04/17/2005: "Here we go!"
mood: Happy!
04/15/05 Our first Geocaching efforts went great. A couple of weeks ago I'd found my first cache, Beyond the Amazon, which turned out to be less than 2miles from my house. It was a great hike, and just what I needed to get my butt off the couch. I'd tried it a couple of times with my kids last summer, but our approach was always from the highway, and being the middle of summer, it was just too hot to hike that far. Now that I know the lay of the land back there a bit better, and have a decent 4wd, I'll take them back and let them find it on their own.
The first cache we found as "Team Desert Pirates", was KB7RZF's cache (revised). This cache is almost literally right in their own backyard... We drove most of the way, but the last 1/4 mile was *steep*, and rocky. The kids were troopers, though, and we found the cache and soaked in the views.
Next, we crossed the street and went down the block to hunt down Just for Kids. This was a great find, and the kids found it with a little hunting. It took them a while to figure out what to exchange, but eventually all exchanges were made and we went to our next cache. One cool thing we got from the cache was a Scooby Doo Travel Bug. We'll help him make his journey eastward.
Then, we journeyed to Wide Open Spaces, and while it was a great hike up there, the cache eluded us. But, those sleuths eventally found the cache, and again, it took some time to decide what to trade. I left an unusual CD of Pat Boone singing Heavy Metal Standards cd. I hope someone enjoys it.
We were running out of time for the day, so we tried a quick hunt for Poulakidas Pine Cone, but there were many muggles about, and we didn't want to blow our cover.
First Day, 3/4. Not bad, not bad at all.
04/16/05The first cache of the day, The old man and the Desert, was a bust. We ran out of road ~1.35 miles away, and I wasn't going to subject the kids to a hike across the scrub without being better prepared. We went for Ice Cream, instead.
Poulakidas Pinecone was attempted again after a great picnic, (hey, the store was right down the street...
) the park was muggle free, and the cache was found. This one was quite clever!
After visiting the kids fair, it was time to find one more cache. Treasures of the 5th Grade was found, and that was a nice finish to a great two days caching with the kids.
My better half wanted to go to the movies, but I had another idea... What about searching for Antenna Ball Cache? We eventually made it up to the top and found the cache, and I got a cool "flaming eye" antenna ball 
, and the "chester cheesehead" travel bug.
Here we are at the top of the Hill.
The views were quite spectacular, and the sunset was inspiring. What a great way to end the weekend.