New pack, new hat, new shades...

As well as a wonderful adventure, our last trip was a bit of a test run for some new equipment we'd picked up over the past few months.

First of all, we were trying our new Go-Lite 50L backpacks. These are five liters smaller than our old Eureka 3900s, and they weigh a full pound less. That's a cool two and a half pounds, total. They are quite comfortable, and we like a lot of things about them. Now it's time to customize them to our particular biases. We've already added a bit of shock cord on the back of each pack to hold our Crocs, and we're still learning where the best place is for each piece of equipment. These have fewer outside pockets than our old packs, so we're having to re-think some of our packing philosophy. But so far, so good.

And you may also see that P is wearing a new hat in these latest photos. He picked up the most recent version at the Mataderos Flea Market in Buenos Aires...and he loves it. It looks like it's make of leather, but it is actually very lightweight felt, and coated with oil so that it is waterproof. And it is crush-proof, too. Do what you will, it always pops back into shape. Best of all, we got it when we were visiting Argentina for our daughter's wedding...so it has additional sentimental value. A perfect hat.

If you look closely at the photos, you might also notice that his shades have grown. With his advancing age, he got fitted for some prescription graduated lens eyeglasses a few months ago...and they cost a pretty penny. He was offered the option of buying a second pair of sunglasses with the same prescription (and even higher price), but chose to save the money. Instead, he went to WalMart and bought a pair of over-sized polarized sunglasses that fit right over his existing glasses. And they cover a large part of his face from all angles.

He loves them.