It's true, you never get bored boarding XD (or inline skating in my case).

If you don't already have one maybe get one of those backpacks that has a section to strap your skateboard to :) I find it kind of odd that the places you bought the skateboards from didn't have a place in the store to try them out (which would have saved your pocket money on the dud!) but it could just be that there are two skate shops that I would go to and trust, one of them has a small half pipe type ramp in the shop you can test on and the other one had (past tense as it's in the city and I haven't been there for a while due to no longer skating :< so I'm not sure if the shop is still there or moved) a very wide corridor up the back.

Your trip sounds like a lot of fun!