Friday Fragments

Thanks to Ms. 4444's for hosting Friday Fragments...

• This is my second go on the Fragments because I accidentally erased the first version.   
• On a related note: Grrrrrrr....
• I love coming to Toronto but the downside is that Robyn, Liam and I stay at my parents house and Erik and Heather stay at her parents.  
• On a related note: We had a date night Monday that really did feel like one of our first ones.  She picked me up from my parents place, we had a nice romantic evening out and then couldn't do anything about it because we had no where to continue our romance.  Yep, living out of your parents house sucks...
• I took the kids camping for a couple of days to Killbear Provincial Park.  My family had gone there every year until I turned 17. 

• On a related note: Working in recreation and tourism, I have not had a chance to get back since.  Having the kids hike the same rocks I did when I was a kid was an absolute pleasure to see.  Hopefully I restarted a tradition.
• On a related related note:  I learned to use the Stow and Go seating to convert the back of the van into a bed.  Hummmm...Heather better be getting ready for our next date night.
• Robyn learned a critical rule of camping.  Always zip your tent to the top.  A raccoon smelling her ketchup chips midnight snack managed to open the zipper of her tent and let itself in.  To her credit she did not freak out but told the raccoon to scram and it left with the chip bag as its reward for its boldness.
• On a related note: The whole point of the trip was to spend time with Robyn.  At 14 she is getting to the age where 'daddy time' is starting to become scarce.  It was nice to spend some time connecting with her.  It felt all circle of lifey.
• I started writing blog posts for Heather on www.ActingBalanced.com last week.  It is fun writing on Heather's blog.  She is already starting to line up products for me to test from the male perspective.
• On a related note: I have a post on tips for camping kids that is going up on Tuesday.  Check it out!
• I am headed to Baltimore for the HSMAI Conference on Sunday.  This is a conference for people in revenue management.  It will be a very interesting to learn about the trends in hotel sales especially in relation to mobile technologies.  
• On a related note: Last summer on our drive to Canada we were not sure ow far were get going to get with a then baby Erik.  We drove and started getting tired and figured it was time to find a hotel.  So what did we do?  We pulled over at a McDonalds and while the kids played in the PlayPlace we surfed the web on the iPad for a hotel room.  We booked from the McDonalds and was checking in10 minutes later.  
• On a related, related note: Who says tourism is not a tech industry?