Travel Books, Cameras and Passports (oh my!)

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Whether I like it or not, there are plenty of details that have to be attended to before I actually get going. Like renewing my passport for starters. The gorgeous drugstore portrait has been taken, the passport authorities have cashed my check and so now all that remains is to wait anxiously for the postal worker every day like a golden retriever. If only I didn't have so many other details to worry about!

Some details are fun, like shopping for electronic gadgets. I invested in an Olympus Pen e-pl1 camera this week and have had a blast figuring it out and taking artistic snapshots of table lamps and cupcakes. This camera was a great solution to a dilemma I've been mulling over for a while - do I take a point and shoot camera so I can easily carry it in my pocket or do I lug around a "giant" SLR camera to ensure I get the best shots of all the amazing locations I'll be visiting? The Pen is super lightweight and fairly compact - not compact enough to fit in a pocket but much more manageable in any kind of bag I would carry - but its got interchangeable lenses and very high quality photo capture. Best of both worlds in my opinion.

I also did some research on ipad vs. nook vs. kindle. I don't really want to haul my laptop (are you beginning to see a trend about not wanting to carry around a bunch of crap?) but I need a way to blog and upload pictures, plus I think it would be great to have an e-book reader for planes, trains and automobiles. Haven't made up my mind on this one yet but I'm leaning towards nook (which has wi-fi and 3G access and on which you can access non-flash websites) plus a new memory card for the camera I discovered that supposedly can once programmed transmit photos from your camera directly to flickr without the aid of a computer.

Finally, my first official travel book has been purchased - the south islands of New Zealand. I really want to access travel books electronically (another great reason for an e-reader) but I just couldn't wait until that conundrum was figured out. Its so exciting to start thinking about the specifics of the trip but its also amazing how overwhelming those books can be with so many pages of information. Makes me want to create a new kind of travel book that gets to the heart of the most amazing experiences a place has to offer without trying to cover absolutely everything about a place. A "what would Amber do" kind of book if you will.

I think that's about all the details I can handle for one week. I'm going to go take some more pictures!

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