Vacations

I know, you don't have time to take a vacation, you can't be away from the office, people who take vacations are looked down upon by senior management, etc.  Throw your excuses away!  I just came back from a ten day trip with my 14-month old Thomas-the-Train addicted toddler.  We took a 26-hour Amtrak trip each way and spent eight days with my parents.  Before I left I mentioned my hesitancy to a friend, "I will miss the office because I sincerely love my job" and received the best advice ever.  He told me he and his wife had a deal that he was more fun on vacation if he was plugged in.  He would spend a small amount of time each day tending to business and then focus entirely on family the rest of the day.  So I tried that.  It was hard the first couple of days to turn my brain off in between, I will admit it.  But I got to the point where I could leave my blackberry and only check it twice a day, respond to e-mails and ask if I could respond when I returned from vacation where appropriate.  This made a huge difference in both my family's enjoyment of my time with them, and my renewal.  If I had it to do all over again, I would (the train trip, too by the way).

How do you "power down" when you're not in the office?