Simon's Birthday Cache + Post Observation Park

On Simon's Birthday, June 13th, we revisited the Honey Bee Hide #4, and FOUND IT.  Boom.

Then for Simon's birthday, we saw the movie, "Solo: A Star Wars Story" at Celebration North.  On the way into the theatre, we looked for this stupid one: P.A.G.S. Picture Place, and found nothing. Not sure it's there anymore.  Lameness. 

After the movie, we swung by the Super Meijer on Knapp St. Corner, and did NOT find:  "Mei' Jer" because too much overgrowth at this time of year, plus it was micro and higher level difficulty. No thanks.

But we did find this one in the back of Meijers rather quickly. "Tineke's Cache" was a larger cache, which the kids like the best. Each of them walked away with a small matchbox size car.

Then today, June 15th, we went to lunch at the airplane observation park, then found all 3 on the way home. Nice.

The first stop was "iServ You This Piney Cache" off of 33rd St.  Simon found it:

Then we took 33rd st. to Kraft, and found "Lunch with Trish #2", shaped as a bolt w/ magnet on the guardrail near the road:

The final stop was, "HoneyBee Hide #1", which Simon found rather quickly:

Honey Bees and Leap Year Caches

It's been a while!  Good to be back out in the world of treasure hunting.

We took our bikes to 3 new caches within biking distance of our house:

We started by biking to the ice rink on Patterson to find "

HoneyBee Hide #2

... which didn't take too long for Vanessa to find. It was a good re-start to our caching adventures.

The 2nd one,

HoneyBee Hide #4

did not go so well. We searched for a LONG time and did not end up finding it. We do want to return to it again soon, and re-search the area.

The final destination was:

Leap Year Cache

which Simon found very quickly in the parking lot of what used to be "Gander Mountain"

We all vowed to return to 

HoneyBee Hide #4

at a later date/time.... it will be found!

One at Hagar Park

While visiting Hagar Park in Jenison, we decided to see if there was a cache close by.  The closest one was "geocASHLYN IX". (Florida is pointing to it on the map below)



The first attempt at finding the cache was unsuccessful.  The kids were getting quite scratched up.  Lots of bloody legs.  Then, after braving what we all hoped was NOT poison ivy, and finding nothing, I sat down at the picnic table to see if I could get a better idea of where the cache was.

Michele and I found what we hoped was a closer spot to where it was located, and I decided to check once more.  After finding it in rather short order, I had the kids try once again, and Simon was the first to find it.


The last few geocaching adventures have been less fun for the kids due to some serious foliage issues.  We have really great success in the spring and fall, when the overgrowth has not had a chance to ... overgrow yet.  I think I might change our approach for future caches in the summer - ONLY targeting city caches or parking lot caches, and only traditional, kid-friendly caches.

Man vs. Mosquitoes at Roselle Park

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Took the bikes in the minivan (all 4 of them fit!) and headed off to Roselle Park.

First stop, "P.A.G.S. - Offense or Defense?" and it was near the entrance.  Simon managed to find it almost immediately!

The next searches all centered around the large circle.  The kids quickly learned that geocaching this time of year is made much more complicated by two very annoying factors: Lots more foliage and mosquitoes.  The main-pain were the mosquitoes though.

The second search yielded no results at the one titled, "No More Beef".  Spend quite some time there before moving on.  We earmarked it for a later visit.

The Third one was the largest cache size, titled, "A Good Ole Regular".  This one was found rather quickly also by Vanessa.


The last find of the day was the funniest of them all with a hanging lizard cache, titled, "Check your Drawers".

Vanessa was spooked a bit, and made for a memorable moment for her when she found it.

The mosquitoes forced us to keep on riding past the next few.  We will need to return later to see if we can find these:

NOT YET FOUND:

"No More Beef"

"Gang Green"

"Being Tall Will Help"

"Proximity Jumper"

FOUND:

"P.A.G.S. - Offense or Defense?" 

"A Good Ole Regular"

"Check your Drawers"

5/5 Finds From the Sienna

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Stop #1 was for the "Hidden Stream of the Pioneer".  It was a rather quick find by the kids.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3XBKK_hidden-stream-of-the-pioneer

 

Stop #2 was "OHN #1".  Yelena pointed out the hole in the tree saying, "it's in there" before we even stopped the Sienna.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC63FAQ_ohn-1

 

Stop #3 "OHN #2" Simon and Vanessa found right away as well, as it was in a similar place to the other lamp post base hides.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC63FB3_ohn-2

 

Stop #4 we tried just after we went to Crazy Charlies in Gaslight Village.  It was a micro cache called, "Zuzu’s Petals".  This one took a bit longer than the others.

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6CRRW_zuzus-petals

The final stop #5 was titled, "GR History #6 - Ramona Park", and had a very interesting read!  Check this one out:

https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3Y3WA_gr-history-6-ramona-park

This time of year is perfect for geocaching, since bugs are not really out yet and the leaves are not in full bloom to cover things up yet.

2 Previous CascAda Caches now FOUND!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Now that there is no foliage or bugs to keep us from finding some caches, we went back to two previous unfound caches and found them!



CascAda History #13 we found shortly after looking!  It was shaped like a mushroom.


CascAda History #12 we also found with minimal time to search, thanks to some clues found on the cache.


Inevitably, it seems that all of our geocaching adventures end with a trip to Sweet Yo's... :D

Cachin' with the Cousins.

Today we went cachin' with the cousins.  Our crew consisted, in total:  Simon, Vanessa, Selah, Celeste, Micah and Ethan and for the first time, Riley.

The first unsuccessful cache was a strange one, titled, "ICA #11".  This one proved VERY frustrating in that the map cache was labeled with one coordinate, but then in the description showed a completely different coordinate, quite far from where the map said it was.  Not cool, man.  Not fun for the kids!

The second one was a success, and was titled, "Double Arches", found at the end of a cul-de-sac near McDonalds, hence the name.

The kids were happy to find the little treasures inside.

The 3rd one, I don't completely consider a failure, since it was destined not to be a success, and was titled, "P.A.G.S. - Watching The Ducks!".  It was a 3-star difficulty, near Ambrose pond, and so we had no business looking for it anyway to be honest.

We quickly jumped back into the van and went straight to the 2nd successful find, "Coleman Cache", just around the corner from Ambrose pond.  This was a recently added cache from 2015, and there were many trinkets the kids got to trade.

(Riley was not a fan of the bugs, but they were DEFINITELY a fan of hers!)

The final somewhat-unsuccessful attempt went to, "P.A.G.S. Don't Bump It Revisited".  The acronym for P.A.G.S. must stand for "Pretty Absent Geocaches, Suckers!"  We located a decoy...  what is that garbage?  But the last few logs showed that no one was able to find the actual cache, just the decoy.

So lessons learned?  Do MORE research into the caches before going.  For me, I must make sure to look closely at the difficulty level and make sure they are, in fact, "kid-friendly".