For the last several years we've made a habit of renting a cottage at one of the regional state parks and making a mini-break out of 3 day vacations including the Memorial, Independence and Labor day holidays. This year when my wife asked about our plans I said "if it has anything to do with traffic, crowds or gasoline count me out". We decided to make a go of temporarily treating our own home like a resort. We avoided all the pain at the pump (though we use findfueldeals.com). When we loaded up with groceries for grilling and patio dining, we certainly noticed inflation in the aisles but we're eating healthy and at home. The kids are happy around the pool, we moved some fitness equipment outside to exercise in the fresh air, and we're less stressed with all mod cons at our disposal - making use of things we worked hard for. It certainly doesn't hurt that we are having absolutely fabulous 75-80 degree sunny weather in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.