Some places don't just become destinations. They become part of who we are. Maybe it's the beach town you've visited every summer since you were a child. Maybe it's the mountain town where winter means first chair and fresh snow. Maybe it's the lake where your family gathers every Fourth of July. Maybe it's the golf course where lifelong friendships have been built one round at a time. You may not live there. But every time you return, something feels different.
The coffee shop owner remembers your order. The bartender asks how your family has been. You know the back roads. You know the best sunset. You know where the locals go. For a little while... it feels like home. That's what it means to be a Part Time Local.
We believe belonging isn't measured by the address on your driver's license. It's measured by the connection you have with a place. The places that have shaped your family. The places where memories are made. The places that keep calling you back. Being a Part Time Local isn't about pretending to be a local. It's about respecting the people who call that place home every day. Supporting local businesses. Protecting the land and water. Learning the traditions. Giving back whenever you can. Because if a place has given you so much... you should leave it better than you found it.
Part Time Local was born from one of those places.
For me, it was the white sand beaches of Florida's Emerald Coast. My grandparents bought a small beach house there in the 1970s. They had no idea that one decision would shape generations of our family. Every summer. Holiday weekends. Spring trips. Fall getaways.
Over the years, that stretch of coastline became much more than a vacation destination. It became part of who I am. Like so many others, I found myself talking with strangers while walking the beach, grabbing dinner, or sitting at a local bar. The conversation almost always started the same way. "Where are you from?" For years my answer was simple. "Dallas, Texas."
Until one afternoon in the spring of 2020. While talking with a fisherman and his young family, I answered without even thinking. "I'm from Dallas... but I'm a Part Time Local."
As I walked back down the beach, I couldn't stop smiling. I had finally found words to describe a feeling I'd been carrying my entire life.
That afternoon, Part Time Local was born.
Today, PTL is built for everyone who has a place that feels like home—even if they don't live there.
Because every one of us has that place.
The beach.
The mountains.
The lake.
The golf course.
The ranch.
The river.
The ski town.
The hunting camp.
The cabin.
The island.
The small town where your family has gathered for generations.
Those places become part of our identity. They shape our stories. They connect generations. And they deserve our respect. This is a community of people who belong in more than one place. A reminder that home isn't always where you live.
Sometimes...
Home is simply the place that keeps calling you back.
Here for the week, might never leave.
A Thank You
Part Time Local wouldn't exist without the people who made me fall in love with a place.
To my grandparents, thank you for taking a chance on a little beach house in the 1970s. You unknowingly planted the seed for what would one day become this company.
To my parents, thank you for continuing that tradition and teaching me that some of life's greatest memories are made in the places we return to again and again.
To the Shea family, thank you for opening your home to ours and helping create memories that our children—and hopefully their children—will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
This may have started as my story.
But my hope is that it becomes yours too.