Summer 2024, Campus Tour Edition

We spent our summer on college visits, which are much more daunting to plan on the west coast than they were on the east coast where you've got lots of great schools all within easy reach. I'm pleased to say that I've been proven right in my thinking that G would be more excited about the whole process once we actually got them onto some campuses and in my assertions that visiting campuses is actually essential to knowing if the school is a good fit for you or not. Ryan didn't do any college visits as a high schooler, so we've been operating off just my experience, but it means I've been discussing it all with two people who have no experience doing this. And my experience isn't always the best guide - I told G there was no need to study for the PSAT/SAT, but then had to walk that back when I realized I had been taking the SAT every year since at least 7th grade, which is not a thing our schools here offer, so maybe he shouldn't listen to me on that one. But for this, I just kept coming back to the fact that if I'd visited Cleveland Institute before auditioning, I never would have wasted time applying there, so yes it actually is important that we visit as many schools as we can from their list.

We've now had schools that went from "hey, it's pretty close by and seems to have good programs, so I could go there" or "hey, may as well throw it on the list" to "omg, this is awesome and I could totally see myself here!" and one that went from "I'm so excited about this school, it's the only website that really stood out to me/drew me in!" to "meh, I'm actually not sure this one is the best fit for me". Which has made the time and effort spent on these trips worth it.

Our first trip was up to Vancouver. Large campus, very much a city campus feel, and with some beautiful views out to the water. One of our tour guides here was actually from WA and a forestry major - which apparently happened accidentally when they clicked the wrong button at some point, but which they now view as a happy accident. It would definitely be interesting to have to figure out all the nuances of being an international student - which feels extra weird when the campus is just a short train ride away! Bonus is that cost for this lands mid-way between our in-state universities and the out-of-state costs we'd pay for any other schools in the US.

Along the way, we've tried to include some fun activities as well since M is getting dragged along on all these trips. For my birthday, we spent time at the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I seem to have a knack for running into coworkers at unexpected places - I saw one the cultural navigators from the hospital in line to cross the bridge! (Our clinic team shares office space with their team; they help families who may have cultural, language, or health literacy needs learn to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system. So, so helpful and we adore them. Most hospitals don't have a team like this and they really should.)

M contemplated if he wanted to lick the banana slug or not; in the end he opted not to. 

We also spent some time in downtown Vancouver, not realizing there was a Rolling Stones concert that day so traffic was a nightmare. Our hotel just happened to be near a Chinese restaurant that was highly recommended by a friend. We ended up eating there for dinner one night and returned the next morning for dim sum. We told G that if he goes to school up there, we'll be visiting regularly just for the food. Also, we had to buy M a baseball cap at the college bookstore because it was too sunny, so we already have some college merch if G goes there!

Santa Cruz was an interesting small city. Rather sprawly but with a very cute main street area. The campus doesn't feel very connected to the city - when you first enter campus it's more like you're in the middle of farmland than a campus or a city. The buildings (when you finally get to them) are an odd mix of brutalist concrete structures and wooden structures that seem to be going for a dilapidated barn style. More than half of the campus has been left undeveloped, which is really cool, especially if what you want is a lot of woods and fields. There are gorgeous views over the city and the beach/ocean. We saw a wild turkey on our way out, so that was exciting.

For our fun activities here, we went to the boardwalk and the beach. I was the designated bag holder while everyone else went on rides - rides aren't really my thing so I was just fine with this. M rode on his first-ever roller coasters. The next day we went back but headed to the beach beyond the boardwalk this time. It was nice to spend a couple hours just sitting at the beach and enjoying the ocean sounds. 

We ate dinner at a restaurant on the wharf our first night, which had a lovely view out to a lighthouse. And they had public music/dancing below the restaurant, which was a lot of fun to watch.

In between all the campus visits, I was very excited one day to discover gooseberries at Met Market. I've never seen them at a store here before that I can remember. And definitely never in this quantity. I was very tempted to buy all they had, but decided I should be nice and leave some for others, so only bought 3 boxes. After allowing some to be eaten fresh, I froze the rest and have enough for 10 apple gooseberry pies! It's been way too long since I got to have one of those, so I'm excited for the weather to cool so I can bake a pie. Our freezer looks like it's been taken over by gooseberries, even though it's just 10 quart bags of them.

G also participated in pole vault camp again, but this year it was much more conveniently located at UW campus and so they could light rail there! No more nightmare trips like last year when all the roads and the light rail were shut down for repairs! I didn't get any pictures of G at camp, but my work shuttle drives right past the UW track, so I snapped a not great picture the week before his session. So many vaulters!

