Vacationing in place

When I was working in the government, my job was really high-paced and intense, and generally my workweek was 60 hours or more. The first time our family went on vacation after we came to Washington, I remember thinking, and saying, "Seventy percent of the value of this vacation is just not setting the alarm clock in the morning."

If that's a big part of the value of a vacation, you can do it at home. And that's what my wife Shelley and I will be doing Thursday through Sunday this week -- we'll be taking a mini-vacation at home, because, aside from these four days off (and a few days together in London and Paris in May), we haven't really taken a vacation this year. Our vacation in place will be inaugurated Wednesday evening by dinner and swing dancing outside at the Boston Harbor Hotel, right by the Boston Harbor, with a great view of the flight path into Logan Airport. It will continue with restaurant visits, dinner and a movie also at the Boston Harbor Hotel, and a day trip to Cape Cod to visit our friends Elaine and Tino Kamarck (Elaine ran the National Performance Review for Vice President Gore). We had planned also to try rock climbing at an indoor place (Shelley's idea), but a cold prevented us from taking the lessons we need prior to trying this out, so this will wait until September.

I will try to blog on Thursday if I have anything to say.

Anybody else trying out the idea of a vacation in place?

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