Our First College Tour

Where did all the time go? Clock: stop now, please. :) This September, my son is entering his sophomore year in High School, so he has a couple of years to ponder and prepare for college. The two of us had a quiet afternoon together so we decided to do our first college tour.


For our first official tour, we went to the “Harvard of the West” - the University of Washington. ;)

Since this was our first you will have to realize that we had no idea that you have to sign up on line ahead of time. We showed up in the Husky

Building with a smile on our faces and no reservations. Fortunately, those Sweet Dawgs got us in.

As we zipped around campus with our spunky student guide we were given endless facts about how big classes are made small and how the big campus has opportunities for relational connection everywhere. Could that be possible? It all was encouraging as I thought of my child attending a campus of 30k students. Yikes!

The architecture on campus especially caught my eye. The UW campus was moved to its current location in approximately 1900 from downtown Seattle. Many of the older buildings have such academic personality. The old Suzallo library was especially beautiful. However, I think that a tour during the academic year would be even more useful because the University would have been in full session. Note to self: do college tours during the school year. It would be great to see the campus fully alive rather than in the sleepy months of summer.

Even though I don’t like the idea of my son leaving for college, I have to say that the campus tour was really exciting. Personally, I love school and can only fathom the many possibilities ahead.

Disneyland Chaperone Adventure!

It is not every day that you are invited to go on a last-minute trip to Disneyland. It’s not every day that you are given time to walk the campus of UCLA. It is not every day that you are keeping up with really cool High Schoolers on a trip with 98 people.

I got an email last week and it was from my son's High School band director. He said that he needed a female chaperone because a chaperone couldn't go. 

Being a huge fan of the band I was really intrigued, and my oldest son was already going on the trip in the percussion section. I was so excited and quickly responded that I could go!

Although I lived in L.A. for two great years I never took time to walk the campus of UCLA. There was just so much to do and the beach was always beckoning (okay - it still is beckoning). UCLA was the first stop of our trip. Being tucked away in the elegant community of Westwood gives the campus such charm. It seemed to be the perfect SoCal academic dream spot: Palm Trees, sidewalks lined with flowers, and sun-soaked students with book in hand. 

Unfortunately, being in a large group we weren’t able to go to In-and-Out Burgers, but fortunately Disneyland was near our hotel. Having the band attend a Disney Soundtrack Instrumental Workshop was a unique experience. The kids sight-read music, they were recorded, and it was played back in the music soundtrack. We watched a Lion King segment listening to the musicians from our band. 

Having them perform at the Fantasyland Theatre at Disney was a treat. The kids played really well and the acoustics were terrific. This proud mom took it all in. :)

Chaperoning and enjoying the Happiest Place on Earth, I made some new friends, went on fun rides (faves: Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones), hung out with Captain Jack Sparrow, got a hug from Tigger, saw great shows, logged 40 miles of walking and 95,000 steps on my fitbit (4 days), ate some great food and most of all enjoyed celebrating those awesome High Schoolers.

I am so thankful for this opportunity to see my local band in action at Disney (I wish that I could include pictures of their performance). 

I must say (no offense to parents of non-musicians) that it seems that the sweetest and coolest kids are in the band. :) Although I was never in the High School band, I married a band guy who played the trumpet at Disney in High School. It's a small world after all. I was glad to embrace my husband's happy memories and see my son's fun, friends, and music memories be made LIVE before me. I am so grateful that I responded to that email and was given the opportunity to go. It's not every day that your kid plays at #Disneyland.

Costco Wake-Up Call!

So, this blog can make your life happier, healthier, and longer! Last week, I was standing in the check-out line at Costco, lost in thought, thinking about kid pick-up at the Elementary School. I didn’t want to be late and it seems that I am always running out of time at this point of my day. My food was being scanned by the check-out clerk, and I was clarifying with the cart-loading-guy, “no boxes.” That’s when the guy in line behind me spoke up. 

He said, “You know, you have so many high quality organic foods here: kale, chicken, milk, apples, and so on.” Then he went on to say, “It just doesn’t make sense.” I was hooked. What was he going to say next?

