Geocaching

The first week of summer vacation, I took Josh and Carley geocaching for the first time.

According to wikipedia:
Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching is most often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek."

Here's a video about it from geocaching.com, which is where I get my cache coordinates.


Anyway, I use an application on my Droid phone to locate the caches.

The first one we found was at a ball field where Josh played tee-ball when he was 5 years old.


Josh was the one to find it in a tree. It was a small container but big enough to leave something in and take something out.


We quickly learned that we need to take two items to trade so Josh and Carley could each pick something.


Carley thought there might be another cache hidden somewhere so kept looking.


One was in a parking lot across the street from the kids' school.


Another was a short walk from a playground near a creek.

So far we've found eight. And searched for another three that we couldn't find. Our goal is to find 25 this summer according to our summer list.


One we couldn't find was in this grassy area near the river.

I looked and looked and couldn't find it anywhere. My phone was dying so I was searching a larger than normal area. I may have missed it, or it may have been stolen.


Either way, I wiped the kids out.


And Josh got a rash from the stickers and grass we walked through. Next time we trek through that stuff, we need to wear jeans.

It's discouraging when we look for 30 minutes and can't find the cache. The urban ones are much easier than the nature ones for us beginners.

But when we do find them, it's exciting. It's a great way to get out and have some cheap, treasure hunting fun.