Vacations Blog

It’s an evironmentalist-eat-dog world where the treehuggers’ latest target is not the hummer or Texas oil men, but poor defenseless pets. That’s right – now they’re saying that you should eat your pets rather than take them on vacation.

Dog's day out

A book by Robert & Brenda Vale, called ‘Time to Eat the Dog?: The Real Guide to Sustainable Living,’ suggests that dogs and cats have very big eco-paw prints. The book says that the amount of food a dog eats in one year takes up around 1.1 hectares of land.

Measure that against a 6,213 mile (10,000 km) road trip in a 4.6 liter Land Cruiser, which only takes up .41 hectares of land. Basically, what they’re saying is that you can take 3 roadtrips of 6,213 miles each every year, if you stick a fork in your pet.

 The Vales suggest in the book that pets should be recycled for pet food. Imagine the horror, if your precious Persian finds that you have turned it into a cannibal. It’s like something out of a Stephen King book.

And that’s not all. The authors would also have you give up your own vacations, shopping trips and other leisure activities, in addition to cooking up your pets. Apparently the authors are exempt from all this, and they describe their own lifestyle – which includes a trip to Japan and ownership of a cat.

The Vales are eccentric enough to suggest that you shouldn’t go through with a divorce until you find someone else, so that you don’t need separate homes. But the authors apparently have no problems buying a new house.

Hopefully, there won’t be people screwy enough to listen to this pair of nutjobs and actually give up their pets, vacations, or vacations with your pets. These are not luxuries - once you get a pet, you’ll realize that they’re just as necessary as taking care of your grandma.

Photo by br1 ~ br1dotcom

Until a few years back, a vacation meant piling the kids into the back and hitting the road. But times change, and now you have a whole new bunch of requirements to fulfill before you can even think about the beach, a cold beer and some peace and quiet.

Beach Vacation

If you don’t want your neighbors and colleagues to look down on you, follow this list of ’friendly’ things that your vacation has to be.

1. Environment-friendly:- It’s bad enough that your vacation destroys your entire year’s savings. Don’t let your vacation be blamed for the destruction of the earth. Find a destination which cares about their surroundings, get a green hotel, try to avoid trips by air and don’t do stuff which will be harmful to the environment – like wasting water, and leaving trash and beer cans in the outdoors or on the road. Read More »

Griffith Park is to Los Angeles what Central Park is to New York City.  There’s a zoo, a miniature train, acres of green grass, a carousel, and a big fancy fountain, among other things.  And every year for over ten years now, there are holiday lights.  A million of them.

It’s a relatively new tradition in the city of angels.  The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power creates a Festival of Lights along a mile stretch of Crystal Springs Drive, reached by the southbound side of Interstate 5 (or “the 5″ as locals call it) or by turning north from Los Feliz Ave onto Crystal Springs.  Signs along the way declare how long the wait time would be if you were stopped there.  Luckily for us, we went at 5:30PM, shortly after the 5PM start time, so we didn’t have to wait at all.  It may be better after Christmas, because the festival runs through Dec. 30.

For the green-conscious, be aware that the DWP switched to LED lights to save energy.  Certain interests underwrite the costs of special displays.  There’s a toy collection drive at the entrance where you can donate a new unwrapped toy for needy children.

Like I said, go early, or prepare to make a night of it.  I’ve heard of people being stuck in line for 2 hours.  You can also park at the zoo and take a bus along the route, or walk.  If you want to take pictures, make sure your car windows are rolled down, and you stay still enough that the lights don’t make trippy patterns in your shot.

It was worth the 40 minute Friday evening drive.  My 3 year old, upon going through the entrace tunnel of lights, declared, “This is AWESOME.”  And he knows his holiday lights.

The 2008 Lodging Survey from the American Hotel & Lodging Association showed up that 20% of the more than 10,000 hotels surveyed have implemented LEED standards in the past year, and 21% are planning to do so in the next 12 months. New York has its fair share of these green hotels and eco-friendly lodging properties, and listed below are best of these digs, so you can enjoy guilt-free vacations in the ‘Green Apple’.

