@Dingo: i’ll have you know that i lobbied for a “leave behind” of the purse (which contained an assortment of thomas the tank engine trains and my little ponies), since i knew it would only be an additional burden later.
sure enough, within a quarter hour i was carrying girlfriend on my shoulders with a hello kitty bag in one hand and a canon 20d in the other.
when i asked my lovely wife to carry it, she said that she didn’t want to because people might think it was HER purse, and that was unacceptable.
mind you i already had a camera bag with a few accessories (and of course the water for me, wifey, daughter, and dog) slung over one shoulder as part of my payload.