I know that it is early, but have you begun to make a Spring Break Plan?
I wanted to go on a cruise. I had picked out 2. One out of Ft. Lauderdale to the Western Caribbean and the other out of LA to Mexico. The Mexico trip is the old 'Love Boat' itinerary that includes Cabo, Matzatplan and Puerto Vallarta then back to LA. The prices of both cruises are reasonable. The flight costs, are NOT!! I was looking the last few days at flight choices, and while the cruise would be in the $650 neighborhood per person (including port taxes), the flights would cost as much or more! Even Southwest flights this far out are in the more expensive ranges where it could cost $500 or more just for the return flight alone!
I have cruised before, especially to Alaska in May, and found that my flights are expensive (especially because I have sometimes chosen first class tickets because of the duration) but to find flight prices as much or more than the cruise prices, five months out is discouraging!!
At this point, Im not sure IF i will even try to go anywhere for Spring Break, and that is discouraging!
Have you started thinking about Spring Break planning yet? Are you finding the prices in line with what you expected? Any suggestions?
It's pretty much my longest break of the year, apart from the Christmas holidays. I plan to stay at home and do nothing at all, unless it's work on a book.
But things might intrude. Sigh.
We want to go back to the cottage we rented last week and not lose two days to illness (see the venting thread). Normally I'm with Parasaurolophus, and prefer to just stay home, with all my things around me. I feel as if every time we have a vacation I'm all geared up to think, 'oh, thank goodness, I can stay home for a week', and then Absolutive jumps about asking 'where shall we go this time? Amsterdam? San Francisco? Florida? The Scottish Highlands? Iceland? Dublin?' But this was a good cottage. It was comfy and quieter than home, even, and well connected with buses and trains and hiking and even a herd of semi-tame reindeer that you can go feed. I won't mind spending another vacation there.
I am contemplating hiking in the Grand Canyon. Or something like that.
Two years ago a friend and I flew into Phoenix and rented a car and spent the week exploring the desert. It was enchanting, warm days and the desert in bloom from the spring rains. I'm trying to get my wife to repeat this trip with me this year, but she wants to go to New Orleans.
I guess I'm going to New Orleans.
A colleague is trying to sweet-talk me into accompanying a busload of students on their spring break field trip. I'm desperately trying to find a conflicting conference date, and when I do, I will submit the best abstract/paper I have ever written in my life.
It's a great question. I really need to give it some thought. My book MS is due at the press in February, and so spring break should be a big celebration. I'd really like to celebrate by going somewhere fun that I haven't been before (e.g., Mexico City, which is near the top of my list). But the missus and I will be spending our vacation money for the year on a trip to Paris over winter break. Thus, another trip is out of the question. Maybe a staycation and a bunch of naps will be in order? That sounds inexpensive.
Or perhaps I'll spend the break furiously trying to finish the MS that I didn't quite get submitted in February. If so, problem solved!
Spring Break seems like so many months - and seasons! - from now! Next year I turn the big 5-0 and wanted to take a celebratory trip in the summer. (To be honest, I had hoped that I'd be moving to a new job next summer, but the market is terrible this year so I don't think I'm applying anywhere.) I was thinking of a 10- or 12-day cruise on Norwegian or another major line, maybe to Europe or Greece - or a river cruise that I see advertised on PBS all the time. But my garage is falling apart so I think that my present to myself is going to be a new garage in late spring or early summer. A shorter and less expensive cruise over spring break might be a good option. Not the once-in-a-lifetime 50th present I had envisioned, but it'd be a chance to get out of the snow and gloom of late March in Paddingtonville.
Quote from: downer on October 29, 2019, 02:38:13 PM
I am contemplating hiking in the Grand Canyon. Or something like that.
Consider Canyonlands NP -- it's the perfect time of year for it and it does not disappoint (do a google image search).
We have a late Feb break, and I usually just work through it, but depending on what sort of winter we're having I may be tempted to escape someplace warm.
I'm going on my 1st river cruise next spring. There was a promotional sale on the cruise website about waiving the single supplement for select dates. When the cruise ends, I'm staying in the final city for 2 days before flying home to the US.
hmaria1609, which cruise operator are you using? I had contemplated taking a river cruise this summer (see my post above). The single supplements seem so unfair and haven't found many cruises that don't have them.
Quote from: Puget on October 30, 2019, 04:19:36 PM
Quote from: downer on October 29, 2019, 02:38:13 PM
I am contemplating hiking in the Grand Canyon. Or something like that.
Consider Canyonlands NP -- it's the perfect time of year for it and it does not disappoint (do a google image search).
