Saturday, September 8, 2012

Caching with my mom

So that I could keep up with the progress I've made toward goals over the vacation, once back home, my mom and I went out with Zinny to find a couple of caches near her house. Both were easy, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the nice weather had followed me home to Texas. We headed to Ponds of Lucas # 16 - Rock Ridge before wrapping it up at OFTN - Exchange.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Caching in Seattle, WA

Seeing as we spent most nights of the trip at a hotel in Seattle, it is odd that we only ended up finding one cache there. We decided to meet up with a couple of friends for dinner, and on the way, we stopped for Les' Home-made Jiffy Taco. This was a really easy cache, and the main reason we stopped was because the name was funny.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Caching in Portland, OR

Since we didn't make it on the first try, and we wanted to spend more time with Jen, we decided to try again for caching in Portland. Along the way, we stopped for a few caches, mostly in cemeteries since those are my favorite.

The first stop was Twin Cities Cemetery Series-Greenwood, which right away gave me a creepy vibe (see picture below as to why). However, it was thankfully easy to locate so we didn't have to explore too long. On the way out, I was saddened to see all the child-sized graves together.



We then headed to the next cemetery cache, Twin Cities Cemetery Series-Mountain View. This one took some patience with a gentleman mowing the area, but wasn't hard to find. I was curious why some many of these had bushes growing over them, so that unless you were standing in the bushes, you couldn't read them.

After that, Evan had to stop for gas, and I noticed another cache very near. So, we decided to stop and look for it: Cousin's Cat. OMG. We were there forever, and still no luck. However, we did meet a fellow cacher who was supposed to meet his girlfriend for breakfast nearby, and he joined us in the search. Although not successful, still interesting, and I'm sure Jen got a lot of neat photos.

For our last cemetery on the way, we then headed to Twin Cities Cemetery Series-Fern Hill, which was also a quick find in a quiet place.

After grabbing lunch, and visiting yet another REI, we headed out for caching in downtown Portland. I love the cooler weather, makes it possible to enjoy the time outside, and we did. We found several caches on the walk around town:

Reappearing RR Smiles: Portland Streetcar
Squeezed In
Above the Lake
Grimm 20 Happily Ever Aftermath
15th Guardian
Level 4

We then heading away a bit to get a photo of a Volvo parts distributor for Justin, and grabbed this nearby cache: BLACK CHERRY # 15.

For our very last cache of the day before heading back to Yelm, we went to the first geocache ever hidden: Original Stash Tribute Plaque and spent quite a bit of time there. Very glad to have found that one, and I'm glad Jen made it happen for us. Picked up several travel bugs, which I'll be placing soon.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Caching in Vancouver, BC

Since it wasn't too much of a drive, we headed north to Vancouver today. A quiet drive, and once there, we decided to take one of the hop-on/hop-off tours since we had a limited amount of time to spend in the city. This turned out very great, since it gave us an easy way to get around, see the sites, and find a few caches.

After spending a little time getting familiar with things, we took our first chance to hop-off of the bus at Granville Island. There, less than 500ft away from the stop, was our first cache of the day, Rocky Railway. A pretty quick find, even with the dog walkers in the area.

After a short walk from there, we grabbed lunch on the island, and then headed to our next cache, Island Oasis. Even though the area gave the GPS a headache, it was a beautiful place to relax and enjoy the space. We sat in a corner and relaxed a bit before it was muggle-free enough to grab the cache. Then, we went into a few of the surrounding shops and got gifts for my brother and sister. For my sister, we decided to mail hers, since it was a pretty card and her birthday was coming up quickly, so next stop was a post office. Oddly enough, we ended up seeing her yesterday, and the card still hasn't arrived.

We got on and off of a bus a few more times, and found ourselves back at the start and near another cache. So, we walked around and located Canada Place 2 before hoping on the other bus to see the other side of the city and, most notably, Stanley Park. A very neat park, and I would have loved to spend more time exploring, but it was reaching the end of the bus routes, and it was all we could do to spend a little time there and find a cache, Behind Theater Under the Stars in Stanley Park. This turned out to be a little more difficult, since a previous cacher moved it from its final location, but we did locate, sign, and put back just in time to hop the last bus of the day back to the beginning.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Interesting caching day...

Ideally, we would have spent the day caching in Portland, OR, but that was not meant to be. Car difficulties necessitated our stopping on the side of the road and waiting for AAA to come tow the car. But, never fear, the handy dandy geocaching app says there is a cache...135 feet from us? My, isn't that convenient?

So, anyways, after finding ourselves in this predicament, we decided there probably wasn't much else to do to kill the time waiting, so we did what any other geocacher would do (at least, I hope that is true) and found the cache. Thank you, Cedar Falls Hunt for making the afternoon stuck in the sun waiting more interesting.



After the tow truck arrived and we were once again safely in Yelm, we did venture out for a fewmore caches in the rental car Evan and I had (5 seats, so use your imagination on how this worked out). We ended up finding a cache surrounded by bees (at least according to the logs of others, which we missed), G&E'S FIRST CACHE, and the other cache at the Wal-Mart, Yelm has Joined the Ranks, before deciding to locate a more interesting cache.

