I bet the kids loved it. Why wouldn't they? What a great opportunity!

On a personal note, it was also a tremendous base for traveling: In addition to seeing many places around the province, we went to Montreal, Quebec City, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Newfoundland. And a great experience for the kids, attending a public middle school in a foreign country. Living there for a year rather than just a few days/weeks of vacation, I definitely learned Canada is far more different from the U.S. than most of us realize.

Paula, welcome to the mobile world! I'm sure an iPhone 4 will work fine to get you used to mobile tech. I'm not familiar with iPhones, but I suspect it's just fine.

Laura, glad to hear you're treating yourself better. My weekends are hands-off zones for client work. Only once this year did I work a weekend, and it was because a favorite client needed the work right away.

Jake, it worked — I never knew you were in Canada for a year! Was that recently? You and I both know it shouldn't matter where the typing and creating occur, but some of the more traditional clients may think it's a road block. Weird.

When we moved to Canada for a year, I actually only told my core clients about it. Thanks to the magic of VOIP, I was able to keep my AZ phone number; thus, even new business wasn't aware I was 3100 miles away unless the topic came up. ("Can you come to our office next Monday?" "Uhhh, not really.")

About 6 weeks before my most recent trip, I let everyone know that I was going to be unreachable for 10 days, and offered to get urgent items wrapped up before I left. You're right, of course, that you need to keep quality the priority 🙂

For quite a few years when I began freelancing, all of my vacations were working vacations. That meant I took a laptop (later on, a tablet) and did client work from the hotel room for a good part of the day.

Of course, some clients didn't realize that. I could imagine a few former clients making a comment like this.

A few years ago, I realized I needed to treat myself better. Now I make it a point to avoid scheduling work during my vacations so that I truly get a break. (Many clients are willing to negotiate a deadline, if you just ask.)

Recently, I realized I need to treat at least one weekend day the same way–avoid scheduling work and be unavailable to clients.

We all need our breaks, and setting boundaries helps us to get them.

Of course, if you have an extra long trip (several weeks or more), you still might find yourself working remotely.

But – brace yourselves – I now have a "mobile device." My sister upgraded her iPhone and I inherited her iPhone4. Sure, it's a but dated, but it's light years ahead of the old camera-less flip phone people mocked me for having. But I have yet to figure out how to check email on it. I did it once, but haven't been able to since. (I did figure out how to tweet from it!)

I have learning curve, and apps to find.