Vacation

Republicans complain that President Obama is taking a vacation, yet they seem unconcerned by the fact that Congress is scheduled to be in session only 137 days this year Republican candidates andSarah Palin are concerned about the fact that President Obama is taking a vacation. Yet they demonstrate very little concern about the fact that Congress is scheduled to be in session only 137 days this year. Where is their sense of urgency? Miriam Zadek, Rehoboth, Del.

Del. Guy Guzzone, a Columbia Democrat, announced Thursday that he will run for Sen. Jim Robey's open Senate seat in 2014. "Join with me, together we're going to continue to do good things for this community and for the state," Guzzone told a crowd of approximately 250 supporters inside the Ridgely's Run Community Center in Jessup. Guzzone's annual pizza party fundraiser was attended by notable politicians such as Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, along with numerous state delegates and county council members.

You might look forward to a vacation as a chance to unplug, but Consumer Reports recommends you take that advice literally. There are money-saving errands you might complete before leaving your home for a trip, such as eating up perishable groceries and putting vacation stops on your newspapers and mail. But don't neglect to unplug your idle appliances and turn down your water heater. You might remember this from previous discussions of 'vampire power', but electric-powered DVD players and battery chargers will all draw a constant amount of power even when you're not home.

My husband and I just spent 10 days in Southern California, and it was a dream vacation. In fact, all our vacations seem to be dream vacations. And not in the way that you might think. Like most working stiffs, we scramble to get to the get-away day. And then we stay up half the night packing and putting the house in shape to leave it behind. But sleep is not what we seek when we land on those ever-downier hotel beds — because we know what the dreaming will be like. These will not be old-fashioned anxiety dreams (I am sitting in the French final without ever having been to class; I can't dial the right phone number no matter how hard I try; I left the baby at the mall; I can't remember the combination on my high school locker)

Milton Kent is on vacation. His "On the Air" TV/radio column will be resumed Jan. 2.

Each week a nutritionist from the University of Maryland Medical Center will provide a post on nutrition topics for The Baltimore Sun's Picture of Health (baltimoresun.com/pictureofhealth). This week, Shanti Lewis weighs in on vacation dining. How do you eat healthfully and maintain your weight when you have long flights ahead and eat out almost every night while on vacation? Because of the limited fare on flights, many travelers indulge in fast food and choose beverages that can be dehydrating before boarding their planes.

West Virginia's New River Gorge area was already a destination for adrenaline junkies, but now the thrill factor has reached new heights. Two hundred feet, to be precise. That's the height at the highest point of Gravity, the mile-long zip line that is the latest attraction at the growing Adventures on the Gorge vacation complex. Participants jump from platforms high in the trees, reaching speeds of 40 mph to 60 mph as they glide along zip lines that take them whizzing through the West Virginia forest.

Here's a modest proposal I offer free of charge to President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney: Every American should get a mandatory minimum of three week's paid vacation a year. Most Americans only get two weeks off right now. But many don't even take the full two weeks out of fear of losing their jobs. One in four gets no paid vacation at all, not even holidays. About 40 percent of U.S. workers, or more than 55 million Americans, don't get paid when they take vacation or sick days, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We're back home after a longer-than-usual vacation, and it was simply fantastic. All the time together came with a realization: My boys, especially the preschooler, are growing up. I feel like, with Aaron, who's 7 months old, I've been making an effort to revel in the little moments and savor his babyhood. Thanks to his big brother, I know exactly how fleeting this time can be. And since we've decided we're a two-and-through family, I know I won't be doing this again. One of my favorite times of day is during daycare drop-off, when I'm walking Aaron in his car seat from the side of the building where Isaac's class is to the other side.

Hanging on the wall of Mike and Jean Tumbarello's new retreat at Deep Creek Lake is an old framed greeting card with a primitive drawing of a brown log cabin nestled among trees aglow with autumn colors. The scene is rendered in crayon with a sentiment that reads, in part: "Jean, here's our cottage in the country. I wish I were in it with you right now. …" "The card was sent before we married — probably 1974, when we were dating in college, when you actually had to use snail mail," Jean Tumbarello recalled.

