Saving gas - one tank trip

We took a short trip up to the Crystal Mountain area in the Cascades for Labor Day weekend. It was a last hurrah before the kids went back to school. Since we were going to be in a fairly remote area (well, not too close to any grocery stores), we packed up the car with clothes, food, kids and dog and headed out.

We had a great weekend hiking, playing in the heated pool, hot tub, playing horseshoes, badminton and disc golf. It turns out that being in a cellphone free and (mostly) Internet free zone is quite relaxing and we also got a lot of reading done. Well, mostly sleeping.

Here are some pictures from our trip. Which used less than 3/4 of a tank of gas.

Green hotels

I've always been enamored of those hotels that claim that they are green, with water saving notices all over the place and sustainable products available in the rooms. Of course, these hotels generally also claim they are built green, but these places are still far and few between. More importantly, they tend to be expensive and are usually "boutique" hotels. Which basically means they aren't kid friendly. Well, not my kid friendly.

When we checked into our hotel Friday night after finally actually getting on a flight to DC, we were told that the hotel was having issues with their air conditioning and were sending guests over to another hotel. Which meant we had to pack it back into a taxi and check into another hotel. I suspect this was a huge load of BS and they had overbooked our room, even though I had called early in the day to tell them that we would be arriving close to midnight.

Anyway, that one night in our substitute hotel was fortuitous because it did have a few features that I have yet to see in the big chain, mid-budget hotels. First of all, it had the ubiquitous water bottles, but it at least had hangers on them suggesting that you recycled the plastic behemoths after you were done consuming them. Because what's wrong with the tap water again?

The other thing they had going for them is actually two separate bins - one for waste and one for recycling. I've never seen this in a hotel before (even the boutiqueyish one we stayed at in NYC last summer) and was quite excited to be able to separate out my garbage, at least for one night.

Now back in our "real" hotel, they have no separate bins for waste which is annoying the hell out of me. They do have signs encouraging people to save their towels so that they save water, energy and detergent waste in the waterways. It's certainly a start (listen up Hilton), but they have a supremely long way to go.

I haven't gotten the impression yet that DC was all that environmentally friendly as I've seen few recycling bins in cafes (except Starbucks) and no sign of food composting. Which brings me to my next post, wherein I'll cover the food options we've had here in DC.

What about you? When you travel, have you been able to find environmentally friendly hotels? Do you try or are they out of your price range / family friendly requirements?

Going back to Cali

We are heading down to San Diego in a couple of days to visit family and generally have a great Christmas break, while at the same time enjoying warmer weather. I don't mind a blast of 70 since it's been in the teens up here in Seattle, so I am really looking forward to it.

And, while there will be "bikini - small; heels - tall", at least on my end (bonus points to those who know what the heck I'm talking about), there will be a bit of a carbon expended on our behalf in flying all four of us down there.

So, we went ahead and bought TerraPass carbon offsets. Since you can pick your own mix of investment, we went with clean energy, farm power and landfill gas investments. Now, I know this doesn't in the least bit assuage the carbon footprint of our vacation, but it's better than doing nothing.

Of course, not flying would be ideal, but this isn't Europe with high-speed rail at reasonable prices. The alternative is not visiting them at all, but we haven't seen them in 2.5 years and we are long overdue for a visit.

For those of you in the San Diego area who read this here blog, if you have any recommendations for sustainable restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and the like, I'd love your feedback. And, if any of y'all want to meet up for coffee, send me an email!

Renting a hybrid

Is nearly financially impossible. We are taking a trip over Christmas to visit family and will be renting a car to get around. I'd love to rent a hybrid car but do you know what the cost differential is? It's astronomical! We've rented a hybrid in the past (like 2002) and it was more expensive than a regular rental, but not this bad. I'm getting the feeling that rental car agencies are fleecing people who want a green car.

On one hand, you could argue that there's so much demand to rent a hybrid that they can charge such high rates. But, really if that were the case, then they'd have a whole fleet of hybrids then. Otherwise, why the giant cost increase? I think they really are taking advantage of people.

What's the price differential you ask? For a similar sized car, the standard gas vehicle (for the lowest option) is $217. For the hybrid car (for the lowest option) the cost is $707. That's almost $500 more or about 325% higher. WTF? I know we didn't pay that much more years ago, when hybrid cars were actually scarce and more expensive than they are today.

Very irksome. So, I reserved a 4-door speck that gets gas mileage in the 30s instead. Have you ever rented a hybrid when you've travelled?

Greener travel

As many of you know, I leave for NYC today. Of course, I've thought about the environmental impact of the air travel and other transportation.

We could take the bus and transfer to the new light rail to get to the airport, but considering all the trips and transfers we'll be doing, I've opted for taking a taxi. But, we're not taking one of those stinky, gas-guzzling cars - I managed to find a taxi company that uses hybrid cars. Priuses, actually.

For our flight, we are flying non-stop, which has less impact than a layover. Plus, we save time and my sanity (I hate flying). In order to mitigate the CO2 emissions, I'll be offsetting it through Terrapass. For two passengers from Seattle to Newark on non-stop round-trip flights it's 9,573 miles and that equates to 3,734 lbs of CO2. Yikes!

Through Terrapass' program, it costs $24 to offset the carbon. In return, the money supports clean energy and other projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Their offset portfolio consists of a mix of clean energy, farm power and landfill gas capture. But, if you want to decide the quantities of these projects yourself, you can build your own portfolio. I will be setting it up so that my money supports clean energy and landfill gas capture.

And, while we are in NYC, we'll be taking public transportation and, for the most part, walking everywhere. Our hotel has a program to reduce the amount of stuff, like towels and sheets, that gets changed. And, finally, we'll be hunting out restaurants that serve local and/or organic food.

Have you guys purchased travel offsets?