After a long break

I have gone 10 days without finding a cache.  Here I thought I'd have lots of time with the kids starting school, but between being busy and the kids refusing to come with me, nothing.  I determined to fix that today!  Yay!

light skirt 10

Nice and easy to start off with.  

 

Champion #3

This one must be part of a series.  Quick & easy though. 

 

Waymarking Challenge - 10

My last find of the day was my most exciting.  This cache is rarely found due to it's clever hiding location.  I found it on my first try!  It was hiding in the top of a fence post!

To log this challenge, you also have to have logged 10 Waymarks at Waymarking.com.  I haven't waymarked before, but it seems to me so far to be Geocaching for lazy people.  You go to locations and, at most, snap a photo then log into the site and say you've been there.  I went onto the site and logged 32 waymarks so far just from our Victoria trip and cruise last year.  There are no rules saying you have to log current places, retro ones are ok.  I hear there are challenges that you can do, but so far unimpressed.  It is nice that several places where I've been that didn't have geocaches do have waymarks though.  

There is a Waymarking Challenge - 50 cache nearby.  I looked for it, but didn't find it.  I will need to log another 28 Waymarks before I can officially find that one anyway. 

My official geocache count is now at 80!

PB and J TB Motel

I had promised the kids we would go home after 5 caches, but I just couldn't resist stopping at this one.  The "TB Motel" means that this caches is designed to hold many Travel Bugs in the hope that many people will bring bugs there to exchange them.

The cache listed 13 bugs as in the cache.  Sadly, when we got there only 1 was left.  (People have been taking the bugs, but not properly logging them online.  Rather defeats many of the purposes of Geocaching if you're not going to play by the rules.)  The kids still had fun pawing through all the other swag in the cache.  One of these days we will remember to load up on trinkets before leaving home so that we can actually trade swag!

Logan, Nora, Joshua

The Des Moines Cinema

Just up the street, we snagged our 5th cache of the day.  I think this may be our smallest one yet.  The log was so tiny, I could barely fit my initials on the paper.  It was tucked up in the crook of a tree out front of the old Des Moines Cinema.

Joshua, Logan, Nora

Dark Choc Chip (Sundae Toppings #9)

This tiny little cache was labeled "super-easy" and "park and grab".  We could.not.find it.  My GPS was freaking out and I didn't understand the Hint given.  I tried looking up the Hint online, but my internet was refusing to work.

We were all starving, so we gave up and went to lunch next door at Red Robin.  I finally got internet there, and realized we had been mere inches from the right location.   We went back right after lunch and grabbed our 4th find of the day super-quick.

Nora, Logan, Joshua

Defensive Collapse

We were headed into Des Moines to continue our caching and picked up this easy one in a little park. 

Joshua, Nora, Logan

And, yes, the kids are all wearing pajamas.

Saltwater Love

Turns out there is a 2nd cache at the park, so we hiked up the trail to find it.

The GPS was freaking out due to the trees and I got worried we wouldn't find it.  But, after searching through a few downed logs, there it was!

Joshua, Nora, Logan

WaStatePks100: Saltwater

It was beyond time to drop our Travel Bug into a new cache, and the kids needed something to do, so today we headed out with the goal of finding at least 5 cache's.

Our first cache was at Saltwater State Park in Des Moines.  Joshua and I found this on in an old log.

We dropped our travel bug in, and pulled out a new one to take with us. 

Joshua

(He's got our first travel bug in his hand.)

Here is the new Travel Bug we picked up.  This little guy started near Boston, has been to Los Angeles, Los Vegas, Winnepeg, Portland, Seattle & more.  He hopes to get to Europe.  Too bad I can't take him there!