Summer breaks for children do you love them or hate them

Both. My 14 year old gets more relaxed and more fun to be around during the time off over the summer. My 10 year old becomes bored because all of her friends seem to be gone all summer long. Where do these people go? And when they get bored they fight. And I really can't stand the fighting. We have a pool in our backyard and you would think that would keep them from getting bored but, no, you can get bored of swimming too, especially when there are no other friends to enjoy it with. My schedule gets messed with when the kids are home. They take over my area and I have to boot them out. Then they have to be together (instead of in separate rooms) and start fighting. My 14 year old is graduating grade 8 this year and has been under a lot of pressure this past month. I know we will both be glad when she can take a break. As a family we usually try to go to one or two new tourist attractions in the area every year. I don't know whether that will happen this year because of financial restraints. I would love to go to Niagara Falls again and spend two nights at a hotel. That was fun when we did it a couple of years ago. We have to figure out which attractions we haven't been to yet, or start all over again.