Fun Suggestions To Fill In A 3 Day Vacation Cancellation
 

I just got news this week that our annual 5 day family vacation is nixed.
Molecular/cellular biology takes precedence (daughter's summer session class).
Everyone has found something to do except me. My husband and son are going over to Louisiana to meet my son's namesake for the first time in almost 21 years.

So here's the question, if you suddenly find yourself with 2 or 3 days to fill with fun - what would you suggest? It can be mindless or mindful. Using home as base = good.

Re: Fun Suggestions To Fill In A 3 Day Vacation Cancellation
 

-Sleep.
-Play StepMania.
-Browse CD.
-Watch TV.
-Play Guitar Hero.
-Sleep some more.

That's about it.

Either that, or work out algorithms for robotics. (wow, free time defaults to being Truck Town property...proof I'm a nerd)

JBot

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Well, it all depends on when this 3 day vacationish thingy takes place.

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Starts Monday.

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hmm, you should postpone it all untill around IRI and come pick me up so i can go also?

other then that,

go visit a NASA thing down there? go see a beach? water? go buy a tv, wii/ps3/xbox 360 and send it to me and i'll send you something in return.

i am all outa ideas as of right now. :P

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I highly recommend not trying to redo the entire network in your house.

When I had a few days during finals week with no real obligations, I found myself playing an awful lot of online Flash games. I've been a fan of Quadradius, a sort of checkers game on steroids, but other games tend to become favorites if you search around for them. (Some of the younger folks here might know the new hip spot for games--when you no longer have a school district blocking the hip site every other week, you tend to settle down on one.)

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or re-wiring two seperate computer systems into using one monitor / sound / keyboard / mouse =).


I suggest hopping on a bike and go riding through out your states many parks.

Take a walk on a beach and enjoy the weather and water.

Go out for a drive and see where you end up.

Plant a Garden. If you haven't already.

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Ooo Ooo! Oprah had a book on her show the other day that sounded really interesting called "The Road". It's about the earth after an apocolypse and a father and son. The father is basically doing everything he can to protect his son from this weird newish kind of world. It sounded interesting to me and I wanted to read it, but unfortunately my accounting book is the only one I have time to read right now. So read that. Cuz it sounds fun

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Drive to Corpus Christi* and see if it's still there. Check into a hotel, spend the night. Play tourist.

Any big waterfalls nearby? a 3 day bender? Read any good books lately? Remind youself why you shouldn't eat 2 pounds of chocolate-covered cherries? Look up an old friend from years ago & go to lunch - 3 times (different friend each time...). Take the train to New Orleans, spend a day and come back. Fly to St Louis (is the arch still up?).

Depends on finances, too. Maybe just 3 quarts of ice cream & a box of oreos...

Don

* or another city about 3-4 hours away. Laredo?

* Today is "Corpus Christi" on the catholic church calendar (Fronleichnam for you Germans), so that's what sent me in that direction...

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Buy a (daytime) round-trip train ticket to a destination like six-eight hours away. Get a good seat in one of the observation cars, and just watch the countryside roll by. Spend the night there, and the next day, take your return trip. Trains are way better than cars if you're looking for a good, relaxing, scenic trip, as you can sit back and relax, and actually see the country. (As opposed to driving down crowded Interstates, where you can drive for eight hours and not actually 'see anything'.)

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Find a Segway tour near you, those can be fun and knock out a good 3 hours. You get to ride around on a Segway, hear about a town's history and culture, and other cool information.

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Get a machine with Inventor, and pre-design your team's next season drive system. If you don't know how, now's a great time to learn!

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On the contrary, I find redoing my server relaxing on a day off. Just be sure to have your backup system in place so that your files and services can still be accessed while your main servers are down (for network restructure and upgrades). Sometimes after a bad day at work I will bomb one of my domain controller machines (which is also a WINS and DHCP) and start over from scratch. This is always extremely relaxing, especially when I know that the redundant system kicked into place automatically without me having to check it!

Sometimes I like to change the color schemes on my Cat6 wiring, and so I just rip out all the cables to my primary machines are remake cables with new color sets! Then when I'm done with that, I'll rip out the set going to my backup machines (the primaries are back online) and remake those (sometimes using complimentary colors to the primaries!)

So, I'm going to have to call you on this one, Billfred. Redoing the entire house network can be and is a LOT of fun. Kills some time, and allows you to think. Not to mention the fun in accessorizing (I have some AWESOME LED power cords going to redundant power supplies. I can swap them out to match the current network cable scheme.)!

