FTF and Deer

I am sick.. horribly sick... spent all day yesterday in bed.. and today I had the same plan... but... we are so addicted to geocaching right now.. and have it set up so that as soon as a new one is hidden it alerts us... that way we can be FTF (first to find) which all in all is not a HUGE deal.. but... ok it is :)

There is a little something exciting about being on the hunt for something no one else has found yet... there are so many different things about geocaching that I love. I love being outside.. I love that it is something I share with my family.... my parents my kids and even my sister and her family....I love meeting new people who do this... I love searching for the "treasure" and I love the challenge of the harder ones... even though they can be so very frustrating at times. I love all the history about our local area that we have learned since we started geocaching... it has taken us to places we drive by everyday and had no idea that they were there.. and had not even thought about them having a history. Learned that we drive over a 300 acre island that was man made by a few guys back in the early 1800's... every time we leave the island or come home.

Today I was laying in bed being sick.. and hurting from laying in bed... and then two caches were posted just down the road from here at the state park. We spend a fair amount of time at this park and know it well... both of the caches looked to be easy ones... so I threw on some clothes and headed out.... I was able to nab both of them easily. The First one is on a trail that a lot of people walk on... I got some funny looks standing in the woods but... oh well... I am pretty used to that... and then the second one.. there were no people on this trail.. but.. as I came around a corner.. a big deer jumped straight up about 5 feet and into the woods about 10 feet.. she just stood there watching me... so very beautiful... I got the cache and then headed back to the car.

While I was driving home I noticed what I thought was a dog... walking around in the road.. I slowed way down.. and as I got closer I could tell it was not a dog.. it had long skinny legs and was oh so wobbly... it was so sweet... I looked around for a mommy deer... but did not see any... I was watching as the baby was wobbling in the road.. crossing my fingers it would move a bit faster to the woods.. and then it laid down.. right in the road... .. about 3 feet from being safe... so I pull over and turn on my blinkers... with the way the sun and shadows were playing and how small this little guy was.. I knew I could not just leave him here.. .. being on state park property.. I called the state park and they sent a ranger down... he moved the baby (he used towels) into the woods a little bit and will keep checking on him to be sure the mom shows up and takes care of things. It was so hard not to touch the baby deer.. to be that close... oh he was so sweet.... some of him was still wet.. as if he had just been born.... beautiful.

Key to Every Mystery

Yesterday we were out geocaching yesterday... I know.. big suprise :) We found a couple of fun caches.. and a nice place to leave a travel bug ( key to every mystery) that has been traveling around with us for a few weeks now.

The Key to every mystery was released to travel on Sunday, August 24th 2008 .. from... Limburg, Belguim. It has traveled around to many different places going a total of 7,791 miles. The goal of this travel bug is to travel around and have it's photo taken while traveling. We love road trips and going fun places and have had fun taking this with us... it went to many of the same places as the skunk'd coin that I wrote about last week.

Here is our adventure with the Key :)

We picked this key up locally while geocaching with my parents who were visiting for a week. It was in a cache in a little park type place by a gas station/deli/wine tasting room. Which we had never been to before but now have been to several times... great snacks and a nice clean restroom :) The cache had a mother hen and her babies standing guard :)
The next weekend we visited Sequim, which is a favorite place of ours to visit... there is a bed and breakfast there where you get to sleep in your own caboose and then in the morning have a fancy breakfast in the dining car :) We did some caching at the John Wayne Marina and spent some time just relaxing and watching the ships coming and going :)

Lots of hiking and bike riding trails in Sequim too... and a lot of railroad history. Olympic Discovery Trail has great trails and a LOT of caches on it.
The next weekend we went up Mountain loop highway.. and did some hiking with the kids... headed up to Bear Lake for a picnic lunch and had hoped to be a FTF (first to find) a cache that is up there... but we were no luckier than the people before us had been.

We took the key to our local beach when the tide was way out.. we spent some time tide pooling and exploring that day... then off to find a good cache to place the key in to be found by it next traveling friends.

We look forward to watching the keys journey with other people as it travels around.

~Michelle

Chicken or the Egg.... Solved

Or so my daughter says.... I am not sure how this came up but while in the jeep tonight my daughter says she pretty much has it all figured out what came first. She says it has to be the egg. Her theory is that a duck and a bird got it on and that made an egg and when it hatched no one knew what it was so they called it a chicken. I am not really sure how she came up with all this... but she sounded pretty serious. The part that got me is that.. if she was four this would have been really cute.. but since she is almost 17.. I just started laughing.

~Michelle

Colorful Treasures

Colorful Treasures
Originally uploaded by Chelle_Ballard

Today things just were not going my way...no big deal.. just minor things were just not right... and then I had a conversation with someone that just set me off... I started getting all worked up and then took a breath and decided that was not going to work.. so I headed to the beach. The beach is different every single time I am there.. and every time it amazes me.. I can't wait to see which rocks have moved and which logs are new... and to look for beautiful colorful treasures. When I arrived at the beach today the tide was going out.. and it was so calm and peaceful and bright and sunny. I walked down the beach... listening to the calm and letting my eyes search the shore for treasures. It has a way of wrapping me up in the calm.. and soothing my heart and my soul... I feel like I have been stood back up and given back my strength. Even though it turned dark and the wind started picking up (weather man says a big storm is a coming) I am still feeling calm and controlled and like I can handle what life throws at me. The biggest "treasure" I get from walking on the beach is the calmness... it is just not as colorful as the glass :)

Portland

Just a quick blog post.. mostly for a friend of mine who will be visiting there soon... was thinking of emailing her but this way other people can add places they love too :)

We love to visit Portland... love to visit the open air market... huge market.. lots of crafts and music and a little bit of everything.. even has lots of fair type food. It has grown a lot in the last few years.. which is wonderful.

Portland Saturday Market ( but it is open on Sundays too )

Another favorite for us is OMSI Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It is like the Seattle Science Center.. but bigger I think... and hey have a submarine that sits in the water.. and you can tour it... I was not sure how I felt about that but am so glad I went.. it was awesome really.

One thing we keep seeing that we want to do.. and have not yet.. is the aerial tram... it is not really a tourist thing... so we have been told.. but it looks like a lot of fun. ** note on that link is also a link to downloadable maps for Portland... like for the street cars and what not. Portland has a lot of the trains and what not that run all over town... so far we have not explored them but someday we hope to.

I would love if other people would add comments here.. and links.. I will copy them and paste them to the body of the post so that they are clickable :)

Thanks

~Michelle

Did a post here a while ago about one of our trips to Portland

Just read on a friends blog about her experience in Portland and some wonderful things she foud there ( click here to visit her blog and read her post ) and one of the things I want to be sure not to miss next time I am in Portland would be Slappy Cakes sounds like a fun place for breakfast :)