Vacation

With my job, if I don't plan vacations they tend not to happen. So, I'm thinking about vacations. I have six (6) un-allocated days, and I'm trying to decide if they should be used as a bunch or in small groups. If I go with all at once, my best time to go anywhere would be in the November / December time frame.

So, questions for my readers:

1) Has anybody been to Death Valley? I'm thinking of staying / flying into Vegas and making a two-day side trip to Death Valley.

2) I've never been to the Alamo (specifically) and San Antonio (in general). What's that like in November? Would it be worth a trip?

3) Anybody got any other suggestions for a vacation? I can get plenty of cold weather in Chicago, so warm would be better.