I have a serious gadget problem.  I love gadgets.  I've been having to decide what gadgets NOT to bring along vs what to bring along.  I think/hope that the electronic devices I have chosen will ultimately help record our adventure as well as aid in sharing our experiences with all of you.  I will have to cut back on clothes to save room for my "bowl of spaghetti" ie power cords, converters, chargers and batteries not to mention the gadgets themselves.  The following is what gadgets we'll be taking with us… pretty much everything except for the retractable arm out of a hat:

MACBOOK PRO -This apple is like the sports car of laptops.  We needed it to be fast and have lots of memory for video and photo editing.  The bonus is it is built like an armor truck, it has a newly released uni body construction out of aluminum.  It's really thin too.  The drawback is that it's pretty heavy.  I'm sure it will begin to feel like lugging an anchor around the globe.

Western Digital Portable Hard Drive-  This is a cool little gadget.  It has a 500G capacity and is just slightly bigger than a deck of cards.  I've set this up to back up the laptop whenever I plug it in.

Blackberry Curve-  We originally wanted an apple i phone, but Blackberry has an unlimited international data plan through AT&T.  The i phone charges by the kilobyte, which is something I don't want to keep track of.  This will allow us to send and receive emails from almost anywhere.  We also signed up for the "World Traveler" program, which basically gives us a discount on phone calls from abroad.  This could still get expensive.  We plan on using Skype on the laptop whenever possible.

SPOT-  This clever little GPS will track us wherever we are (Except for parts of Africa and SE Asia).  On the left side of our blog you will find a secure link to our location on google maps.  For our protection we have it password protected.  If we know you just email us and we'll give you the password so you can track us.  Another bonus, the SPOT comes with search and rescue anywhere in the world for emergencies.  

Canon EOS 40D, 50D, assorted lenses, mini tripod and a interval timer remote control-  Meggan and I love photography and we usually fight over the camera.  The solution to this is to bring two camera bodies.  This will actually be pretty cool because we'll have two different lenses going at a time, so we'll never have to scramble to get the shot.  The interval timer is for time lapse videos and long exposures.  The camera gear is by far the heaviest of our stuff.

Canon Elf-  For photos when we don't want to take the big cameras out with us. 

Sony HD Handycam-  We're both new to video cameras, but felt it was necessary for recording our travels.  Hopefully I will be able to edit some nice high definition footage for you all to see on Vimeo.

Solio-  With all these little things that need power, we may need some emergency power.  The Solio is a gadget about the size of a cell phone that slides into a 3 leaf clover shape.  Each "clover" is a little solar panel.  For an hour in the sun it'll charge an ipod or cell phone. 

Ectaco itravel translator-  We don't want to lug phrase books for every language we'll encounter during our travels.  This translator has pretty much every language.  It can translate text, teach lessons, even say the word so you know how to procounce it. 

ipod-  I must have music.