Now I don’t refer to myself as a hippie, though I think others might. Oh no,no,no! I am clean, use deodorant, shave my legs and enjoy clean hair on a daily basis. I do, however, really love this earth I live on and want to do all I can to protect and preserve if for my little guys. So, when planing our trip, we tried our best to tread lightly as we drove across 3 states to get from Arizona to Colorado.
We are extremely pleased with our efforts.
1. We rented a Ford Focus instead of driving our own car. Our veggie car probably wouldn’t have made it that far, plus we would have had to bring our own oil. Our Subaru only gets 25 miles per gallon on a very good day so it made sense to rent a car with high mpg. We averaged 40 mpg on this trip with the Focus. The amount of money we saved on gas, nearly paid for the car rental. It also saved our cars the wear & tear of 2000 miles.
2. We stayed at a “green” hotel. The Boulder Outlook was perfect for us and our eco-efforts. This hotel features a Zero-Waste system with available compost bags for food waste, recycle paper bins and co-mingle containers for glass and plastic. They also use recycled paper products (toilet paper, cups, tissue, towels), biodegradable plastic forks and spoons and offer the option to not have linens and towels washed on a daily basis. Did I mention the pool? It’s chlorine free!
3. Since Boulder, CO is a bike & walking friendly community, it was easy to walk instead of drive. We did so whenever we could. We enjoyed the nice 80 degree weather and got some great exercise!
Now, if you would like to win one of my pillowcase totes, please head on over to GreenMamma.org. The very wonderful Jessica has featured me as a Green Friend. Her website is loaded with extremely useful advise on green living, especially if you have little ones in your life. I learned so much through her website from baby safe products and gardening to attachment parenting and pet care and there is SO much more. Go check her website out and don’t forget to leave a comment on her Green Friend of the Week post to get a chance to win!
Great tips and thanks for the link to GreenMamma. I had never seen it, but it looks like a fun blog.
Colorado is wonderful! I was in Denver recently and very pleased with how eco-friendly it was. It was a big difference from the general attitudes where I live.
Sounds like a great trip. I felt the same way after visiting Sarasota earlier this year. Also, I’m psyched to hear that your family made it a “green” trip. Not only are you helping save our environment but you are teaching your children to care for our earth too.
That is so cool, Regina. I’m freaking out a bit over the state of our world and economy, so I’m off to check out that website right now. I just passed a gas station where the cheap regular gas was $4.59. I wish there were more people in the world like you and your family. Glad you had a wonderful trip.
I wish I’d have known you were here! I’m outside of Denver and I would have said Hi, and then asked you to teach me how to sew 🙁
I wanna make some things for my kids so I can just make their clothes but, alas, I can’t sew.
Great interview! We’d love you to write something for Mixtape Zine about any of those topics mentioned in your interview. I would especially be interested in hearing more about fueling your car with oil, breastfeeding and it’s benefits on the environment.
Nichola
Thanks for sharing all the eco-friendly bits of your trip! We have relatives in Colorado and if ever we get to visit them again, that hotel sounds great.
Also–I wanted to say thank you for my embroidered button! It was through your blog that I was able to do the sign-up this time around. I watched you do it last time and was bummed that I missed out, so it was fun to get one from you. 🙂