Geocaching

Last weekend, Cannon was invited with his friend, Dane, to go geocaching.  We have heard of this before because Cannon's friend in Virginia used to do it.  In case you are not familiar, this is a world wide activity that involves locating "caches" hidden in various locations all around the world.  You find the coordinates for the cache online and then use a handheld GPS unit to find the general location of the cache.  It then takes a bit of detective work and persistence to locate the actual cache.  A cache can be smaller than a film canister or as large as an oil drum.  Most caches are around the size of a Tupperware box.

Cannon really fell in love with this activity so we acquired a GPS unit and are now official geocachers.  He's obsessed with it, I'm a little less so but I do enjoy the fact that he is begging me to go for walks so that he can geocache.

Since the kids are off on spring break this week, it was a good opportunity to do some geocaching.  Emmy and London are on board because most caches contain "swag" - small junk toys that you swap out with something you've brought from home.  See, it fits all of us: Cannon likes the hunt, the kids like the swag, and I like the walk!

On Monday we went to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma.  It was a gorgeous day so we took a picnic along.  First we went to Stevie's office to pay him a surprise visit and since getting to his office entails going past Legendary Donuts...we just had to stop there for dessert.

 

Emmy's donut that's bigger than her head!

No, they didn't eat the whole thing at once!

After lunch we set off through the Japanese garden to find the first cache.  All the flowers are in full bloom so it was a chance for a few photos for me...

Love the red rhododendrons

We hiked on to find the next cache.  So this is what it could look like - it was hidden in the dead tree:

We walked for miles stopping occasionally to find a cache.  By the end, Emmy and London were beginning to loose interest since we couldn't find the last one.  They became much more interested in the three bald eagles that landed in the trees above our heads, and truth be told, so did I!

If you look in the middle of the picture you'll see one of the eagles.  I didn't have my telephoto lens with me for a closer picture.

Emmy and London are making their eagle calls trying to lure the bird out.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do if that worked...

Mick-a-doo, being very patient.

Here's my "happy accident" photo - I was trying to capture the eagle flying overhead, but I had my settings wrong on the camera.  Turned out to be a pretty cool picture though...