Today we took a 4+ mile family walk. You see, last night I got the geocaching bug and reached out to a friend who posts about it all the time – this morning, we adventured!
Me: Hey babe, I would like us to take an adventure today
Antares: What’s that?
M: I’d like us to go geocaching
A: *sceptica look* My muscles hurt a lot, maybe
M: OK. Hey Mache, want to go treasure hunting?
Mache: *gasp* YAY!
Come to think of it, I think that was mean of me. But hey, we went! And I think we all mostly had fun!
Sorry: What is Geocaching?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YTqitVK-Ts
It’s pretty cool, watch that video. TLDR: you use your GPS on your phone (and the Geocaching app) to find near-by “treasure”. In each treasure is a log book, and occasionally a knick-knack you can trade. The idea is to get you out of your house and see neat things. The cache’s are often hidden in places you may not have ever thought to look so a little GPS, a little clues from the original hider, and some notes from the online log book and you may find yourself looking at an awesome old tree or in the middle of a field you’ve never thought to go to.
So today, we set off on our “short” walk (“I swear, it’s no more than 2 miles round trip”) and we went to our first stop. It was rated a 1 start difficulty … but for first time cachers I call shenanigans! I think we spent a good 45 minutes looking before we realized you could actually lift up the base of a light pole to see underneath it … wow. I know, new cacher syndrome.
Mache was SO EXCITED we found “the treasure”, even if it was just a list of names on 3 strips of paper in a 35mm photo canister (I wonder if kids even know what those are?) .. FYI that list of names had well over 100 people who found and logged into the cache and dated back to 2012. HOW COOL IS THAT? So, the pirate had so much fun Mommy agreed to walk to one more. That’s right, there are two cache’s within walking distance of our new home. I’M SO EXCITED! I’m already thinking of new places to add more, like that park near our house, and that wooded area around the flood way, and that weird street dead end, so I can make fun of the snooty people who closed off the road!
OK – stop number two. I mean, it was in this GORGEOUS marsh/park area, so I don’t regret going (especially since the first cache was in the urban jungle of Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and Bar Louie’s parking lot), but I think … well, we should go back in the winter. The prickers and brambles were too much for us – all three of us walked away bloody and there was definitely some crying (I won’t say who). So our first geocaching was 50% successful: 1 find and 1 no find, but we’ll return after the vegetation and see if we can find it.
Meanwhile, I’m excited to keep trying. I think this is a GREAT way to explore new places with Mache and a fun reason to get out of the house when we can’t thinkof what to do. Plus, did I mention we walked well over four miles today? For what? Treasure, that’s what! We even walked all the way to that smoothie place and I had this really tasty strawberry, cranberry, pomegranate thing (see: pomegranate plunge) that totally refreshed me and got me going for the final 1.7 miles back to the house.
And yes, the little pirate TOTALLY passed out in the wagon – while holding her umbrella. haha – this was a GREAT way to spend the morning!
