Whether it's a day, a weekend or a week, a learning vacation is a renewing experience.

Three- to six-day workshops are scheduled year-round at the historic Greenville Arms 1889 Bed & Breakfast Inn in upstate New York's scenic Hudson Valley/Catskills region. Choose from watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, drawing and collage, plus fiber art and quilting. Instructors are nationally recognized artists.

One- and two-day high-performance driving programs (available in a variety of states) teach defensive driving as well as the car-control skills that professional drivers possess. Topics include downshifting, emergency lane changes and road etiquette.

Everybody is counting on this February vacation week. It's like every day is a weekend this week.

So it's finding out how compatible you are in terms of the things that you're going to be doing, the places that you're going to be going, how much time you're going to be spending together.

This weekend was a great learning experience. We really need to work on putting balls away.