Congrats on the lens, Goose, and nice work with the photos!
I just rented a Nikon 300mm f/2.8 AF-S VR for my North Carolina trip. I'm supposed to send it back on Tuesday, and it's going to be painful. I LOVE this lens! Despite the price tag, I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy one at some point. There's just no comparison in terms of sharpness and depth of field with my own 70-300mm lens. It wasn't real cheap to rent ($280 for a week), but I'm really glad I did it.
I agree on the weight factor. In my case, I took a chance and bought a cheap $40 monopod at Best Buy (only one I could get right away). It turned out to be a good idea, because I could still hand-hold the lens while shooting, but I could also rest the camera and lens over my shoulder or on the ground when I wasn't shooting and save my arms and neck. It also proved useful for steadying on some of the shots I took with the TC-17 teleconverter attached. If you don't want to carry your tripod on a trip, you might want to get a monopod just to make it easier to carry.
