Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/299622
does without smartphone for same period. Dad agrees to hold o on checking his work email. Or how about: no Internet one day a week. All devices go into a suitcase for an afternoon. e family goes for a hike with no cameras, phones or video equipment. Agree to do one thing every day that you will com- mit to memory, to create shared stories that you tell back to one another in conversation, sitting around the campfire – metaphorical or otherwise. There is also the "surrender control" option, which we pursued when visiting Aus- tralia a few years ago – we let the kids decide what we were going to do on any given day, as long as it was new, active, outdoors and some- thing we could all do together: swimming, hik- ing, penguin watching. You're likely to be on safely unwired ground if the activities involve two things: physical movement and fresh air. A key factor in the unplugged vacation is that parents need to set the example, since slouching on the couch watching golf on TV with a brew in one hand and your smartphone in the other is just as powerful a message at the lake as it is at home. If we tell our kids to unplug, we must do the same. So remind your- self: as important as you no doubt are at work, you are more important to the people you're on holiday with. If we're able to unravel, even for a day, the wires, circuits, signals and transmissions that surround us, our relationships to the world and one another migh t actually improve. So I give the unplugged vacation a thumbs-up – the original "digital" communication. GP p08-09TravelSmarts.indd 9 14-04-10 2:18 PM