The City’s official tourism website NYCVisit.com has an excellent Go Green page, where you’ll find listings of green lodgings, organic restaurants, outdoors activities and other stuff which falls under sustainable tourism. The lodging suggestions include the Benjamin & Muse Hotels, Greenpoint Lodge, Sugar Hill Harlem Inn, West Eleventh Townhouse and the East Village Bed and Coffee.

Goes without saying that they don’t really update this list regularly, so there are a few more options worth considering. For starters, there’s the 70 Park Avenue, which, as a Kimpton Hotel, has a host of green practices and product use in place, including the free organic coffee served in the lobby. Then there’s the Moderne, which underwent a comprehensive green conversion last year, and now features things like recycled biodegradable paper products and, 100% bamboo unbleached linen.

Not to say that others, like the New York Marriott Downtown, are not eco-friendly (they are – to a certain degree), but if we’re talking about a top-to-bottom green experience, then this list is what you need to start with. One more green lodging option very much worth mentioning is 1 Hotel & Residences - It won’t be opening until 2010, but when it does open, it will rival the Orchard Garden in San Francisco as the nation’s premier uber-green hotel.

If you move Upstate and into the Adirondacks, the focus is more on weekend getaways at lodges and inns, and a prospective list of green lodging options in Upstate New York should include the DoubleTree Hotel Syracuse and the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort in Lake Placid with its sprawling green roof and many green programs.

Another good green getaway option in the Adirondacks is the Stoney Lonesome B&B, about 10 minutes from Lake George, which utilizes solar energy to power its needs. Then there’s the Glen Lodge & Market, which uses 100% wind power, composts waste and uses vehicles running on biofuels.

Not to say that this is a comprehensive list, but I guess its enough to get you started. I’m writing this as New Orleans awaits Hurricane Gustav, fearful of a Katrina redux. Maybe you can’t go to the Big Easy to help rescue stranded people, but you can start saving the earth - one green vacation at a time.

Photo copyrights – Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort

From guest blogger Marsha Takeda-Morrison of Sweatpantsmom

Here is my Thursday Thirteen list, a suggestion of things to do with tweens in L.A. I thought up most of it at the mall last week, as I was waiting outside a store for my two tween girls to emerge with their purchases. It’s amazing what you can get accomplished in seven hours.

1. Hot Topic - This could really cover items 1 – 13 on this list, since as far as my two girls are concerned there isn’t any need to venture anywhere else. Give them a backpack full of snacks and a fully-charged cell phone and they could probably stay in there for weeks spending my hard earned cash on Juno t-shirts and black glitter nail polish.

2. Art Museums – We’ve been taking our kids to art museums since they were babies, but it’s gotten particularly entertaining lately to hear their expert commentary. It’s always amusing to hear things like, “OMG – naked!” when standing before a majestic sculpture by Rodin, or “I TOTALLY want that for my new bunk bed comforter” while contemplating a canvas by Jackson Pollack.

3. Soup Kitchen –I’ve never actually visited a soup kitchen with my tweens, but it’s something all the PC parenting guides say you should do in order to teach your kids to be grateful for what they have. In all honesty, I’m not sure how my two girls would fare – I’d really be embarrassed if they sat down at a table, waited for a menu and then asked the homeless guy sitting next to them if he recommends the buffalo wings or the grilled cheese.

4. The movies – Any movie will do. Just sitting in a nice cool theater chowing down on hot buttered popcorn and Junior Mints is enough to keep them happy. The 9 – 12 year old set aren’t very discerning moviegoers; In fact, it may be the only time you’ll hear “Garfield: The Movie” and “awesome” in the same sentence.

5. Target – Maybe this is only applicable to tween girls, but mine love the aisles filled with cheap loot, cds and video games. Also, lots of eco t-shirts that say things like ‘Tree Hugger’ which is apparently all the rage now. You might just get them to listen to your Hendrix albums after all.

6. Yogurt shop – Yogurt is the new black. Menchies is our favorite, but Pinkberry or any other one will do. But try and take them to Baskin-Robbins and be prepared for much eye-rolling as they’re forced to mingle with the four-year-olds enjoying a scoop of Shrek Swirl with their grandpas.

