GeoCaching ~ We Are Back!

Had a very lazy morning... got up late... made some waffles and was having a cup of coffee and Dave noticed that 17 caches just published... and the furthest from home was 8 miles.. the closest was just right up the road.. That was all it took.. we were back..grabbed up some loot and a couple of pens.. pulled on our hiking boots. Load up the Gps's and we were out the door on a mission.

First one we went after was the corner store we love to visit... a total easy find... grabbed the cache checked the log and no names were on it... well now ours is... First to Find.. Heck of a way to get back into caching.. and the caches are all done by RDR one of the best around. We love finding his caches...a lot of them we end up having to visit more than once before we find them.. there is one we have visited at least a half a dozen times and still have no clue. We are pretty sure we Know every place it is not hidden.. even though we know when we find it that chances will be high we have seen it and touched it many times and just did not "find" it.

Off to the second cache.. I am pretty sure I know where this one is before we get out of the car... yes that is a big mistake... when I assume where it is then I close my mind to all the other places it might be. Which is what happened... we are looking.. and looking and it is not where I think it should be so I am looking even harder.. and then a car pulls up.. and it is RDR... totally awesome to get to meet him... he asks if we have found it yet.. We say no.. he ask what the name of the cache is... we tell him.. and he gives us this look... Dave gets it.. turns around and he sees it right away.. I am still stubborn and thinking I know where it is so am still looking there.... then I see it.. not where I thought it would be.. and can not believe I did not see it earlier.. I had totally touched it and looked right at it. Second to find on this one.

Tried a couple more but had no luck on those.. did not really give them too much serious time.. they had already been logged so we just did a quick peek... on our way for more first to find... down to one of our favorite parks.. there are a couple of new ones here... a truck is pulling in so we are walking fast.... find it but it has sort of fallen apart.. the cache itself has fallen out of the camo... so we get it out and are looking at the log... cache was just published this morning.. but the log has been signed a few times.. over the last year.. nothing today.. so we are taking a first to find.. and another cacher shows up.. and he agrees... first to find for him too.. sharing this one :) We put it all back together how it should be and head off for the other first to find... it is in the park more.. means some hiking and with the winds blowing like they are.. we hiked fast... found the cache and signed the log and started back out... I stopped to take a couple of pictures and a video because the wind was so cool.. then the branches started falling down around us and we decided it was time to just get out of the trees.

Found four caches today.. ftf on three of them :) We did not go after all of them since we want to start going out on a regular basis again... this leaves some more to go after in the next few weeks :) Being out in the woods and hiking on the trails felt so good.. I have missed being out there a lot and it is time we are out there again! This island has so many awesome trails.. and within 50 miles of here there are millions of trails ( most of them with lots of caches ) that we need to explore!

Learn about Geocaching here I can not say enough good about it. You can do it pretty much for free... you just need a gps. It is great for kids and grandparents and everyone in between or all together. It gets you outside, doing stuff. I can not believe how much I have learned about where I live and the places I have visited because of caching. Any questions feel free to ask me :)

All pictures today were taken on Four Springs 50-acre nature preserve on Camano Island. Even though I had driven past the signs to this for many years.. it was because of caching that we headed back into this and found a beautiful park with lots of trails to explore. I was so excited to be out caching again I did not take many photos as I left the camera at home and I only grabbed the cell for the ones in the park :(

~Michelle

Emmy's Sugar Frog

I love frogs... .. used to have a collection.. but.. there are only so many things one can collect. While we were out geocaching we saw this beautiful frog attached to a travel tag so we just had to take it and check it out. Turns out it it is Emmy's sugar frog and has a sweet tooth.. it wants to hop around from cache to cache... having it's photo taken while having a dessert :) When we read that.. we knew we had found the right travel bug (frog) for us to move along.

Last night I decided to make some cookies and I remembered that Emmy's sugar frog was visiting us and I thought he might enjoy making some cookies... from what I had heard I knew he would enjoy eating some cookies. So I gathered up all the supplies on the counter and set him there to watch. Right away he hoped into action and was making sure everything was mixed well.

Then we had to get it all patted down in the pan and nice and even. (yes we ALL washed before helping)

I did make the mistake of opening the chocolate up so it would be ready when the cookies were done baking.. lol came out to find this.

here the cookies are... out of the oven and ready for chocolate... from the look on Frogs face I am not sure I was moving fast enough.

Wouldn't you know it... he went right for the one with chocolate on it.