Ocean City, Md., is the fourth most-searched location among Americans looking for vacation homes online, according to website traffic from Trulia collected over a 12-month period ending March 31, 2013. Cape May, N.J., the county encompassing that state's Ocean City and North Wildwood, and Kissimmee, Fla., were the only places that were more sought out than Maryland's leading summer destination. The median price of a home in Ocean City, Md., is $275,000, according to Trulia, about $250,000 less than the median price for a home in Ocean City, N.J. “Most people search for vacation areas close to home, rather than across the country,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia's chief economist and vice president of analytics.

A Vacation Bible School with the joint ministries of Friendship United Methodist Church, Mount Zion United Methodist Church and St. James Parrish will be held from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. June 23-27 at 5757 Solomons Island Road in Lothian. Bible school is for children age 3 through the fifth grade. The fee is $10. Register by June 1 and receive a T-shirt. Information: 408-867-2838 or tinyurl.com/vbsinsouthcounty.

Morgan State University President David Wilson makes a compelling argument that "receiving a quality education at the elementary and secondary level is a civil and moral right" ("Why education should be considered a civil right," May 13). I applaud his altruism, but elementary education is too late to solve this achievement gap. Sadly, kindergartners from low-income homes have an approximate vocabulary of 5,000 words while their peers from high-income homes have a 20,000 word vocabulary.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Baltimore National Pike, 5900 block, between 6 p.m. March 15, and 11:03 a.m. March 29. Fence and spool of fiber optic cable cut at Maryland State Highway Administration building. Bellegrove Road, unit block, between noon.

While I'm too controlling and Type-A for a destination wedding I do sometimes think about what it would be like to just hop on a plane and get married on a beach or island somewhere. That daydream got me thinking about where I would actually go. I've been on vacation in Mexico and Jamaica where I saw couples getting married on the beach at our all-inclusive resort and then celebrate the rest of the week with their close family and friends. But then I wonder, does that mean you are spending your honeymoon with others, or do you have another vacation on top of your vacation?

Winter skiing, springtime on the links, summer sailing and autumn leaf-peeping - the weather forecast is the driving force behind the planning of many vacations. But when it comes to predicting the weather, WBAL meteorologist Tony Pann takes it all in stride. Pann grew up in the blustery, changeable climate of Chicago, and has since delivered the weather report for television stations in New York and Washington, as well as Baltimore. "I've seen it all," he says good-naturedly.

As summer vacations get into full swing, many people anticipate breaking out the sunscreen and swimsuits. But what many do is break out the credit cards and break the bank, financial experts say. The main problem is that many people don't save money for a vacation. Instead, they charge it and worry about paying for it later - along with credit-card interest. "Something that might have cost $1,000 had they saved for it could cost $1,200 to $1,300 [if they pay] it back over time," said Albert Kotch, president and chief executive officer of Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Lehigh Valley in Whitehall Township, Pa. Despite a slowing economy and higher gas prices, vacationers are expected to spend a lot more this summer than last, according to national surveys.

Michael Olesker is on vacation.

They weren't allowed to be at work, but now they're paying for being absent. Some administrative employees who were barred from the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex in North Baltimore twice in the last two weeks because the buildings were closed due to outbreaks of illness are being told to use personal time or vacation days to make up for the time missed, Johns Hopkins officials confirmed Wednesday. Others were working overtime to catch up. For example, the majority of 284 patient financial services employees who work on the fifth floor of the Keswick complex's south building worked overtime hours three days last week - including Saturday - to make up for the day they had missed.

Tisa L. Silver-Canady, who counsels University of Maryland, Baltimore students about loan repayments and runs other financial education programs at the school, realized toward the end of last year that she had not used about a third of her vacation time. Last year, the assistant director of financial eduction and wellness in the university's office of student financial assistance and education took two brief trips, one for work, the other a vacation that included a conference related to her job. And she took two days off to move to a new house.