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How To Stretch Your Gallon of Gas Farther + Giveaway

This weekend I had got the cool opportunity to visit the seventh annual Shell Eco-Marathon in downtown Houston, a competition for high school and college students to see who can build the most fuel efficient car. Hundreds of student teams came from around the US and other countries such as Brazil and Guatemala, along with their Prototype and Urban Concept cars that run on gasoline, battery, solar power, biofuels and hydrogen. One car broke the track record and surpassed 3,000 mpg!

My whole little family of engineers and future engineers had a blast talking to teams, watching the cars race, and playing around at the interactive Shell Energy Lab.

Cars had to be pushed inside the GRB convention center.
The Big Ten was well represented. Engineers galore!
These are high schoolers!
Prototype cars lined up to race around the track.

Geekiness galore. My husband and I are both proud Penn State engineers so of course we visited with the Nittany Lion team and cheered them on from the balcony above the track with a “We Are!”

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Penn State only had a budget of $1000 per car, with no fancy corporate sponsors like the teams from other schools such as Purdue and Mater Dei high school.

I was especially taken with the all female “Shopgirls” team from Granite Falls high school. Check out this awesome video about them.

Drive Smarter and Win a Gas Card

Also launched this weekend is Shell’s Target One Million initiative to help people become smarter and more fuel efficient drivers. As part of that effort, Shell has developed a quick web-based game that users can play to help them learn how to drive smarter and stretch their fuel purchases farther. Over 300,000 people have already played the game, including me!

At the Eco-Marathon I got to spend some time with John and Helen Taylor, the world’s most fuel efficient couple. They are passionate about helping others who want to learn how to drive smarter and save fuel. They shared with me that they receive hundreds of emails from people thanking them for helping them save as much as $1000 a year! Changing a few driving habits have meant life-changing cost savings for some.

John and Helen Taylor drove around the world, 25,717 km, on just 24 tanks of fuel.
Shell’s newest research found that Americans, Houstonians in particular, really do want to learn how to drive smarter in order to both save money and environmental resources. Houstonians drive more miles annually than drivers in LA, San Francisco or New York! We waste 118 million hours a year just sitting in traffic…that’s 52 million gallons of gasoline! 
Blogger Melissa checks the tire pressure. 
After spending time with the Taylors, I was inspired to try a few of their tips to save fuel. I tend to be an aggressive driver, trying to get places in a hurry, but my personal values of frugality and stress-free living helped convince me to try taking it easier on the pedals. My car was also due for an oil change so I spent an hour cleaning out the trash and took it in for maintenance and detailing yesterday. It’s SO nice driving a clean and well lubricated car! 
Shell wants everyone to join the Target One Million challenge and play the smarter driving game, so they have generously provided me with some Shell gas cards to give away to my readers! Yay! 
To win one of seven gas cards worth $20 each, head to the smarter driving challenge and play the game. It only takes a minute or so. Then leave a comment here with your favorite fuel efficiency tip! 
You can get extra entries for Liking Water Water Everywhere on Facebook, subscribing to the blog, and following me (@MainlineMom) on Twitter! The contest will close this Friday, April 12th at midnight and I will email the winners about where to mail their gas cards. Easy peasy. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Shell invited me to the Eco-Marathon and provided me with a gas card as well. I am a chemical and environmental engineer and I totally loved this whole event and as always my words opinions are truthful and my own. 

Swimming with Stingrays at Sea World

 Last year I had the privilege of being selected as a Sea World San Antonio Wildside Blogger and it was a wonderful experience. That’s why I’m thrilled that I was chosen once again to participate as a Wildside blogger in 2013. Our kickoff even for the season was this weekend and my family had a blast!

The Wildside Spring Fling was held at Aquatica, the new waterpark at Sea World in San Antonio. My husband questioned the idea of going to a waterpark in March, but it turned out to be a warm and sunny day. Only in Texas!

We decided to drive out to the park and back the same day, so we left before dawn. It was drizzling and very chilly when we arrived around 9:30am but there were no lines. As soon as the gates opened we made a beeline for a warm gift shop where I found a rack of fleece sweatshirts on clearance and promptly bought one for each kid and me. They were cute! Here are the boys in their new sweatshirts posing with Ozzie and Harriet the parrots.

We were the first of the group of Wildsiders to arrive at our private little beach area, but my friend Mason Rodriquez from Sea World was there waiting for us with towels and beach chairs. The boys immediately took to digging in the sand while other families arrived. 

It was super fun to see Priscilla again, who I met at Bloggy Boot Camp in Austin a couple years ago. Our oldest two boys hit it off really well! I love watching my kids make new friends. 
The highlight of the day by far was our chance to do the Stingray Interaction at Aquatica as a family! Alex was pretty nervous about it, but we encouraged him to pet the rays from outside the tank and then watch the first group as they waded into the pool and fed the animals. So he decided to face his fears and get in the pool with the stingrays! 
Nathan was thrilled about the opportunity and waded right in, grabbing the fish and eagerly feeding it to the velvety creatures. Stingrays mouths are underneath them so you have to hold the fish in a fist with the head sticking up and place your fist down underneath where they swim. Then they come along and suck the food out of your hand exactly like a vacuum cleaner! Once in awhile they would come and suck on my feet. 

The stingray interaction was an awesome way to create a really cool family memory. We’ll be talking about it together for years to come, I’m certain! They even provided us with a couple of family photos…the whole thing made putting on a swimsuit in March worth it. 
One great part about coming to Aquatica in March when the morning was chilly but the sun came out and warmed up the afternoon? Way less people to deal with. There were no crowds and we used the opportunity to finally ride Stingray Falls, the signature attraction at Aquatica that often has a very long line. Even Alex rode with us, despite his nervousness! I am not usually one for big, fast rides but being in a raft as a family and zooming down the water slide into the little cove beneath the stingray pond was super fun. The photographer even got a photo of Chico, the big spotted eagle ray, swimming over top of us! 

Of course as soon as we reached the end, Alex asked to do the ride again! I knew he would love it. Maybe next time! We left the park just before dinner, stopped for a bite to eat, and drove on home to Katy. Both boys were so tuckered out they crashed instantly, so we had a peaceful drive as the setting sun behind us cast a golden glow along the countryside, including loads of Texas bluebonnets in full bloom along I-10! 
Sea World is open for the season every day now and Aquatica is open every weekend until June when it opens daily for the summer. They have some super exciting events and opportunities this spring, including a pretty sweet Just For Kids concert series in April, featuring Laurie Berkner, Imagination Movers and others. We’ll be heading back there for sure in June, if not before, and we can’t wait! 
Disclosure: As I mentioned, I have been chosen as a 2013 SeaWorld Wildside blogger. My family was provided with complimentary passes to the parks as well as other perks. I was not asked to write about my experiences but I will always share what I love with complete honesty and integrity.