Jacob

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You should try kayaking - not whitewater or anything technically challenging if you are a beginner, but on a nice peaceful lake or calm river. Pack yourself a nice lunch and have a picnic on the shore or an island. Or, you could go to the library, get some good books, and head to the beach! What about that vacation spot you mentioned in Rockport on your facebook? Haha, as you can see I have a bias towards water and relaxation. It must be the fact that I miss the Florida beaches (being well inland in rural CT for the summer)!

What other hobbies do you have? Perhaps you could work on a craft or art project. Is there anything in particular you don't normally have time to do while your husband and children are around? I think someone suggested it already, but how about doing a "beauty day" at your house - have a bubble bath, do a facial, paint your nails, grab a pint of ice cream, and rent some movies! Or, invite some of your women friends over for tea or lunch or dinner - a ladies only weekend. :)

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Or design one the first day, start building it that night, finish building the next day, get a sucsesful program in it, then show it off the last day, while enjoying the history and culture.

OR, just go on a bike ride. Ride all around the country areas. I always find that very relaxing.:D

You could also plan a picnic one day at your favorite park. Call up some friends and go for a walk.

Just a few ideas.

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I would go to those Austin tourist places that you never go to anymore! I looked up your Austin Tourist Guide http://www.austintexas.org and you have some great events happening during those days!

Here are my favorites!

Gems and Minerals exhibit - Location: Texas Memorial Museum

On display will be 100 specimens collected from all over the world, including a 925-carat blue topaz crystal from Mason County, Texas, along with magnificent specimens of azurite, cinnabar and wulfenite, delicate leaf gold, unusual copper in calcite, and sparkling crystals of cerussite, among others.

Bat Watching - Venue: Congress Avenue Bridge Bats
Address: Congress Ave. & Cesar Chavez St. Austin, TX 78704
URL: http://www.batcon.org
Location: Congress Avenue Bridge

The 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that live beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge take flight in a mass exodus each night at dusk.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series - Venue: Paramount Theatre
Address: 713 Congress Ave. Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-472-5470 http://www.austintheatre.org/site/Pa...name=film#june

The summer's best films at Austin's best theatre - enjoy more than 80 classic films as they were meant to be seen, featuring many new prints, foreign classics, 70mm spectaculars, The Shadow serial and more. June 12 – Nick and Nora: “The Thin Man” and “After the Thin Man.”

The Big Game - Venue: Austin Children's Museum
Address: 201 Colorado St. Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-472-2499
http://www.austinkids.org/exhibits/biggame.htm

Oversized games mean giant-sized fun for everyone. In The Big Game, visitors to Austin Children’s Museum will get their minds and muscles in the game as they play on jumbo sized versions of popular family-friendly games.

The Big Game is designed for children and their grown-ups to sharpen their critical thinking and social skills on familiar games and discover new ones to try. Visitors will also gain a historical and cultural perspective on well-known games.

Now I want to come!!!:(

I also agree with Beth - there is nothing like the chance to read a book, just for fun with no time restrictions!

But this is my favorite of the suggestions so far!

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Islands of Adventure......fun place! :ahh:

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only about a 1000 miles away

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It might not be a good idea to give Wendymom any ideas either. *cough*

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You could go geocaching: www.geocaching.com

whytheheckme...I don't even know how to react to your post...:yikes: Then again, I have a camera driver I'm writing right now. The scariest part is that I understood your post.

Back to pretending like I'm coding.

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Well, I am a nerd for this kind of stuff, but go buy an album and just listen and soak in the music. Great relaxing and intelligent albums to buy and just appreciate, Neon Bible by The Arcade Fire, Hopes and Fears by Keane, and A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay. That or just bust out the Beatles and appreciate the greatness.

Maybe get a good book. The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner is an amazing book that will definitely mess with your brain and make you think. Any Mitch Albom book is also a great time to read. Maybe some Jules Verne, because those books are like a vacation.

Head to Soap and download some match videos. It is fun to watch elimination rounds for regionals you didn't get to go to. Just seeing the scores to matches online is basically useless, but watching those matches help you relive a great year. Some highlight, Vegas, Greater Toronto, and all the championship videos.

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:eek: :eek: :eek:

And I thought installing a router and running Ethernet cabling (into wall sockets like this) into most of rooms in my house was bad enough...

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visit the "clean" beaches of Galveston...or get on CD.

