Last night was our last night in the house. We had a lot of choices in how to spend it: a nice dinner in, enjoying one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, cleaning, packing, etc.
So what did we do? We left our house and ventured downtown for the third meeting of SCOOT (Seattle Consortium of Online Travel) at the Mayflower Hotel.
The big draw? Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Nonconformity. If you haven’t checked out his site it is well worth your time. Start with his Brief Guide to World Domination and then dive into the blog and guides from there. We are working through his Frequent Flyer mastery program and hope to become the super travel ninjas he is when booking flights and gaining miles on our trip.
The room was full of really cool people in the online travel biz, from bloggers to tour guides to techies to people in the transportation and hospitality business. What I loved about this was getting to meet people who love travel as much as we do but fulfill it in a different way. As far as I could tell, we were the only ones approaching travel the way we do, and that held true for a lot of people there. We’ll be highlighting some of the great people we met in upcoming posts so you can learn more about them.
(Sneak peek: traveling with dogs, travel for 50+ women, travel for women in general, travel to learn to write about travel, traveling to Alaska, road trips, travel on the cheap, and even traveling to find the best international parties. There are as many categories of travel as there are destinations, it seems.)
Chris spent his time talking about his quest to visit every country in the world, how this has changed him, and how travel can open up doors and expand minds. We also got to meet his lovely wife, Jolie, who is an artist with a very cool blog of her own (check out the 100 paintings in 100 days project).
Even though Chris and I have different travel styles, one thing we agree on is that if travel is really important to you, your everyday life will make that possible. Chris doesn’t have a car and leads a fairly minimal life by design, and that helps him afford to travel half the time and still maintain a home base. In order to make the dream of frequent or full-time travel happen, you have to live a life that supports that goal when you’re not on the road.
I’ll leave you with the quote from Chris’s business card:
Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to. ~Alan Keightley
Here’s hoping you all find that realization and start living your dream.
PS - Our next post will be written without a mortgage. You may not notice, but I sure will. 
About Betsy
Wow, you’re awake earlier than I was this morning! Great post. It was awesome to meet you and Warren last night. I hope you enjoyed the last night in your house.:)
I look forward to reading more of your blog when I get back home!
Actually, I just stayed up later! It was great meeting you, too. Safe travels back to Calgary, and I can’t wait to read about your upcoming travels to Asia. (Oh, and that little party on New Year’s in Scotland)
Sounds like a great event! It’s always so inspiring meeting others who are so passionate about a shared interest - especially travel. Hope you were also recruiting for Meet, Plan, Go!
Hey Betsy!
Thanks so much for the props. I enjoyed meeting you as well — you guys are doing great things, and I agree that your story is unique. Keep telling it! All of the rest of us will keep reading.
Take care and good luck with the big transition.
cg
Wow that sounds like a cool event… Seattle is actually a travel destination that I really want to go to.
I currently live in Egypt and have previous spent a lot of tme in Canada, USA and traveled a bit around Europe…. Also I grew up in UK.
I love travel and like to do the “live in a place a while” variety and hopefully will continue to do so.
That’s one of my favorite quotes! I found it on the AONC site soon after I decided to take a year to travel and it really struck a cord. I used it on my site too ( http://www.benandalonna.com/2009/07/making-the-decision-to-travel-for-a-year/ ) Cheers!