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| Adventures of a Healthy Lifestyle Start Up--Renting bikes in Minneapolis |
My husband and I travel a lot for our company,
Livliga. We go to numerous conferences throughout the year, sometimes two in a month. Fortunately, the location for the conferences tend to be in tourist-friendly cities. The weather is usually good and the cities are beautiful.
The real challenges when you travel for work is you are stuck inside most of the time in a convention center and you work long hours. This can be bad for your health and ends up not being much fun.We came to realize it was a wasted opportunity. How could we be in these great cities and leave with out exploring them? That is when we started building in a "half day of fun" into our trips. With conventions we always have to go ahead of time so we can set up our exhibits. We discovered that if we go set up in the morning we then have a half day to play in the afternoon. The next step was figuring out what fun to have.
A couple of years ago we were in Minneapolis for the National Wellness Conference. Right in front of our hotel there was a newly installed rent-a-bike station. This is a fairly new concept in convention and tourist locations where stands of bikes are available for you to rent and they are part of a system throughout a city so you can rent one place and drop your bike off in another location at another station. We decided to try it out. We went from station to station, around town, around residential areas and around beautiful rivers and lakes. We covered about 18 miles and had a great adventure.
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| Cycling through New Orleans learning its history and seeing its beauty |
Then we were in New Orleans for the American Diabetes Educators Association (AADE) conference. A niece suggested we take a bike tour around the bayou. It sounded like a lot of fun cycling around NOLA to not only see but also hear about some of the history of the city. It was interesting and enjoyable. And we were building in exercise as part of the experience.
Other great bike adventures have included cycling on Coronado during a conference in San Diego (ENDO EXPO)-
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| Exploring Coronado on its impressive 24-mile Silver Strand bike trail |
Taking a recumbent bike tour in San Antonio (Obesity Action Coalition Convention) -
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| Discovering the unique pleasure of recumbent cycling in San Antonio |
And most recently we were in Napa Valley for the Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives conference at the Culinary Institute at Greystone and took a bike tour through the wine country. It was a beautiful tour and fascinating to learn about grape growing and wine making, complemented by some wine tasting. A perfect adventure.
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| Enjoying the Napa Valley Wine Country by bike tour |
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Bottom line, we have learned it is healthier and much more enjoyable to make time for an active adventure when we travel. It is truly easy to do and does not have to cost much. You can merely rent a bike. Another choice is to take a bike tour. The added benefit of a tour is learning about the history, architecture, industries and culture of the place your are in. You can also meet some great people. And you can't beat the interesting stories you can share at your booth and upon your return home. Adding active adventures in our travel allows us to live life while building a company. We highly recommend it.
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