, you get to leave and go home. The people who live here will have to live through it, and inhale the smoke, and fear for their homes and community.

You might have to wait in line while I try and fix the card reader, and when it takes me a while please keep in mind that I’m new, and this isn’t my normal job, and it’s 3:30pm an I haven’t had a chance to take a lunch break, and earlier today someone told me I should be grateful to have a job at all and my job there depends on her tourism dollars, then handed me a pile of her things to carry for her.

We can visit intentionally, and practice empathy toward the people on the other side of the counter, always.

And the assumption that retail workers, or servers, or anyone helping you out on your vacation is “thankful for the opportunity to serve tourists”?

I’m thankful for the opportunity to meet and talk to wonderful people. But I won’t pretend I’m thankful to work 60-70 hours a week all summer so someone can have a perfect vacation.

And I’m thankful for you, for taking the time to read this. For patience and a little bit of empathy.