I’ve solicited some opinions from a few people on where to go, and I’m discovering that I need to better understand what I’m trying to get out of this vacation. A couple interesting suggestions I’ve received are a Mediterranean cruise, and a guided tour of Japan.
I’ve poked around a bit, and there’s a “Snow and Ice” festival in Sapporo in January-February. I also discovered the “Monkey’s Banquet”, in Thailand (Nov-Dec unfortunately), but I thought the pictures were worth sharing. I think I would have liked to see this:
More pictures here: Scotto’s LiveJournal
All in all, I think there’s only one of two reasons for this vacation. Either it’s to disconnect (no laptop, email, etc.) for a couple weeks, or as an adventure. If I’m trying to disconnect, a cruise or beach resort sounds reasonable, preferably with some “alternative” entertainment. For example, some cruise ships offered cooking lessons, golf instruction, massages, and meditation and fitness classes.
The other possibility, “adventure”, needs some clarification. While I find architecture mildly interesting, incredible vistas, historic buildings, museums, etc. don’t interest me enough to select that as the focal point of a trip-for-myself. Food, however, does. As does the monkey up above. Funny enough, I also read that January is the best time to visit the Antarctic, as the penguin chicks have just hatched. 
More research is in order, but I hope I’m getting closer to finding something that really “clicks” with me.
