Echoing the original poster - tires today are fantastic, really, compared to what we ran in our youth.
My wife and I have used Gatorskin Ultra Hardshell kevlar-bead (700 x 32 on my heavily loaded bike, 700 x 28 on her unloaded bike) tires for touring (and I have used them for years commuting), probably have 8000 miles or so on them between the two of us, most of those are my miles. They are not supple tires like any of the Continental Grand Prix line, but I think they're comfortable in the 32mm width. We've had no flats during a ride, I've had a couple of goathead slow leakers in commuting that only show up when the bike sits, so these tires have always delivered me to work on time for years. The commuting has been a tougher test than our touring. My wife used Gatorskins (not hardshell) for a tour or two, maybe 800 miles total. She had a night leaker type of flat on tour, easy to deal with. Never had a pinch flat with these. Very reliable and pretty comfortable. Easy to change after they've been mounted and pressurized. I'm fairly old and my hands are not that strong and I can mount the 32mm ones w/o any tools. I think I need tire levers to get the 28mm ones on when they're new, but not after they've been pressurized and broken in, so to speak.