Thank you all for the responses and experience with the Surface.
We will be leaving four weeks from tomorrow for a 2+ month trip and I was looking at the Surface to avoid carrying both laptop and iPad. I'm going to wait until we get back and look into this more thoroughly. We have a longer trip next spring/summer so I will decide before then which Surface to get and will have time to get to know it before we leave for the longer trip.
Thanks!
