Well, it is certainly nice to travel, to make new friends or meet old ones,  see new places and things and try new foods and activities. But it is equally nice to get back home if, of course as is assumed but not always true, home is where the heart is. In my case, Cancun is both my home and where my heart is. 

Chicago was for personal me time and accomplished that goal. The visit to the Dells was business and accomplished that goal. Now I am back home and the reality of the global economic downturn, a lack of tourism in Cancun due to real and imagined fears similar to those reasons for invading Iraq  and the effect that those things have on both professional and private life are again front and center so it is back to basics, back to work and back to enjoying both life and work (not sure you can separate the two) realizing that ups and downs are a part of both. But having gotten away a bit will help keep the perspective. 

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ”

Ralph Waldo Emerson