Berry's Brain

“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

Here is a working list of places I’d like to visit:

Domestic
Salt Lake City
Alaska
Hawaii
New Orleans
Seattle
Portland
Outer Banks, NC
NE Coast – Maine
Wine Country NY
New York, NY (again)

International
Germany
Australia
Japan
Russia
India
England
Amsterdam
Ireland
Scotland
Prince Edward Island
South Africa
Peru
New Zealand
Thailand
Brazil
Belize
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Cuba (it should be legal eventually, right?)

“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.”
– Dagobert D. Runes

“You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” – Deepak Chopra

This is our fifth year of snowbirding. It started from a spring break vacation in March of 2008. We were walking on the beach in Marco Island, FL. Holding hands like a cheesy after-school movie we talked about life and about how great it was to avoid the Wisconsin winter. “We’re in Florida walking on a beach and we should be in Wisconsin freezing our butts off.”

I starting thinking about ways to expand the concept, turning our short vacation into a winter retreat. At that point we were both employed by other companies. I had made some Entrepreneurial progress, but had yet to take the full plunge.

Long story short, by January of 2009 we were on Sanibel Island and figured out how to make it work. There were a lot of details that fell in to place, but in the end…2008 was our last winter in Wisconsin. It’s been a great experience.

I equate my creative process to the feeling right before you take a big poop. You know the feeling so I won’t elaborate. I’m getting that feeling again right now in January 2013.

In 2013, I’d like to do something incredible. At this point, my thought is to spend one month living in another country. It would be a working vacation, to enjoy the location but still try to work a few hours each day. Depending on how things go, we could pick a new city each year or return to some favorite places. We’d spend the time, living, working and enjoying the new environment. There are lots of places that I’d like to explore and one month should be enough time to take in everything.

With the groundwork laid and lessons learned from snowbirding, it should be relatively easy to figure out the logistics.

We’re still in the early stages, but I wanted to write this post (and possibly some future posts) to gather my thoughts around this concept. I thought it would be good to have some public accountability to help me work towards this or other goals…as I look to do something incredible in 2013.

Is there anything on your radar for 2013? I’d love to hear about it.