The kids went off to sleepaway camp in mid-August - G's final year as a camper and M's 5th year! G is saying they plan to return next year as a counselor. We decided to mix things up a bit instead of going to the same place on Whidbey that we went the past couple years. Initially we were planning a couple days on Orcas Island but the ferry system is struggling and it was impossible to get reservations so we ended up having to cancel our Orcas hotel stay since the only way to get to the island is the ferry. Instead, we headed up to Bellingham for a couple nights and stayed in a historic hotel right downtown. We'd only ever driven through on our way up to Vancouver, so it was great to stay and explore a bit. Really great downtown area with tons of shops and eateries and way more brewpubs than expected, all very walkable. Not that I really have set expectations about numbers of brewpubs, but everywhere I looked there was another one! I'm honestly not sure how there's enough business for all of them. We found a nice cocktail bar our first night and the bartender was so great - digging in the back to find that they did have a bottle of green chartreuse and making me a bijou, which is my favorite drink but because it's gotten so difficult to get chartreuse I haven't had it in forever. And they had never made a bijou before, so we gave them a new drink to learn about and play with recipes for. It was nice to just sit and chat while enjoying our drinks.

My clover club and Ryan's bijou

The next day we hiked up to Fragrance Lake, which was gorgeous. It was maybe 65 degrees, which turned out to be perfect weather for this hike. Lots of uphill heading to the lake, but then you get nice and rested hanging out at the lake and walking around it. There were a few others on the trail, but most of the time no one else in our sight. On the way back we took a short detour to a viewpoint that looks out over the islands. The only bad part was that the uphills on the way to the lake meant a lot of downhill coming back. My knees really struggle with lots of downhill these days, unclear why, so I was in quite a bit of pain by the time we finished and honestly am not sure I've fully recovered yet. But glad we did the hike anyway.

Once the kids were back from camp it was time to head off to San Diego/LA for our final college trip of the summer. This one was a little more stressful than the others because we were trying to visit three school - Caltech, Cal Poly Pomona (I'm pushing the Cal Poly schools a bit since they're part of the WUE system so there's a chance he could get tuition at these equivalent to our in-state tuition), and UC San Diego. We opted to fly into and stay in the San Diego area because everyone we talked to indicated there would be more of interest there during our free time. This did mean a long drive for our day spent seeing the two schools up near LA. We managed to find an airbnb not far from the beach.

You can just see the ocean past the ridiculously expensive houses

For our first free day we slept in, then headed to the beach in the afternoon. I waded in a bit, but stopped enjoying going fully in oceans/lakes around age 9 or so. Everyone else enjoyed letting the waves crash over them.

The next day we had to be up early for our drive up to LA area. Traffic at the time we left wasn't as bad as we were expecting. Unfortunately, Cal Poly told me there would definitely be tours this day, but then they ended up not having any. I would've tried to set up a meeting with a student or professor if I'd known this would be the case, so it was frustrating. We couldn't even find where to go on campus to see if they had any materials for a self-guided tour (and I couldn't find any online), so just wandered on our own. Classes had already started here as well, so parking was a nightmare and the heat didn't help how any of us were feeling either. Overall, an unfortunately underwhelming experience but I think we were glad we got a chance to at least see the campus. Then it was off to Caltech. Nice looking buildings. This was another surprise - G expected to not like it because of the small number of students (fewer undergrads than students at his high school!), but came away quite excited about it. While of course keeping in mind that their acceptance rate is insanely low and the annual cost to attend is insanely high.

The next day was UC San Diego. This tour went really well also, weather here is more tolerable for all of us than it was up near LA. Much larger than Caltech, obviously, but another place that G felt like he could do well at. Because of the size of this one there's a lot to do on and around campus and it feels more like a campus in a city, similar to UW or UBC. We had some free time after this tour and considered going to the zoo, but in the end M decided they just wanted to go to the beach again. Honestly, the zoo sounds like it's a full day trip and we were all pretty tired from all the tours/walking, so the beach was a nice way to end our trip. The next day we headed back home. I think the strangest thing to me about all our CA trips is discovering just how car-centric most of CA is. Aside from San Francisco, there doesn't seem to be nearly as significant of a transit presence as one would expect, even in the larger cities.

Now all that remains is for G to take the SAT and get applications put together and then see what happens. We will likely try to get a trip in to WSU in the early fall, but there is an event at the high school in September where he should be able to get accepted to WSU on the spot, so that one really is the safety school. 

And now the new school year is upon us. Summer felt like it went by way too quickly, but the fall has things to look forward to as well. G has opted not to run cross country this year, saying they're going to prioritize pole vault year-round instead (we'll see if that actually happens or not....) as well as wanting the time to focus on their applications and classes this fall. M has expressed an interest in fencing, so we've signed him up for an introductory class and we're excited to see how that goes.