Traveling Propellerhead

Tomorrow, we're leaving for what seems like a yearly trip to San Antonio. For many years, we went there because the kids were in the Sea World age. You know, too old to just go anywhere, but not old enough to do a lot, and certainly not old enough to have the attention span to go to adult types of attractions! Although, at 7 and 10, they are old enough to go somewhere else, we are headed back to good ol San Antonio because my wife has a math teaching conference there this year. Which is a good opportunity for me to discuss what a Frugal Propellerhead carries on a trip that involves many hours of car riding.

We'll start with the fact that the car involved will the the Civic Hybrid, so space will be at a premium. At least we're only going to be gone for 3 days so their won't be a ton of luggage. 

I'll start with my main camera; the D300, which I'll mount with the 18-200mm (27-300mm eq.) and the 50mm/f1.4 for low light situations. One of my main destinations will be the famous San Antonio Zoo as well as the neighboring Japanese Garden at Brackenridge Park. And of course, there will be the obligatory trip to Sea World as well, so these situations are ideal for that camera with a superzoom lens.

You can see in this comparison why, the Panasonic GF-1 will probably also make the trip as the evening "walk-around" camera as we stroll the Paseo del Rio.

 

....And as if there was a question; the X301 will go on it's very first family trip taking the place of the X300 which was the veteran of many over it's years. This in the company of the little Targus card reader and my 6G iPod will allow me to dump, review, edit and post pictures while we are gone. The iPod of course will function as my in-car music jukebox as well. 

Both of our ThinkPad Tablets will probably make the trip, serving first as "in-car" entertainment for the 5 hour drive, then for my wife to take notes on during the conference.

My son will probably want to take his Sony Bloggie along with his 3DS and my daughter will probably take her Nintendo DSi. These are what we call, parent sanity devices. 

You might be thinking: that's a crazy amount of electronics for a 3 day trip, but hey, look at it this way..... how much is quiet and serenity worth? Remember..... 10 hours in a small car and 3 days in a hotel room!