Geo-what, you ask?Geocaching.
Jeff introduced us to this "sport" on Saturday afternoon. We finally had a beautifiul, sunny and warm day (50's) so we were all itching to be outside. He asked us, "Want to go geocaching?"
And we asked the question stated above.
Since he's gotten his i-phone, he's wanted to try this.
From the official website,
"Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache."
We also learned that these things are planted all over the country...even in Commerce Township, MI!
To get started, we picked a cache that we thought sounded like fun. We chose one called, "What's in the Cookie Jar?" We got the GPS coordinates for the cache and then followed them (using the i-phone). Once we were close to the coordinates, we started looking around for the cache, usually a box we're guessing since we've never seen one.
Here we are looking in the snow.
If you found this cache, you were supposed to take a cookie recipe from it to keep and then drop one in the cache for the next person. We could even check an online "log" to see who had found the cache & when. This was SO MUCH FUN! We didn't find the cookie jar, but we did find this:
and we got to enjoy this....
The second geocache we looked for was in a graveyard.This was a tricky one and we didn't find this one either.
Jeff dug around a barbed-wire fence for about 15 minutes and came up empty handed.
The third and final cache of the day was in another wooded area. We hiked along this beautiful path to get to the GPS coordinates.
This geocache was called "Keychain". If you found it, you took akeychain from the cache and then put one in to add to the collection.
We were out-of-luck again...too much snow, I guess. Despite no finds,
we had a wonderful day outdoors. This last geocache hunt led us to a playground.
The kids played on the play structure and Jeff set off some rockets.
Good times for everyone!
6 comments:
geocaching is fun! we actually found one treasure when we went. it (the treasure) was pretty lame but the process was fun! try again when all that snow is gone!
A couple in our Ward (Ben and Jodie Harris) do this literally all over the US ... did one in Wisconsin last year, I remember.
They are both in the Army Reserves and use equipment much more sophisticated than yours, They bought a camper to accompany their adventures.
Don't get carried away, ok ? Phfft ! When was the last time Jeff Day got "carried away" with anything ... ;o)
What a fun day! I made a geocache for a yw activity once four years ago. Not as much fun as when you're the one looking, but still fun.
What a great day! The photos are beautiful! They are seriously frameable!
I was following you (and totally jealous of your fun day) until the part where you said " and then Jeff set of some rockets"!! So random!! Only Jeff would have some spare rockets in his back pocket!! We'll have to give geocaching a try!
p.s. I got a comment on my blog today from a friend in the Troy ward saying you guys spoke in her ward!! She said you were FABULOUS! Made me homesick....
what a fun family activity!! We'll have to try it someday!
Good luck at the Pinewood Derby, Alec! Those treats look absolutley sc-rummmmmmmm-ptous! Grammy
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