LABJ FORUM – Vacation Days

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer vacation season, but it could be understood if enthusiasm is being dampened a bit by rising fuel costs, which make car and air travel more expensive. And, if we need to be reminded, there are the ongoing threats of another terrorist attack in the United States. It’s almost enough to make some prefer to just stay home. So the Business Journal asks:

What are your vacation plans?

Rick Cohen

President

Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger

I’m going to Paris. We just love going to Paris so we try going once a year, my significant other and I. We like to eat out and drink out and do sightseeing. This time we’re going to go see the Loire Valley and see the chateaux and drink wine. We’re doing everything we would ordinarily, despite (terrorist threats).

Christopher Martin

CEO

A.C. Martin Partners Inc.

I’m going to take my home-built airplane and fly it to Osh Kosh, Wis. It took me four years to build it and it’s very fast. My wife and I are going to fly it all the way to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual convention. From July 27 to Aug. 1, the airport in Osh Kosh is the world’s busiest, with 5,000 takes-offs and landings per day. And I got my wife a new parachute, since she’s been asking me for one.

Wayne Hansen

Director of Engineering

Mintie Corp.

My most immediate trip is a semi-vacation. I’m going to Miami for a vacation and for therapy at a sports clinic for my arthritis. The clinic is doing very good things for sports figures. I’m going to crawl to a few museums, lay out on the beach, go to the gym for some exercise and go out dancing. At the end of the year I’m moving to Mexico. I travel so much for my business, I might as well live where I want, and that’s Puerto Vallarta. That’s sort of a semi-permanent vacation.

Jeff Wirt

President

Wirt Design Group Inc.

A long week in Catalina. I’ve gone there before and I just like getting away there. Wine, wife and reading all day long It’s really nice and relatively inexpensive. We can just open the doors and listen to the ocean. It’s great if you like that kind of thing, some people might think it’s boring.

Laurie Sugita

Director of Information Management

All Travel

I’ll probably to go to a destination spa, they’re fabulous. You get there and stop thinking and just relax. There are a lot in Arizona, some in Mexico, some in Colorado and some in middle California, like Santa Barbara. You exercise and work out, go on hikes, get massages or do yoga or Pilates. I like going by myself. I don’t like to take family because then it’s not a vacation.

John Janacek

Vice President

C.W. Driver Contractors

I’m a firm believer in vacations and encourage people to take lots, more than allowed, but I don’t have any plans this year. In the last trip, my wife and I went to Italy for a long three weeks and that was almost two years ago. We were hoping to go to Alaska this year, but the workload will not permit. I might go fishing for a few days. I think the Europeans have it right. If you work hard then you gotta play hard and you gotta carve out enough time for it.