Sacramento RS Travel Group Meets Nigel from England

That's great! It sounds like you had a fun meeting! We had 10 in attendance in Atlanta today.

Thanks for your report Sharon. Our core group is really well traveled. Today, we had two new couples attending that we were able to assist with our laptops, iPADs, country maps and of course, our RS travel books. Fun stuff.

Yes, jolly good fun (sorry) seeing and talking to Nigel. It was a little difficult to hear him due to the noise of the restaurant. It's nice to put faces to the names. Eileen was late because it was taking longer than usual to fix her big Texas hair and put on all her makeup. She tried to blame her tardiness on her husband, but I don't buy it. Usually she tries to blame her cats.

What fun, lucky you guys,, getting a get together and getting to skype with a RS member from so far away!

I'm jealous. Is there anyone who would like to have a San Antonio TX group?

Thanks for the invite. I had a really great time meeting (most of) the group. You guys are a real treasure house of knowledge. Any visitors popping in for help would really get the royal treatment. Thanks again.

Larry, What a fantastic idea! It's great that you were able to connect with Nigel, especially considering the time difference. One of these days, I must really figure out how to use Skype. I finally got an opportunity to check-out Panera Bread when I was in Edmonds last week. I really should have ordered the half-sandwich, as the portions are quite large (as is my waistline after that visit). As I recall, they have free Wi-Fi, so that would make a Skype connection very convenient. I mentioned to some of Rick's staff that several cities have formed "Rick Steves Travel Groups", and they were surprised to hear that. Cheers!

Ken just pointed out one reason we meet at Panera - the wifi access. I'm surprised that no one in the Rick Steves organization had heard about our groups. Somehow Panera got wind of our using their facility, because I was contacted by someone connected with Panera who was writing an article about it.

Andrea, I quite surprised that the RS organization is not aware of the multiple travel group meetings going on out here. Not that they need to be involved in anyway but they should at least check out their General Europe categorie once in awhile.

Now if we only had a Panera Bread in Frankfurt, we could do meet-ups here too!

Andrea, Panera is writing an article - wow, the idea of local RS groups is really "taking off"! It's possible that a few of Rick's staff know about the groups, however, the staff members I was speaking with had never heard of them. I wish I had remembered to mention it to Rick, although I only had a couple of very short opportunities to talk with him during the day.

There's always NORDSEE...

The Atlanta group has met at Panera many times! We like it because they have a large table that we can use and good food. On the other hand, it's so crowded on Saturdays that even if I get there early, there is no guarantee that we can get the large table. Then, it's so noisy that we can't hear each other talk. We've had fun trying different venues - a Naples-style pizza place; a museum visit; a brewery tour; and most recently, a sports bar that reserved a table for us in a quieter section of the restaurant. I love the idea that Panera is writing an article about the groups and hope that Atlanta will be included in spite of our wandering ways. It would be fun if Rick wrote an article about the groups for one of his newsletters. Our Atlanta group members have shared books, maps, itineraries, travel advice, and best of all, made wonderful friendships!

What fun! How I wish I could have been there.
It would be fun to start a Northern Idaho Group except everybody leaves for the weekend to play in the snow....or this weekend, ice.

Allow me to stir up the pot a little and ask a controversial question. So, who came up with this idea FIRST?

If you mean relative to having area group get togethers, I believe it was Lee from Denver.

Lee from Denver was meeting with his group quite awhile before the Sacramento group began meeting. The Sacramento Group has met Lee's group on Skype. Looking forward to possibly meeting the Atlanta group.

The Atlanta group would love to meet you all (or y'all!) Our next meeting is the 3rd Saturday in March. We meet at 1:30 EST which should work with the time differences. We've been meeting since October 2010 and were inspired and encouraged by Lee and the Denver group.

Sharon, sounds OK. Does one of your group have Skype on their laptops or iPADs? I could Skype you in about 10:30 our time. However, when Nigel called us, it was 10:00am and it was very quiet in Paneras. By 11:00am, it was quite busy and noisy. So, we'll see what we can do. I think you were talking about the March meeting in your PM but February is fine as well. With Skype, it's hard to see more than a couple of people at a time. We had this difficulty with Lee's group. So, we pass the laptop around so that each person can meet. With one person on the other end, this works well. With a group at each end, there's a lot of passing around. We'll see.

The Denver group definitely was the first. I thought it sounded like a great way to meet people as passionate about travel as I am, so I asked if anyone was interested in a Sacramento area group. I think our first meeting was in June 2010. We have a really nice group here, and I am so happy to have gotten to know the others.

(panting) OK - my hair's finally done. You know, the Higher the Hair, the Closer to God. It IS my husband's fault - he was late returning from the store with my new can of White Rain... (ummm, White Rain is a brand of hairspray with a reputation for really holding your hairstyle)

no 'cue for you.... New place just opened in London getting rave reviews called "Pitt Cue Co" which I will try in the next fortnight. None for you if big (bigger - biggest) hair is more important...

Mmmmm - Pitt 'Cue...that sounds serious; that requires pony-tail hair! But...do the reviewers know their stuff? Nigel, I really hope to see you at one of our next meetings! Hopefully we can work that out. Wear the hat ;-)