Back in the IT world

As some of you may have noticed, I returned a few days ago from my low-tech week. It's taking me awhile to adjust being stuck at the computer so you'll have to bear with me. It's been tough enough to spend the PC time at work, so spending my "free time" on the PC is challenging. It's kind of like not eating fast food for a week and then suddenly having to ingest it for every meal. Drupal addict and Yoga for Geeks guru, Sarah Pullman, mentioned a similar experience in one of her posts. To add insult to injury, I blew up three sites on my VPS and had to put the pieces back together.

So how did I spend my time last week? The family drove north to visit our Canadian neighbors and spend some time camping. We camped near Grand Beach at Lake Winnipeg. Lake Winnipeg is in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It wasn't completely without some technology as we had electricity available for the pop-up camper. Translation...lights, water pump, and even a furnace were available. Considering, I usually spend my time camping in the US national forests without electricity this was a camping luxury for the family.

Surprisingly, we were about the only US citizens in the campground which surprised me. If Texans and Californians can spend there time in Colorado...you would think some folks from the Dakotas and Minnesota could visit Manitoba more often. When I get a chance, I'll have to maybe add a picture or two of our time camping, swimming, or hiking. Translation...I still need to find where we put the digital camera.

During the weekend, we spent our time in the city of Winnipeg. This was my third visit to Winnipeg, but the first time for my family. Most of our time was spent in the city's river front area, the Forks. For me the most exciting time was visiting the children museum with my 3 year old son! They have the coolest real train in that building. My son and I literally fought over the conductors chair. In the Forks shopping area, I felt like we were traveling with the Beatles. Japanese tourists have a strong interest in my son and even begged us to be photographed with him. Something in the Japanese culture inclined them to tell us just how cute they thought he was. As strange as it was, I'm proud to say some of my genes were involved in those good looks!

All in all...I just love Winnipeg and if you can drive it under 8 or 9 hours...I'd recommend it for a short vacation. What better way to treat the wife or girlfriend to a weekend after her willingness to spend most of the week camping?