Happy Thanksgiving!
      From Our Table To Yours!

A holiday like Thanksgiving is usually a great time to recharge life, reconnect with friends & loved ones, and to be thankful for the blessings that we have and share together!

The words "together" and "share" are also great houseboating themes. Thank YOU for sharing some of your own themes with us!

So... from our table to yours, wherever you will be, and whomever you're going to be sharing with, Happy Thanksgiving!

Strategizing For The Holidays

The holidays are the perfect time, with family and friends, all in one place, to plan your houseboat vacation for next year. The key is to carefully craft your pitch, and prepare your props, so that when opportunity knocks, you're ready to strike like a viper!     Are you ready to "Strategize" for the holidays?

The Map Strategy

Here's a strategy that's sure to get their attention. Its effectiveness is dependent on a certain amount of chaos, theater, and a good helping of preparation too.

(1) Callville Bay on the Nevada side, and (2) Temple Bar Marina in Arizona.

Preparation:
Take a large fold out map, highlight the driving route from your home to your lake of choice, and fold it back up.

Next, take a map of just the lake. Highlight the marina location and a course your houseboat might take. Fold it back up.

Finally, print out a calendar for the month you are going to suggest and highlight the dates you're thinking about. Now all you need to do is start cooking the food.

Execution:
Ok, so it's now Thanksgiving day, the turkey was delicious, the stuffing worked, the greenbean casserole was a hit (again...), and there is way too much food left over. Then, while they're all still seated around the table, that's the time.

Take out the map, open it up, BIG, and tell about the driving route to the lake. Pass it around.

Next, open the lake map and proceed to explain the highlighted marina and houseboat route. (This works especially well if you and your crew have been there before. the maps become a memory trigger...)

Finally, hold up your month calendar and suggest the highlighted dates.

The Tablet Strategy

Similar to the Map Strategy, the Tablet Strategy just uses a different prop, a tablet (or laptop)to get their attention and share your vacation vision.

Preparation:
Prepare your tablet or laptop to pass around. Having pages that you like bookmarked can be super helpful. The key here is to collect good links to content, video and images that will help your cause.

• Bookmark your favorite marina.

• Bookmark your favorite houseboat model.

• Bookmark any YouTube videos you might like to share. Check out this one!

• Try out the online reservation process in advance and get an idea of pricing.

• Put together a desktop file with pictures and video from past trips to share so     you can bring back the memories!

Execution:
When the time is right, pass it around, mention what's on it... and wait. This strategy also works well during dessert. If you have the equipment, putting it all up on the big screen before the games start works well too.

The Boomer Strategy

Ok, this one's easy. No maps to fuss with, no computers and that thing called the "interweb" (or whatever it's called) to deal with. Just you, like a fisherman, telling a story, weaving a tale, bringing it all to life in their minds.

Once you've done that... baited the hook, thrown the line in, and really truly hooked 'em all... then all you have to do is reel it in.       Good Luck!