Emmy's frog also helped make some brownies

And some blue berry muffins while visiting.

We had a lot of fun with this frog and had thought we found the perfect cache to drop it in.. one that belonged to a little girl named Emmy.. but.. we had no luck getting in touch with the owner.. and then we noticed that the cache seemed to not have any activity so we decided to keep looking... found a well maintained cache close to home on the perfect trail for a frog so last night while out hiking/caching with the kids we left it there to continue on it's journey. We look forward to watching and seeing where this special, fun frog will go next :)

~Michelle

recipe for these cookies (in thumb print version) is on my other blog, Coffee, Tea and Recipes. Only difference would be instead of making into little balls.. just spread in a pan and bake until edges are brown.

recipe for the brownies and the muffins can be found in Chelle's Kitchen too :)

Mt St Helen's

This last weekend we went for a road trip.... we headed out really early in the morning... going south... why south? Well we had a travel bug we found, while hiking last weekend, in a geocache. It needed to go south.. When we started looking at places to go that are south of us.. we knew it was going to be a long weekend with lots of things to do.
We wanted to explore Mt St Helens (mt that blew up in 1980's) and saw that on the way up the mountain there were so many caches.... we picked a few that we thought might be fun and headed out. So many things to explore... first stop was the Mt St Helens visitor center.. watched the movie and checked out the exhibits.. gave the kids a chance to learn a little history and find out what it was we would be exploring. We walked a little bit around the silver lake wetland haven trail, right there near the visitor center.. also found our first cache of the trip :)

We found a couple more caches as we headed up highway 504 towards Johnston Ridge Observatory (which we learned is still closed for the season)... we found a couple of tricky caches.. or at least we thought there were.. one was an old telephone receiver with a magnet stuck to it... and another was not so cool in what it was.. an old mint box.. but it had been painted and had thing taped to it so it looked like part of what it was stuck to. We also found our first nano cache this weekend.. wow it was tiny... we did our first earth cache...took our photo with a landmark and answered some questions about the area... it was a lot of fun. We did end up finding a nice cache on highway 503 to leave the travel bug in.. now we will watch to see where it goes *fingers crossed it heads to it's destination* Geo caching is a great way to get out as a family and really learn a lot of history and a lot about the area.

The rest of Saturday was full of beautiful views of the mountains.. and small hikes in the woods to explore things like beautiful lakes.. we went as far up the mountain as we can but will have to head back after may to see the view from the top.. still please with our photos.. were able to get some with just a few clouds.. that is pretty good for Washington. It was nice to watch the kids as they saw how even 30 years after the eruption that you can still very clearly tell.. in places it looks like mars or something from star trek.

We then drove to Vancouver Washington, one because we have a hotel that we like to stay in there.. and two because we all wanted Red Robin for dinner.. well the hotel worked out ok.. but the restaurant was FULL..so we drove around and did not really find anything else we loved.. so we tried a burgerville.. it sucked. Will not eat there ever again.. just plan ick.. and over priced.

Sunday we got up and planned on heading up highway 503 to the south side of St Helens. It was warm and sunny and we decided since we were so close that we would slip over the border into Oregon and drive through Portland ... we all love it there. Dave found a parking spot near the Saturday market (yes they have it on Sunday too) so we got out and spent a little over an hour just walking around seeing the sights and smelling the smells... it was so much fun.. watched some break dancers from Portland City Rockers doing their thing. We then headed back to Washington and to Mt St Helens.

Highway 503 up the mountain is abit more laid back and less touristy than 504. The signs of the eruption are not from the 1980 eruption but from ones many of thousands of years ago... had a picnic lunch at yale park... it was so beautiful.. picnic table right on the water. Then up to the ape caves.... we were not all sure if we would like this or not.. you climb underground in some tunnels that were made from the lava flow a long time ago.. it is very very dark and wet in there.... we LOVED it. We did the bottom hike.. you go in and hike down 3/4 of a mile then hike back up... next time we want to go in and go the other way..do the harder hike up 1.5 miles.. it goes over some rock hills and you have to crawl for some of it and you climb out on a ladder...we will be going back to explore that.. we will be a little better prepared.. some extra lights.. and gloves.. and knee pads.

By the time we done and back to I-5 we had a long drive to get home... we arrived home about midnight and quickly everyone went off to get some sleep before the long Monday started. That is the only problem with adventures.. is reality sets in nice and hard come Monday morning.

Click here to view more photos of our weekend.

~Michelle