Nights & Flights 2007

George reminded me that last year I'd prompted him to participate in the "my year in cities" meme so it's only right that I pony up.  I actually started the year fastidiously keeping track of my travel, my workouts, my weight--all sorts of stuff--in a master spreadsheet.  I found it a really useful way to get some perspective on a frenetic life.  Unfortunately I never backed up that damn spreadsheet and when my laptop was stolen earlier this year I lost my data.  Grrr.

But an hour with my calendar and the records from my loyalty airlines (United and Alaska) and I've been able to reconstruct the year that was.  I'm not sure how I feel about the data.  On the one hand, I look at George and his many more miles and destinations and think "that wasn't so bad afterall."  On the other hand I remember countless bouts of flights delays, exhaustion, broken suitcases (two), and lonely hotel rooms and think "man, that often sucked."

There's certainly an upside to travel and I'm staring at four trips in the next five weeks, but as 2008 revs up I'm resolved to make sure every trip is worth the time, energy, and hours spent being irradiated.  The stats below are pretty accurate and include both personal travel and business travel, which was by far the bulk of my time spent on the road.

Summary

• Took approximately 30 trips, meaning that in any given week there was a 60% chance I'd be on the road.
• Flew 110,000 flight miles.
• Spent a 101 nights away from home, or roughly 28% of the year which means I actually slept in my own bed more than 2/3 of the time, though many of those nights involved arriving home very late: I was not in Seattle--away or in transit--for about 121 days or 1/3 of the time.
• Spent the night in 21 different cities and six countries outside the US, including Portugal which I hadn’t visited to 20 years.

Countries

• Bahamas
• Canada
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• USA

Cities (* indicates multiple visits, # indicates multiple nights)

• Amsterdam, Netherlands#
• Barcelona, Spain#
• Black Rock City, NV#
• Dallas, TX#
• Denver, CO*#
• Kansas City, KS#
• Lisbon, Portugal#
• London, UK*#
• Los Angeles, CA*#
• Mt. Baker, WA#
• Nassau, Bahamas
• New York, NY*#
• Northridge, CA#
• Orlando, FL#
• Portland, OR
• Sacramento, CA*#
• San Francisco, CA*#
• Somewhere in the Carribean on a cruise ship
• Toronto, Canada*#
• White Plains, NY#