So, we then headed over to And Itty-Bitty Citty Park for the first puzzle cache for many in the group. After running around the park, we came up with the coordinates for the final, and made our walk there. We did find a cache at the final, although we were confused by the log book and golf things inside. Either way, a neat experience.

Last once for the day was Don't Drink the Water!, which happens to be hidden where Seth's 1st birthday party was held and where Sophie took her first steps. Pretty easy to find, but neat to think about other things as well.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Caching at night in Yelm, WA

For our last cache on our first day (boy, this was a busy day!), we heading out after dark, after explaining to the kids to keep quiet. We headed to The Tooth Fairy and quietly got out of the car. With some guidance, Seth spotted this once, since he was practically standing on it. However, we did have to wait out some muggle neighbors patiently and quietly before getting it, and everyone did great.

Caching in Olympia, WA

After our busy morning caching around Yelm, we met up with Jen, Justin, Seth, and Sophie to head to Olympia. The main reason for the destination was the awesomeness of REI, but we of course took some time for caching.

First stop after the REI stop (as always, longer than necessary so we could play with the goodies) was Pretty. Odd. Oly. They had previously searched with no luck, but more patience has us finding this fairly quickly once in the right location. We then headed over to Rockin', a fairly similar find made by Sophie.

Next up was probably the easiest of the day, by far. I spotted it while we were still driving to the location: The Office Cache!.

Decided to try a slightly more difficult one next, although in truth, what made it difficult was the inaccuracy of the GPS units under the trees. Once approached from the correct direction, this wasn't too bad. Again, made it harder than necessary: What I grow up I wanna be a park.

We got tired of getting in and out of the car, so Justin headed over to a park he knew in the area, with a walking path around a lake. This park also happened to have great views of the capital.



As we headed to the first cache, Attack of the Micro's #3, we noticed someone else there who also, it seemed, was looking for something. So, we asked, and then joined forces. There were muggles everywhere, so it was hard to keep from being obvious, but after we got away from our initial hunch, Evan and the kids were able to spot the cache. We parted ways from our geocaching buddy, and headed on to the next target.

If we thought the previous spot was busy, this was even more so. Luckily, there were benches nearby to relax at until the worst of it cleared up.







Once we were more muggle free, Justin and I headed over to search for The End of Puget Sound, while Evan, Jen, Seth, and Sophie kept enjoying the shade of the trees. We got to meet up with the same geocaching buddy here, with her husband, and search together. After our friend's husband found (where Justin had stuck his hand without success), we signed, put away, and Evan and Jen brought the kids over. This was a neat place to look at wildlife, with a few seals (or otters, we fought and gave up trying to decide).



We then made our way to the next cache Dancing Waters, also with our new geocaching friends. He found it very quickly, but was kind enough to make the kids think they had spotted it first.

Last one before heading back to Yelm was Percival Bridge. Also not too difficult, and a fun little walk.


Caching in Yelm, WA

Over Labor Day weekend, Evan and I went out of town to spend to time with our bud Jen, her boyfriend Justin, and his kids, Seth (9) and Sophie (7). This took us to many different places in the Pacific Northwest, starting in Yelm, WA. This is the first of many blog posts about this trip.

Evan and I got into Seattle late on Saturday, and drove out to the hotel in Yelm and crashed for the night. Not used to the time change of two hours at all, I was up bright and early on Sunday and ready to cache until Jen and crew were ready to join us after church. So, I made a list of all of jenden1978's finds and Evan and I set out to find any of those located in Yelm.

First was a little fun and we made it a LOT harder than necessary. Mainly because I headed under the bridge and said, "hey, Evan, check here," and he looked all but where the cache was. After some spider webs, splinters, and a lot of searching, we found in 30 minutes what should have been less than 5. But a fun start to the day, and at least it wasn't 100 degrees like back home! If anyone is in Yelm, my favorite we found there was Yelm Prairie Line Trail.



After that, we headed nearby to High Water?. I found this before Evan even made it all the way across the street with the pen, but was later surprised to learn that Justin hasn't yet found it, and it took Jen a couple of tries. I am guessing that this is where experience pays off!

We took a little break and the local Wal-Mart for drinks and jackets, then noticed there was a cache (two actually...more on the second in a later post), and decided to find Little Lighthouse on the Prairie. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed as we drove up to it, because it was so much like so many back home. But, as hubby was replacing it, and gentleman in a minivan drove by on the nearby road, honk, and gave him a thumbs up. Yes, it is still there and not muggled, as others have logged it since. Whew.

Headed a bit away and over to The Five One Zero Loop. When I saw where this one was, I was not to keen on going to find it. Too much traffic and a little nerve wracking. However, we were there, so I went and looked while Evan enjoyed using the circle. Was easy to find once I pushed past my nerves.

Since Jen was up, we decided to head to her hide next, Light, Hearted. Very neat hide, and it gave us a few minutes to chat in the morning as well. While there, she recommended our next couple of finds as well, so we went off in search of Bypass to...Nowhere.. and Apple of My Eye.

My two favorite of the morning:
Light, Hearted
Yelm Prairie Line Trail