This is Only Marginally about Running and There are LOTS of Pictures

CSU Los Angeles (LA State) was a really nice, sort of small campus in a not-so-great location. It was better than we expected, though, and climbed maybe into the Top Ten of Big Boy’s college choices.

Since we were in LA, we did a little shopping! Little Boy has developed a taste for shoes and clothes (and is strongly considering a career in fashion), so we stopped in at Flight Club LA. The shoes were individually shrink-wrapped and there were several pairs that were going for upwards of two and three thousand dollars. It boggled the mind!

CSU San Marcos was a fabulous campus and super close to the ocean – it immediately jumped into Big Boy’s Top Three!

Taking a selfie at University of Redlands. This was a nice campus, but didn’t really spark a lot of interest in Big Boy.  It probably didn’t help that it was a thousand degrees and we were all a little hungry, but I’ll be honest, I didn’t mind crossing the most expensive college off the list!

Next stop: Las Vegas and more shopping! Little Boy was in heaven!

The other boys? Not as much.

Everybody loved the lazy river pool at our hotel, though. So! Much! Fun!

Attempting to take a selfie while running on the hotel’s treadmill really could have ended badly. I am simply not coordinated enough to run in place!  But I was also not brave enough to run on the Las Vegas strip when it was 80 degrees at 5:30 am, so treadmill it was.

Up we drove through Arizona and into Utah to visit Dixie State University, which we weeded out pretty quickly. It was a lovely and very welcoming school, but much too tiny for Big Boy’s taste.

Many, many, maaaaaaany miles later, we arrived in the northwest corner of California to check out CSU Humboldt. This one was good enough to make the Top Five, mostly because of the location (beachfront) and weather (very cool and temperate year-round).  I hadn’t really thought much about it before we went, but it became very obvious during our vacation that we all liked the coastal/cooler-weather campuses a lot more than the inland/fucking hot schools.  Which is funny since we live inland in a place that gets fucking hot.  Oh, wait!  Yes, I can see why he might want to get away from that.

Of course we had to stop at the Trees of Mystery and see the gigantic statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe. Oh, and the really big trees, too. 🙂

Driving along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon was absolutely gorgeous! And only a little bit white-knuckley. I’m a *ahem* cautious driver, as evidenced by every single person on the road passing me while I muttered, “Slow down, jackass!”

And then, there we were: the running mecca of colleges, the University of Oregon!

We had signed up for the running tour of the college – yes, a RUNNING TOUR! – and it was pretty much the most fabulous thing ever, including a chance to run on Pre’s trail…

and finish with a lap of the track in historic Hayward Field! A runner’s dream come true! The boys let me lead the way for the first 250, then their competitive sides kicked in and they left me in the dust, of course! This photo was taken just seconds before UIH reminded everyone that he’s still the fastest one in the family.

I’ll be honest, I had zero expectations for U of O. I’ve driven through Eugene a good dozen times and never seen the campus before, but we ALL left there ready to be a Duck family! It didn’t hurt that the weather was spectacular and the young men conducting the tour were very personable.  And, you know, the fact that we got to see the campus while running!  Running makes everything 10x more awesome, that’s a fact.  Big Boy has some really tough decisions in front of him!