It's not a vacation if there isn't some chance for relaxation. Obviously that's different person to person, but for me, staying home on vacation week means I'm evading the stress of work but not of home. (I live with my parents. So do all my siblings. My brother and I are saving up for places of our own, but it's gonna be a while.) I've got to get out, or else it's not a vacation.

My tentative plans for vacation next year are a week off at the beginning of the summer to either visit friends in Pittsburgh (six-hour drive thataway, not counting rest and food stops) or go to Shenandoah National Park (five-hour drive thataway, ditto) and spend a week doing nothing but writing, and then a week off at the end of the summer to do the other one. I'm hoping to someday have enough money that I can take two weeks to explore Ireland.