O.K. It’s that time of year. Time to use up the remaining vacation days you’ve saved up for no reason, and the important decision of how you will blow that end of the year bonus check. I guess, that’s just my way of thinking (might not want to follow my lead on that one).

I will soon be heading to Wisconsin, to make a round of family visits, and eat my body weight in German sausages, before the snow in the mountains is too good to pass up. I’ll just live vicariously through all of you for the next month, so here’s and interesting article from BnA about eight destinations that would be worth the trip… and the stories you bring home afterward.  

How about the Crucian Festival in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands? There you’ll get to party island style, with, what looks like, a little Carnival mixed with Mardi Gas atmosphere. Then, there’s the Night of the Radishes (Noches de los Rabanos), on Dec. 23^rd in Oaxaca, Mexico. Radishes as art, that’s an experience you won’t forget.

My choice, besides creating a radish Mona Lisa, would be to kick back, relax, and enjoy a castle of my own. Renting castles can be done all over the world and is surprisingly easy. I would probably choose, hmm, Ireland, strictly because of Matt’s Dublin video, and the three drops of Irish blood Grandma Wick always mentioned I had around St. Patrick’s day.

I can see the water cooler talk now, “Jon, what did you do over break?”

“Live like a king.”