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Now thats taking having nothing to do to a new extreme. I would never go that far. =)

Actually when I have nothing better to do I do enjoy unplugging everything out of my 2 computers and tracing the wires back to something that is no longer needed. (I have a couple of Zip Drives, CD-R Drives, Ext. Burners, Spare MotherBd., 2 Spare P4 2.80Ghz Chips, A few soundcards and a really old graphic card(s) (cirrus logic).) I have a cabinet dedicated to PC stuff I no longer use b/c of all the re-wiring and re-building I've been doing. Hence my new Custom Built Media Computer. Sometimes re-wiring, rebuilding or re-networking a system can be fun and a time consuming project you needed. Other times it can be a real pain in the @@@. ;) Now to have color coordinated wiring is just being creative and I admire that. And if your brave you will color code which cable goes to which system.

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I might be brave enough to go to the best snow cone place in all of Austin and get a multi-colored snow cone. They actually have one called Wedding Cake which tastes like the icing of a wedding cake.

I like the cherry cola.

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Jane,
thanks to Cynette for the wonderful link to Austin attractions. I am a sucker for museums and living history. There is a bunch of old houses, cabins and living history listed on the site. I know how much of a drag it is to see it all by yourself but you might find something you can show off to others. The O Henry Museum and the Old Bakery both sounded pretty cool as did some of the art musuems. I think enjoying art is sometimes better done alone.

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Go to Vegas and play in the WSOP, No-Limit Hold'em (Event 19) or Seven Card Stud Hi-low-8 or Better (Event 20)

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Well Jane, You are on Vacation! What are you going to do with all your time? :confused:

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Haha!
It is always good to go out of town for vacation, otherwise I go to work. I've been in twice. I've also had 2 different meetings with the team - one for an upcoming outreach and then yesterday was fun - meeting with two of our recent grads to talk about handbook ideas. Upon leaving, I found a blown glass art collection to oooh and aaah over.

The fun should start today with a visit to our Zilker Park and the ducks. There is a beautiful section of the lake that is shallow, perfect for wading, sitting on the submerged rocks, and skipping stones across the water.

It's rather turned into a nature vacation for me. Lots of time spent walking and exploring. The bat experience can be beautiful and I'll venture down to the bridge tonight at sunset to see if they come out. A cool Austin flavored bookstore beckons as well as the box of chocolate covered cherries. I have devoured 2 books so far.

And, I have been playing with wire. Purple. For the outreach.
Thanks for asking,
Jane

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All good for the soul.

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Not when one is flying around your bedroom (after you've gone to bed) and your husband is too busy playing mentor with an FRC team trying to make their ship deadline to come home and take care of it and your kids come home and promise you that they caught it so you can come out from underneath the covers now, mom, and instead your husband finds it hanging from the outside of the bedroom door jam in the wee hours of the morning. Nope, at that point, a bat experience is anything but beautiful, Jane! :ahh:

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I don't blame you for not going to the beaches in Galveston.

On another note, going to Austin (maybe San Antonio) from Houston there are billboards with a huge cave with stalagmite/tites and it is one of the coolest places I've been to. Unfortunately i didn't remember until now, but maybe a weekend is perfect for that kind of trip

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KathieK - I am sorry about your bat experience. :)
The one here in Austin is a wee different. Depending on the air currents, etc - the bats will fly out of the bridge in a straight line or they will spiral up into the air currents and fly on many levels. It takes a while for them to empty out the bridge and you can follow the line down the river as far as the eye can see. That is my favorite - esp. with the sunset. (safety tip that we are told is not to touch a fallen or hurt bat - for health reasons)

Pavan - Galveston sounds wonderful, you are so right. Perhaps after IRI, I will be able to talk a couple of family members into a beach visit in Galveston before school starts up again.

There are caves, caverns, and geological wonders in many areas around here. I googled one and found this:
http://www.naturalbridgecaverns.com/index.aspx
Looks promising.

Vacation ends tomorrow at the stroke of midnight. Kathie, how do you feel about bugs? I thought I'd hang out with some fireflies.
Jane

P.S. Don, McKinney Falls State Park is very close to where I live. Haven't been there in a while, maybe I should go see if it dried up.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publicat...n_hc_013.phtml

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Three days with nothing to do?
Wow never heard of such a thing... there are always groups to update, pics to load and manage, work to be done around the house,office, and that doesn't even touch of stuff I've been wanting to check out do on the computer.

But if I did have three days with nothing to do.... :eek:

Thats easy I'd finally get to run some of the mega activities (6 hours plus)for the virtual railroad I belong to. :D
There are a couple routes like the CSX M&M I'd love to explore from start to finish.