i think its a misconception (see what i did there?) about the concept. "mini-retirement" is supposed to refer to a longer period of time where you're taking a break from your primary career, but you have plans to go back. i'd define it as at least 6 months.
it doesn't have to involve travel, and you don't have to stop working or engaging yourself in projects. just like being actually retired.
I think it's part of our culture adapting from the idea of one career and a retirement at the end of it, to several, with breaks in between. The semantics are interesting: it probably would have been called a sabbatical 20 years ago.
That's a good explanation. I quite like the concept of calling a break between careers a mini-retirement. In this case, though, it doesn't seem to have been anything like that, but just a simple three month extended vacation.
it still can be referred to as that, except, in my experience, there's an understanding that with a sabbatical, you're arranging things so that you come back to the same job. i don't think thats necessarily the case with a mini-retirement.
it doesn't have to involve travel, and you don't have to stop working or engaging yourself in projects. just like being actually retired.
/my $0.02, at least