He said, “I normally wouldn’t say this but with all of the healthy foods in the cart I am concerned about those,” and he pointed to the Kirkland All Beef Hot Dogs! At that point, he confessed to being a Fourth Year Medical Student and was very concerned about trans fats because, with rare exception, they are not naturally occurring so the body does not have a way to process them. They are created in a factory by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils (hydrogenated oil) causing them to increase in density.

I had never had trans fats explained to me. This was really useful information for someone who’s fairly health-conscious. I had always focused on the “100% Beef” on the label, not the 1 gram of trans fat per dog. After checking out mercola.com (“World’s #1 Natural Health Website”) and heart.org (American Heart Association) I learned that trans fat consumption is a key player in heart disease and clogged arteries, and is connected to dementia, Alzheimer’s, strokes, and type 2 diabetes.

Now, I am doing my best to help my family stay away from trans fats. Saturated fats are not the really bad fats any more. Since saturated fat is naturally occurring our bodies can process it. Trans fats are not that way – yikes! They are very, very bad – Factory Bad.

As a result of that day at Costco, I am hoping to steer clear of oils (other than coconut oil) and foods with trans fats. (One piece of good news: the FDA has banned partially hydrogenated oils from foods starting in 2018.) 

Later that day, I headed to Whole Foods (hoping it wouldn’t be “whole paycheck”) where I found the most perfect and healthy hot dogs for our family. They were only twice as much as the Costco per-dog-price, which I thought was actually pretty good.

Unprocessed meats don’t have factory produced trans fat so that is another great choice - so maybe go see the butcher. I want to make the world a better place so I just thought I had to share this with the begwen community as there are so many of us foodies who are trying our best, but still missing the mark.

Looking ahead: I hope that we all have many days of joy and health ahead of us thanks to the med student in the Costco line. Let's share this with our friends and families and get this news out there - just like that med student did for me. :)

(Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or nutritionist. Just a mom with a lot of mouths to feed. J) 

Peaceful Manatee

Life lived just beneath the surface of the water can be a dangerous life, even for a gentle sea cow just happily munching on sea grass. Sadly, recreational boats recklessly colliding with manatees in posted “no wake zones” account for 1/3 of the deaths of manatees today. The problem is so pronounced that scientists often track manatees in the wild by the shape of the deep propeller wounds on their backs. Mother manatees instinctively push their young below as boats approach, and protectively bear the wounds inflicted by leisure marine sports.  In spite of their obstacles, however, this endangered species endures as a unique and special creature often seen grazing plants under the blue Gulf of Mexico sea.

I went to the Manatee Visitor Center on a recent trip to Florida. It was interesting to learn about manatees. Manatees like to eat all day much like cows. They are peaceful vegetarian grazers who love the warm waters of Florida. They can’t live in waters less than 68 degrees so they used to migrate to the hot springs during the winter. Now, they don’t travel so far, they winter at the power plant near Tampa. The plant heats the waters in the process creating electricity. This keeps the manatees toasty warm in the winter, but creates a new marriage of convenience between “big coal” interests and an endangered species.

When I was there, the manatees were lying outside of the power plant water exhaust flumes warming up in the hot waters. I just wish I could have been closer to get a better picture for this blog. Environmentalists do appreciate the fact that the manatees are safe from boats and direct tourist interference when next to the power plant.  This is because when they go to the native hot springs, tour companies that charge travellers to ‘swim with the manatees’ are waiting with crowds of the curious.  Some feel that outlawing these businesses that sell interaction with an endangered species might be a better approach to their conservation, allowing them to winter in the more natural setting of the hot springs.  Until then, they rest peacefully next to the massive Tampa power plant.  Like many places around the planet, Florida struggles to protect wildlife while also promoting tourism and a healthy economy.

Living beneath the surface in shallow waters harvesting sea grass is their way of life. They weigh in at about 1,000lbs. But beware, when Florida tourists try to interact with them out in the Gulf of Mexico it can be a crime, (with fines of as much as $15,000!) so please give them and all other endangered wildlife respectful space if you visit Florida.  Millions of tourists come to Florida to enjoy the beaches and wildlife every year, and the crowds can be stressful for the native species, but this is also true everywhere that we may sojourn in the world. Let’s leave nature alone and view from a distance!

It was nice to learn more about these special animals. We don’t have them in the Northwest so it was fun to see the manatees’ winter home by the steam plant.