Ahh.....Vacation :-)

Vacation. The very word brings a smile to my face, a deep breath into my lungs, and a drop in my blood pressure. No work. No cooking. No schedule. . . . No email.

Yes, that is vacation. Even if you choose to do some cooking or stick to some kind of schedule, it is still vacation and it feels blissfully different from the daily routines of regular life. Perhaps the magic of vacation is simply the freedom of choice it provides: on vacation you can choose to set the alarm for 7:00, or you can choose not to set the alarm and enjoy sleeping in. You can choose to go sight-seeing or you can choose to go shopping. Or maybe vacation earns its high marks just for being different from our everyday lives. Or possibly vacation is great because we're all basically lazy and vacation requires nothing from us.

What makes vacation so good? It is too serious a question for me to ponder right now (after all, I am on vacation). Plus it makes me start to wonder if I like vacation because (a) I am too controlling and have to be able to choose what I'm doing, (b) I have a dreary life and doing anything different is better, (c) I am a lazy underachiever who will never accomplish anything in life because I'd rather be on vacation, or (d) all of the above. In an effort to avoid contemplating any nasty character deficiencies, let me just say that I am all for vacation and leave it at that.

We have chosen to spend our daughter's Spring Break skiing in Whistler. We have been to Whistler several times and know where we like to stay, where to go to dinner, and where to get important vacation provisions like chocolate croissants for breakfast and Okanagan Valley wines for apres-ski. It is fun for the whole family.

Of course, Whistler is completely different than Las Vegas. And while skiing isn't exactly a lazy vacation, all you have to worry about is where to point your skis to next.

What makes a good vacation in your book? Is it the escape from reality? The chance to literally leave your problems behind for a few days? The ability to see new places? I'm interested in hearing your thoughts. In the meantime, I'm off to the hot tub while our bottle of Jackson-Triggs Chardonnay is chilling...