What I did on my Summer Vacation
By Karina | September 1, 2008
It’s Labor Day in the US, which traditionally marks the end of summer vacation and back to school. At least, it did in my day. Also in my day (do I sound positively ancient yet?) teachers would ask students to share what they did on their summer vacation during the first week of classes. So, here you go, Dear Readers, here is what I did on my summer vacation (Tiny Choices style!)
I was able to take 1 1/2 weeks off of work, and the first week was spent at a rented beach house in Nags Head NC with a group of friends. Of course, because I am a big nerd, one of the first things I spotted as we were driving around on our first day was the recycling center. So we all separated our recycling and made it a point to drop off the supplies every day or two. I also asked the person who had rented the house to suggest to the rental company that they include information on Nags Head recycling - it was a stroke of luck that we drove past the recycling center, and I bet many other vacationers would like to be able to recycle as well. If for no other reason than it reduces the amount of garbage you have to take from the house when you leave!
We also ate at a couple of resturants that were moving towards more sustainable business practices.
For example, at Fat Boyz we noticed they were using compostable plastics and cups. We still got a few styrofoam items here, but we hope they’re just using up the styrofoam on their way to 100% compostable products.
Another restaurant was Basnight’s Lone Cedar Cafe, which featured local seafood, antibiotic-free land-meat, and paperboard take-away containers instead of your standard metal or styrofoam. And! they were Delicious.
When we stopped by Kitty Hawk to visit the birthplace of aviation we were happy to see that the National Parks service had a great little recycling center in their parking lot, complete with this totally awesome sign:
Darn right it is!
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The real coup of the vacation was scoring a reusable straw at 7-11, of all places. How super! We stopped in for slurpees and found so much more. Not only were these awesome reusable straws available, but on a return visit the manager told us that we could refill anything we wanted at the slurpee, coffee, or soda fountains. We could bring in a crystal vase if we wanted to. Also a really excellend policy, and total shout-out to 7-11, for not only helping me to address my problem with straws, but being so flexible about drink refills.
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After our truly excellent time in Nags Head, we drove back up the coast to Assateague Island for a few days of camping. There we continued our green vacation by minimizing trash, recycling everything, eating lots of local fruits and veggies, and only buying ice cream in cones, not cups.
How about y’all? How did you greenify your summer vacation?
Related posts:
- Tiny Choices Weekly Round Up
- Beverage Container Recycling
- Summer Dreaming
- Sometimes I’m a little slow.
- Third Weekly Check-In: April Tiny Challenge!
- Second Weekly Check-In: April Tiny Challenge!
- The Pleasures of Local Ice Cream
That’s a pretty sweet (ice cream) vacation! I want to go find the nearest 7-11 ASAP since I’m starting to miss straws in a serious way, especially when I had to turn down one at the last diner I visited.
I can tell you about the NEXT vacation I’m planning to take– in January I hope to travel by a green (well, self-proclaimed green, which warrants further investigation) bus line to DC to visit friends. And the great thing about visiting a tiny city is you can make tiny choices like walking everywhere, taking public transportation, etc!
what is this self-proclaimed green busline of which you speak? it sounds great!
The Peter Pan Bus! You may remember I took it to Albany before– at least, I’m pretty sure they’re committed to going green.
This is GREAT news about Nags Head. My family used to rent a beach house there for a week every summer, and we had the best times… provided we didn’t get kicked out by hurricanes. Loved the sand dunes and hang gliders (although never had the nerve to try it myself) and boogie boarding. Going back now after living in Northern California for nearly 20 years, I’m just happy to swim in water that doesn’t require a wet suit!
Anyway, that’s all. Always nice to hear about places other than crunchy California or sophisticated NY City that are also going green.
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