7. Starbucks – This is the new version of sneaking a sip of your mom’s wine when you were seven. Tweens like the idea of sipping a grown-up coffee drink (I order decaf for mine) and it’s great for coffee addicts like me who can get their daily fix guilt-free. You know, it’s for the children.

8. Bowling Alley – They may last for one game of bowling, but what they really want to do is head to the arcade for some DDR (Dance Dance Revolution for you total squares.) Bring a bat or rolled-up newspaper if you have girls, though – the last time I was there a small crowd of teen boys gathered to watch my daughters and their friends bouncing around to the music until I shooed them away.

9. California Pizza Kitchen –According to the highly scientific poll I conducted with my girls and their friends while driving back from the mall in my van last week, this is the sanctioned eatery to dine with your parents. Added bonus – it’s the only place they don’t feel embarrassed about ordering from the kids menu since “the macaroni and cheese, like, rules.”

10. The Library – Believe it or not, tweens are rediscovering the library, mainly for the treasure trove of manga books they have there. At $9.99 each, it gets expensive to keep buying them at Barnes & Noble. However, do not even suggest they try out any of the library-sponsored teen events such as cupcake making or scrapbooking – you may as well tell them to invite their crowd over for a rousing game of rummy.

11. The beach – The beach is ideal for tweens and their unpredictable moods. They can indulge both their sloth-ly instincts by laying on their towels all day, or burn off energy by hitting the waves for some boogie-boarding. Also, the close proximity of a snack bar serving pizza and every variety of greasy, deep fried food will make them think they’ve died and gone to heaven

12. The park – My girls are just starting to notice boys, and members of the opposite sex are in abundance here, especially during soccer season. Bring along that bat that you took to the bowling alley

13. At home, with their parents – They’re not going to want to be seen with their dad and me for long, so we’re savoring all these days just hanging out together. So what if they roll their eyes when I suggest the fifth game of CandyLand?

To those of you visiting us from Wordless Wednesday, my photobucket account has gone awry. As a result you are seeing a photo of killer whale courtesy of the U.S. government in it’s natural surroundings by Dr. Robert Pittman, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Protected Resources Division and not a photo by me of a killer whale at Marine World. All I can say is you gotta love public domain. Personally, I prefer this photo. Hope you do too.

All the best, PatriciaJ.

In honor of the recent Earth Day publicity, I thought I’d look into what Ohio has to offer in the way of eco-friendliness. There was so much press about events planned in other cities across the country, but I heard nothing about Cleveland. So to the Internet I went!

The biggest change taking place right now is that of Cleveland’s landscape, beginning with the design and construction of EcoVillage, an initiative set forth by Cleveland that will focus in urban regeneration with eco- and social-sustainability as the focus. From the EcoCity website, here are the specific goals:

EcoVillage is:

• An innovative partnership involving nonprofit organizations, the city, the regional transit authority, private developers, and neighborhood residents.

• A national demonstration project that will showcase green building and transit-oriented development.

• An opportunity to realize the promise of urban life in the most ecological way possible.

Currently, Green Cottages are available for purchase, with other housing initiatives in the works as the project progresses. These are 2 and 3-bedroom homes designed for families in the moderate income level. I’m not sure about the other home designs as far as size, but they will follow the same eco-friendly basics as the Green Cottages.

Another interesting city-wide undertaking is the Cleveland Design Competition. The 2008 competition is not yet underway, but the award winners for 2007 are listed on the Design Competition site. The competition is an open, anonymous, single-stage ideas competition being administered by a local committee that seeks to find new ideas for land that is currently languishing in Cleveland. Last year’s competition involved Irishtown Bend, an area outside of the Flats with a rich history that is sadly now mostly overgrown and uninhabitable. To view the amazing 2007 winning concepts, click here.

While Cleveland may not have garnered the same amount of attention on Earth Day as San Francisco and other large cities, I’m proud to know that in our small corner of the planet, we are taking steps to ensure the longevity of the Earth and our community.