Tropical dreams...

...or not.

We got somewhere between three and five inches of snow here today. Add to that the frigid temps (down to 0 tonight) and a substantial wind-chill factor and it's just plain miserable.

So I've been thinking about vacation.

The last four years, we've gone to the Keys. We love it there. Especially in the middle of April when we usually go. It's not a bit crowded and the weather is positively gorgeous. Plenty warm, but not yet miserable.

We usually take a full two weeks...a couple-three days to get there, a week or 10 days there and a couple days to get home. But I'm not able to take any real 'vacation' time from my job until I've been there a year. I really don't mind taking days without pay, but since I won't have been there a year until October, I'm not sure if they'll even let me take that much time off without pay just yet.

So, we're thinkin a shorter trip somewhere. Someplace around a lake...Wisconsin, maybe. Somewhere where I'd only hafta take three or four days off. I could work 3 or 4 days into a good week/week and a half off if I figure them in with my 'regular' days off. We've found a place in Wisconsin and it looks like the perfect place. Little cabins on a lake...boat rentals...lots of peace and quiet. And we could be there in four or five hours. Piece a cake.

Only thing is, we'd hafta put vacation off until along about June or July. I'm thinkin Wisconsin in April isn't anywhere close to tropical.

But on days like today...I wanna go somewhere tropical! (Insert whining voice)

Maybe New Orleans again. That's pretty tropical. It'd only take us a day to get there. I know the crime is awful, but it'd sure be a lot less crowded now. And there's no doubt that the city can use every tourist dollar that it can get it's hands on.

So I dunno where we'll wind up.

But I'm ready to go somewhere warm. Now.