Below are a few things we did and did not do - do you have any suggestions?
1. Lodging: where else can we look?
We didn't specifically look for a eco-friendly hotel, but we were pleasantly surprised that The Sofia Hotel had a couple eco-friendly touches like good, proactive recycling and energy efficiency in addition to the standard water conservation practices.
Where else can we look for eco-friendly lodging?
2. Transportation there: is this the hardest to change?
We drove from LA to San Diego. Since our hotel was in downtown and not that far from the train station, we briefly looked into Amtrak. But we quickly realized that toting around all of our stuff (luggage, stroller, camera bag, Kaiya's goodies) would be a nightmare and that we would want to be able to drive around in San Diego since places like La Jolla and Pacific Beach are not served well. I don't know that there is much we can do differently here until we don't need as much gear for Kaiya.
3. Getting around: how do we make this fun and easy?
Working in a mix of walking and public transit is totally doable. It all starts with where you stay (preferably in a walkable neighborhood with access to public transit), as well as planning ahead (looking up where public transit goes, schedules and not over-planning activities so there is enough time).
In San Diego, we stayed in downtown which was convenient for walking to the Gaslamp and East Village neighborhoods and jumping on different types of public transit (train, buses, trolley and ferry). We did take the trolley from downtown to East Village for brunch one day - and it was nice because Kaiya loves buses and trains so it was fun for her too. And taking the Ferry to Coronado was on the docket but we just didn't have enough time.
The challenging part is working in public transit to other destinations. We looked into taking the bus to the zoo, but it didn't match up with brunch plans right before and we were worried about making the ride home at the end of a long day longer than it needed to be.
4. Food: easiest to do
This is probably the easiest thing to do if you really want - looking for restaurants that serve local and organic foods, and buying snacks from local and/or "green" grocery stores. Since this is what we like anyway, it's nice too much of a stretch. At the same time, when going to a place as tourists, we always want to try interesting places with good food regardless of their eco-friendly slant - so it can be challenging to balance this and make all the meals this way.
5. Activities: not that hard to do either
This can be relatively easy to do as well, especially with little kids since they are amused by simple things. Visiting parks, beaches, farms and zoos are easy activities with little environmental impact and get kiddies out into nature.
6. Stuff: ???
What do we do with all the disposable stuff? Water bottles? Tissue and napkins? Plastic utensils when we're on the go? Plastic bags when we buy stuff? It's convenient enough for us to use cloth napkins, bring tupperware and reusable canvas bags when when we're at home, but we just haven't gotten into the habit of bringing and washing this stuff when we're on the road. Do we just need to get in the habit and plan ahead?
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Unfortunately, there are a million and one hotel certifications and not all of them are very good. The best certification in the States right now for green buildings and practices is probably LEED, but even that has a number of different standards and levels that are hard for the average person to differentiate. So, if you don't have time to research beforehand, at least make sure that you go up to the front desk manager and the hotel manager on duty and talk to them about what they are doing and make sure that you let them know that you want them to push the envelope. This is a good way of creating "demand" and letting hotel staff know that their customers find it important.
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