Daniel - welcome aboard.
In your price budget I'd say get a DOB too. Think of a Dob as a Newtonian in a base that is very stable and easy to move. It's a extension of the old Chinese military mortar really (John Dobson's words exactly). Picture it as a see-saw design where the scope can also readily pivot on its horizontal axis a full 360 degrees.
The only things DOBs don't do is track well - unless you option up and get Argo Narvis or an equivalent drive system. So at high power your planets will move abit - so you must continually push the scope to keep things centred.
I use 80 * 20 binoculars (Triplet lens from Andrews Communications). Visually they are great but heavy - you really need to make a special (parallelogram) mount for them - which you can for around $50 in materials.
Great eyepieces and a good, very smooth focuser is a premium asset for a DOB (or any other scope). My most used eyepiece is a Vixen LVW (wide angle) 22mm == low magnification and wide field of view, followed by a Meade 8mm <-> 24mm zoom lens.
Welcome aboard!
PS
Download the freeware Cartes Du Ciel - 15 MB from here and learn the night sky better!
http://www.ap-i.net/skychart/cdc276/cdcin276.zip