We just finished our last trip of 2007! Last weekend was our final trip - a Red Rocks Getaway to Sedona. The trip was great, and now that I’m home, it’s time for reflection — on the forest and the trees.

• When I first started Adventurous Wench, I was focused on each individual trip. One Santa Fe trip this month. One BVI trip that month. I obsessed over all the details about each one.
• Soon, I moved on to thinking in terms of seasons and years. After the last trip of the season, we stow away all the trip supplies we won’t need again until the next year. It’s a logical time to review — how was the overall success of the year? What will we do differently next year? It’s like a football team, you’ve got a fixed season with a certain number of games, and you want a winning season.
• As time went by, I started thinking in terms of destinations. Each trip morphed into a series. Instead of seeing each San Juan Islands trip in isolation, or as part of our 200x season, it became one of a series to that destination. Each year we make adjustments to the trip, as things change and new opportunities become available. The destination remains the same, and the trips themselves evolve over time. “San Juan Islands” is now a series rather than an individual trip, like a TV show rather than a movie.
• As our selection of trips grew and grew, I moved on to thinking of portfolios of trips. We have our selection of European trips, our selection of US trips, tropical trips, yacht trips, etc. Which areas are doing the best, and where do we want to grow? I’m evaluating the portfolio of today, and planning the portfolio of tomorrow, looking years into the future.

Of course, all of these viewpoints have to happen at the same time. One day’s task list could include working on all of these.

1. Selecting trips to introduce in 2008, 2009 and beyond (portfolio view = forest view)
2. Listing ideas on how to improve our Sedona trip for 2008 (destination view = part of the forest)
3. Setting the dates for the next Napa Valley trip (trip view = tree view).
4. Deciding what time the dinner reservation on Tuscany day 4 will be (trip details = leaf view)

You’ve got to see the forest, the trees, and even the leaves on each of those trees, and be able to switch views easily. As we offer more and more trips each year, this gets more and more challenging. I may need binoculars and bifocals!

- Deanna.