By Kerri Havnen Gordon

Despite clear, warm skies as I write this, I am in my pajamas with no intention of getting dressed or venturing outdoors today. You see, last night I returned from a fun but exhausting five-day road trip with three 17-year-old boys. I’ve earned my lethargy.

My mission? To give my son and his two friends a glimpse of college life by touring five college campuses in as many days. We stuffed my ten-year-old Honda Odyssey minivan with snacks, bottled water, duffle bags, a clipboard full of Mapquest driving directions, stacks of college campus checklists, permission slips in case - heaven forbid - the boys needed medical attention and the obligatory football for the beach.

But mostly we had gear, electronic gear, lots of it.

If you’ve hung out with teenage boys recently, you know that it’s all about technology. They brought iPods, laptop computers and a PlayStation. They even dusted off cobwebs from old Gameboys that haven’t seen action since grade school. Oh, and there were lots of cables to connect stuff together. Don’t ask me what they were connecting. I was just the driver.

The boys’ diversions were well earned. All three of them are high school juniors with heavy course loads that include Advanced Placement and honors classes. With college applications looming next fall, it was time to check out some campuses.

Our first stop was Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, and over the next five days we visited UC Santa Barbara, Pepperdine, UCLA and UC Irvine. We attended admissions sessions in which students were encouraged to find colleges that “fit their personalities.” We went on student-led campus tours where we learned about architecture, dorm life, professors’ office hours and meal tickets.

The boys loved the vibrant atmospheres at UCLA and Santa Barbara. Pepperdine, on the other hand, with its manicured campus overlooking the ocean, looked like a country club. The boys said they would need BMW 325i sports cars to fit in. I’ll get right on that. UC Irvine had a great campus, but the boys spied only one “cute blond girl.” By the way, “cute girls” is a selection criterion.

It’s funny how kids this age can easily swing between their past and their future. One minute the boys were discussing whether one of them would need to go to a school that offers a pre-med major or whether a biology degree would suffice before med school. The next minute, they would get in the car, pick up the old Gameboys and say, “Your Charzard killed my Snorlax” amidst peals of laughter.

Car conversations were always entertaining. The boys talked about politics, religion, cars, school. On the drive home, they compared which stars are “manly men,” mostly based on movie roles. Tom Hanks, for example, is a manly man because of “Saving Private Ryan.” This morphed into a conversation about war movies, including “Band of Brothers,” which morphed into a deep conversation about war-related computer games, like “Call of Duty,” which proves my theory that all roads lead back to computer games.

After 950 miles, five campuses and a day at Disneyland, we arrived home exhausted but happy. Everyone had fun, but more important, for perhaps the first time, the boys could truly picture themselves as college students.

The next day the Gameboys were tossed back in drawers, and the boys cracked open their AP biology and trigonometry books. The countdown begins with SATs this spring, college applications this fall, choosing a college next spring and moving away the next fall.

Stressful? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet.