Gotta love the iPad, I loathe apple stuff and their marketting philosophy, buy the iPad/phone is a fantastic gadget.
There is a limited use USB adapter, it's for uploading images from pretty well any camera, I seem to remember seeing that you can also use a USB keyboard from that adapter.
The thing I hate about both devices is the compartmentailsed storage. Most files are stored within apps and transferring to & from PC can be a pain.
You'd better not mention the weather we you get back....