[nostrademons]

I met an innkeeper in Alaska once. He and his wife had both once worked in technology in Silicon Valley. When they got married, they agreed that they'd live like grad students. That doesn't mean they were poor, but it means they'd forgo the extravagances like a big house and meals out and exotic summer vacations.

Then, when their son was 15, they bought a sailboat, and sailed around the world for a year. When they got to Seward, Alaska, they decide they wanted to stay there, so they bought an old abandoned building, fixed it up, and opened an inn.

What struck me most about their story was how ordinary they were. They did not win the lottery. There were no hot startups or million-dollar buyouts for them. They had a kid to take care of, and seem to have had him fairly young (the innkeeper was in his mid-40s and the son was in college, so they must've been about mid-20s when he was born.) They just decided what they want and then worked hard for 15 years to make it happen.

There're a few things that really are out of reach for us normal folks - most of us will never have our own private yacht, or race fighter jets, or sail in America's Cup. But spending a year traveling and relaxing and having fun is probably not one of them. Or maybe it is now, but with a couple years advance planning, it should be more than doable.