We have a late Feb break, and I usually just work through it, but depending on what sort of winter we're having I may be tempted to escape someplace warm.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Quote from: downer on October 31, 2019, 06:33:35 AM
Quote from: Puget on October 30, 2019, 04:19:36 PM
Quote from: downer on October 29, 2019, 02:38:13 PM
I am contemplating hiking in the Grand Canyon. Or something like that.
Consider Canyonlands NP -- it's the perfect time of year for it and it does not disappoint (do a google image search).
We have a late Feb break, and I usually just work through it, but depending on what sort of winter we're having I may be tempted to escape someplace warm.
Thanks for the suggestion!
The Needles section has a big car campground by the trailhead and great backpacking sites if that's your thing (and there are still permits available)-- a friend and I went during spring break in grad school and had a site that was only about 3.5 miles in but in a canyon by itself, and did day hikes from there for 3 days. We said "wow" so many times it became the word of the trip.
Quote from: Puget on October 30, 2019, 04:19:36 PM
Quote from: downer on October 29, 2019, 02:38:13 PM
I am contemplating hiking in the Grand Canyon. Or something like that.
Consider Canyonlands NP -- it's the perfect time of year for it and it does not disappoint (do a google image search).
We have a late Feb break, and I usually just work through it, but depending on what sort of winter we're having I may be tempted to escape someplace warm.
Canyonlands is beautiful, and I'm also a huge fan of Arches NP, which is just across the street.
AR.
Quote from: paddington_bear on October 31, 2019, 06:30:12 AM
hmaria1609, which cruise operator are you using? I had contemplated taking a river cruise this summer (see my post above). The single supplements seem so unfair and haven't found many cruises that don't have them.
Avalon Waterways
Viking is the one featured before the "Masterpiece" shows since the company is a corporate sponsor.
I think the spouse and I are headed to Kauai this year. Looking forward to shave ice, hiking the Napali trail, and drinking Kauai coffee!
Instead of Nescafe?
How odd...
;--}
M.
I plan on staying here and working on the papers I've been stockpiling - as well as a plan for funding my summer.
I wrote nine (9) proposals last summer. If none of them hit I'm going to have to wonder if this business is right for me.
Our Spring Break starts Friday (or Monday, I guess Officially!)
I had been eyeing a cruise a few months ago. I didnt book because the air fares were too high. I just checked today and the cruise I was looking at, which departs LA on Saturday , has over 150 vacant rooms, including suites!
I should have sold my Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) stock last week! It is down $10 from what I could have sold it for.
I have promised myself that I WILL grade the projects that are languishing in my office BEFORE Friday ends! I will NOT start Spring Break with that still to do!
Then i will devote some time to working on my back yard, and I will also work on a paper that I should have finished last November (had I not been sent to the hospital instead).
I may be able to get a start on the syllabus requirements and book orders for my summer and Fall classes (which are due right after spring break anyway).
What are YOUR plans?
I have a second-8 weeks online class starting the week after break, so I need to get that set up. (Yes, I know, it should be done already. But.....yeah.)
I might actually get it done next week (spring break is the week following). I'd like to spend some time wandering around in the yard, doing a little clean-up, and planning for spring plantings of flowers and such.
Mainly, it will be nice just to not have to go to work or deal with admin and students for a few days!
We are being tempted by dirt-cheap travel deals to Hawaii, but will probably do yard and garden work, and wrenching on cars.
I'll be going to meetings on campus, tidying my house, and working on two papers.
Quote from: sinenomine on March 05, 2020, 11:57:43 AM
I'll be going to meetings on campus, tidying my house, and working on two papers.
Meetings on campus during Spring Break? Glad my dept. doesn't do that. That's not right.
I DID IT! I am caught up on my grading! I had hoped to do it yesterday, but it is DONE. I can NOW begin the Spring Break plans (of working on other things!)
Have Fun! Stay Virus Free!
AND dont drink beer on the beach... you dont want to get sand in your Schlitz (malt liquor)
Congratulations, Clean!
Another week until Spring Break. I'm scheduled to attend a very small conference during the break, if it doesn't get cancelled due to COVID-19. The conference is an excellent one, but if it's cancelled, I can stay home and relax.
I also just saw a posting for a position I'd love in my dream town. I might spend the break applying, even though I swore I'd retire before moving again.
My son works in dining services at his college. He was planning to stay on campus anyway, but now it seems like he'll have a lot of company. Instead of a skeleton crew, they're going forward assuming, say, 60% of students stay on campus. Our campus here won't be that bad, but probably won't be as relaxed as usual.
The Time Change meant that I 'overslept' today! Not too bad a way to start Spring Break!
Otherwise I have done 2 loads of laundry, watched the Sunday Morning TV news shows, and pulled a bunch of weeds in the front yard. I pulled a bunch a few weeks ago, but the ones that I missed are now covered with seed pods. Others are blooming tiny little purple flowers, meaning that I have a short time before they too are primed with pods to sprout next spring!
