Today Morgan and I decided to make the most of our President's Day and our coinciding lack of school. We decided to first go for breakfast at Starbucks and indulge in some delicious pumpkin scones and a latte. Where we were pleasantly surprised by their green efforts.

According to their website: "By 2015, 100% of our cups will be reusable or recyclable. We will significantly reduce our environmental footprint through energy and water conservation, recycling and green construction."

And from our observations, they are well on their way: the java jackets, napkins, and paper bags are all made from recycled materials. Starbucks is also leaning towards more free trade coffee beans and community involvement, and their new environmentally friendly products and organic energy bars. Now, I'm not one for the corporate monopoly squishing out the little guy; and I've always favored the more grassroots all natural kind of cafe, but Starbucks really isn't all that bad. The only thing we could think to suggest would be some sort of recycling receptacle...

To continue on our epic journey, we went to the movies to watch The Lightning Thief. (Which both my sister and I would give a solid 9)

Afterwards, we stopped by the house for a bit of lunch, and continued on to the mall for a scavenger hunt; in which we compiled a list of random objets (including but not limited to: an unhappy child, green pants, a John Green book, and purple sunglasses) and took pictures of them to prove our find. (The scavenger hunt was a complete success by the way- we even made a wonderful poster using our pictures.) Before today neither Morgan or I had really thought about the mall in terms of the environment, but if you think about it, its impact must be huge. Hundreds of people drive across town every day to walk around in a highly air conditioned or heated space, just so that they purchase overly packaged items, and carry them around in excess plastic bags.

I know that with the state that this economy is in, consumerism is one of few things keeping us going.... but there wasn't a single recycling bin in the entire mall!!! At one point we purchased a Sobe and there was nowhere for us to recycle our bottle, so we were forced (like good little environmentalists) to carry around the bottle until we got home, so that we could recycle it. We were in shock that such a large establishment wouldn't have taken and the time to install a few recycling containers.

Anyways, I think that is enough ranting for me today. I'll be back again on Wednesday,

- Amber