Have stuff, will travel

I am resolving conflicts about traveling and tech for my upcoming vacation. In the best of all possible worlds, I would have everything that I normally have available to me when I wanted it, but since that would mean either hiring a van to attach to the back of the plane or staying home, sacrifices must be made.

1. Must bring the iPad; this is a no-brainer. The iPad makes the plane trip zip by, for one thing. You can watch movies or play Civ or read books and magazines and listen to music. What else do you need? Once you arrive, you’ve got wifi for checking mail and plotting activities.
2. No phone. I thought about this long and hard, but since I won’t be getting a data plan, why bother? And I’m not getting a data plan because, first, I can use the iPad to check mail once a day, which is more than enough on vacation, and second, I can read a map, and I’m happy to get lost in Paris, so GPS will not be essential.
3. No DSLR because I’m tired of lugging around a big heavy camera (and often a second lens) on my vacations day in and day out. I’m using a little cheap point-and-shoot: 16 megapixel and 5X optical zoom makes little and cheap something fairly acceptable, I’d say.
4. Noise cancelling headphones. Don’t ride an airplane without them!
5. Obviously, no computer.
6. No Kindle, because there’s a Kindle app on the iPad. A fine collection of titles is already waiting for me, all of the vacation persuasion.
7. No iPods. The iPad will do the job, albeit with less choice. So I can live without some of the more obscure tunes for two weeks. It will be a sacrifice, but I think I can handle it.

This means, as far as I can see, traveling absolutely bare-bones. I’ve got only the iPad and a cheap carry-around camera. And some maps. And a hat to keep the sun off my bald head. I’ll probably also bring some pants and other items of a clothing nature.

And there you are.