There are lots of flowers about. IF I were travelling, the highway medians should be very pretty !
I was hoping to travel this Spring Break, but it looks like spouse and I will be grounded instead.
Hoping to battle weeds in the garden, drink lots of tea, read lots of books, and escape into the wilderness for a few days.
This does hinge on me getting Spring term all planned out in the next two weeks.
And on the campus not suddenly demanding that I have a "ready to launch" plan of how to teach a molecular biology lab for nonmajors if we have to teach "remotely" or "online". Any ideas?
Write. Grade. Netflix. Clean the leaving-room and upstairs bathroom.
Do I know how to party or what?!
Quote from: the_geneticist on March 09, 2020, 11:27:22 AM
Hoping to battle weeds in the garden, drink lots of tea, read lots of books, and escape into the wilderness for a few days.
This does hinge on me getting Spring term all planned out in the next two weeks.
And on the campus not suddenly demanding that I have a "ready to launch" plan of how to teach a molecular biology lab for nonmajors if we have to teach "remotely" or "online". Any ideas?
Online teaching strategies have been under discussion on this coronavirus thread:
http://thefora.org/index.php?topic=1093.45
M.
I am either leading a class trip to the Florida Keys, or I am.....not.
I haven't really planned that second option, yet.
My small conference just got cancelled, so I'll be staying home for Spring Break next week. Time to start thinking about fun projects.
I'm canceling my spring break trip abroad and will do something a bit closer to home instead (and far away from crowded spaces, it seems).
Damn. I need a plan B.
Be a tourist in your own town?
M.
Learning how to use skype, or something similar, I guess. Quarantine's coming; employer provides computer and crash course training. No excuses. School "B" doesn't provide anything. Wonder what they're going to do if the outbreak spreads?
I guess we'd better do local field trips while we still can.
Or go out into the woods, and stand far apart, for classes.
IF we count the time it took to get the tax software from BestBuy, I have spent about three hours getting my taxes ready today.
i am not going to submit today, though. I may still be waiting for some K-1 form because of one stock I owned last year. As far as I know, I have not yet seen it in the mail, but that is one of the forms that has a later filing/mailing date. SO, My taxes are ALMOST done, I think. I will wait 2 more weeks, and then have turbo Tax submit the file for my $1471 refund. (I doubt that the K-1 will change that, not by much if it does!, but better to wait than to risk an audit or having to file an amended return).
So that I ONE item down on the Spring Break List!!
Is Spring Break over now, (because it already happened, or was it cancelled?)
Was it what you expected?
I taught online for the first time, enjoyed it, and am planning more such options.
I got more work done on two invited blogs, and once those are done, I'll get to do more on a book project that's ongoing.
I did some work on my day-to-day pay-the-rent-and-feed-the-cats job, and have some more to do.
I started a couple sewing projects and a knitting project (see the new thread!)...
Ummm....Spring Break? Independent scholars make their own breaks on their own time, all the time.
But that's what I did in the past two weeks, and I enjoyed it.
M.
This week was our K-12 schools' Spring Break. We had a whole slate of Spring Break activities for children planned at the library. None of which we could do, sigh.
I'm still coming in to my physical workplace 9-5, five days a week. Which is actually less than I'm used to working, although it hasn't really been feeling like it. I guess the general stress of the Plague Year is tiring us all out.
Quote from: the_geneticist on March 09, 2020, 11:27:22 AM
Hoping to battle weeds in the garden, drink lots of tea, read lots of books, and escape into the wilderness for a few days.
This does hinge on me getting Spring term all planned out in the next two weeks.
And on the campus not suddenly demanding that I have a "ready to launch" plan of how to teach a molecular biology lab for nonmajors if we have to teach "remotely" or "online". Any ideas?
Well, I have been battling weeds in the garden and drinking lots of tea.
Other than that, I've been working to get my newly online labs ready to go for next week.
Sigh, no escaping into the wilderness for me right now. Too many meetings, urgent emails, etc. And the entire state is under a "stay at home" order.
I've canceled my river cruise. Avalon Waterways has suspended its operations and European countries have closed their borders. I'll rebook for next year.
Spring Break? Oh, the first week of emergency meetings about pivot to remote teaching and essential services. None of my vague ideas for fun projects surfaced.
I'm grateful remote classes start Monday. Maybe we'll see some semblance of routine develop. Even if the meetings about projected low summer enrollments and budget cuts did start today.
My brother and niece are on spring break this week. They are in a Catholic school (he teaches, she is supposed to learn). It revolves around Holy Week.
Anyone else on Spring Break now?
How have your plans changed?