Will We Be Seeing you at the Boat Show?

For land-locked boating enthusiasts who are kept from the water for one reason or another (in our case, arctic cold and operation "supersize our family"), there are few things more exciting than ogling new boat designs, perusing useful boat products, and - in general - wading through a virtual sea of what many of us like to call "boat porn".  Yes, people, I am talking about attending boat shows...and this weekend our home port of Chicago just so happens to host one of the very best.

Strictly Sail takes place every winter here in Chi-town and before we became cruisers, Scott and I spent many, many hours navigating the aisles of this stellar show as we fed our dreams and plotted our course to the future.  Anyone who loves sailing can enjoy walking around to see what it has to offer and if you are an actual boat owner, well, be prepared to drop some coin as there are often great deals on awesome products from ground tackle to galley equipment and everything in between.  It's all here and racers, day sailers, bare-boaters and cruisers will run around like kids in a candy store trying to see the myriad of booths and vendors that cater to each of them.

Before we set out cruising, Scott and I were particularly fond of the free seminars that would be offered.  They cover a whole host of topics on all things boating and cruising and there is definitely something to tickle the interest of every caliber of sailor from the newbie to the old salt.  One look at this year's seminar list and you'll see it's a virtual who's who of the nautical world with presenters like Nigel Calder, Lin and Larry Pardey, John and Amanda Neal, and John Kretchmer to name a few.  Pretty awesome if you ask me.  It's not every day you get to rub shoulders with the likes of those folks!

This year we are particularly thrilled because, as luck and fate would have it, we have been invited by our wonderful friends, Paul and Sheryl Shard of Distant Shores, to be guest speakers during their Friday seminar "Earning While Cruising" (ironically, the four of us also contributed to a recent blog post on the same subject).  While the presentation is all Paul and Sheryl (two of the nicest cruisers you can ever hope to meet, by the way) - they will be giving us the floor for a bit to talk about our experiences funding our dream as well as being a part of their Q&A session with audience members at the end.  So. very. cool!  

We are totally flattered and honored to be a part of this and we're looking forward to meeting a few of you wonderful folks as well!  If you plan to be at the show tomorrow, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for us and - if you have the time - stop by room 313 at 3:30 and have a listen (yep, Isla will be there too!).

OH! And in case you don't recognize us without out swimsuits and lovely tans, I'll be the one sporting the giant Buddah belly! (33 weeks pregnant today!!)