Back in the Saddle & Defeating a Nemesis

After a blistering summer, fall weather has finally made it to Columbia.  That means geocaching weather!  The little one and I have been "jonesing" for some caching for months.  This weekend, we were able to whet a little bit of that appetite. 

Yesterday, we started at one that I've searched for in the past.  I knew I was right on top of the coordinates and I was pretty sure I knew how it was hidden, based on the clue.  So, the Vivver and I headed over there and once again, it eluded us.  We moved on to one that is fairly new and not far from our house.  As we searched a bed of prickly evergreen groundcover, a cook from a nearby restaurant came out for a smoke break.  He called over to us, "hey, watch out for the rats!"  "Huh??" I called back.  He came over and proceeded to tell us that this bed has a nest of what he called "New York rats."  In case you didn't know, that means big giant nasty rats.  He showed us the "rat killin' box" that I had picked up and looked under.  Okay, thank you very much, we're done here.

So, off we went to the Belser Arboretum.  I have lived in this town my entire life.  In <all> those years, I have never even known that within a couple miles of my house there is a 10 acre arboretum.  I was astonished.  If you're interested in learning about it, check out this link.  So, we found the place and started our search.  Success!  This one had some little kid trinkets in it, so that delighted my partner.

This afternoon, we were on the way home from a little get-together and sitting at the light right across from the first place I told you about above.  One of my two current nemeses.  As I gazed at it I said, "You know, Viv, I see one thing we didn't look under yesterday."  My husband said, "You want to go look?"  This was a surprise because he doesn't really dig geocaching.  So, with a 3rd set of eyes, we stopped by.  I told him how I knew I'd been standing right on top of it both times I'd been there and that I thought it should be <here>.  So, he turned on his eagle eyes and damn if he didn't spot it.  Exactly in the type of hiding spot I knew it would be in.  I was so elated!  This one was really beginning to make me angry.  So, the little cacher and I ran to it, signed the log and we all rode away victorious.  

It feels great to be back in the saddle!

I think Fall may happen after all!

Well, thanks to Hurricane Irene, South Carolina has been a pleasant place to live for the last few days.  I see an end in sight!  Geocaching will re-enter our lives soon, very soon.  :-)

It's Official...I'm in withdrawl

I'm not generally one who complains about the weather.  I find weather pretty darn fascinating actually.  Being from SC, hot summers are simply what I know.  As I get older though, I swear our summers are becoming more brutal.  My mom tells me it was just as hot when I was a kid, but I'm not sure if I buy that.  I mean, we would ride our bikes, fish at the pond, pick blackberries all day, build forts, work in the garden and be outside until my mom rang the "come home" bell...all day, every day.  How on earth did we do it?  

This summer has been 95+ for weeks and weeks now. We've been in the 100's more consecutive days than I can remember.  Some days it's so hot, it hurts to breathe.  Therefore, we haven't spent much time outside, which has sharply impacted our geocaching.  I cruise the website and gaze at the descriptions wishing for the day that I can get back out there and find them!  I'm 100% in geocaching withdrawl.  

Those of you in fairer climates, we are jealous!  Once fall gets here, look out!  We'll be back on the trail with gusto!

Vacation Disappointment

If you read my other blog, Gastronomy (by a Wanna-be Chef), you already know that my cousin and his family were just here from Vietnam.  Thanks to one of my mom's most generous friends, we had a house at N. Myrtle Beach for a few days so we could get our kids together one more time before they all head back to Hanoi.  Not only is Charlotte's house an awesome set-up for a group, it's close to lots of stuff and is only a few blocks from the beach.  Thanks to their ultra-cool, mac-daddy golf cart, we can motor on down to the access point, complete with golf cart parking lot, and voila!  we're on the beach.

I use my iPhone w/geocaching app

One afternoon, I started checking out my geocaching app to see if there were any caches nearby.  What luck!  There was one in a small shopping center parking lot right around the corner.  I knew from the recent logs that a few people had logged frowny faces, but I was still optimistic that WE could find it.  So, my "cousin-in-law" Lisa and I loaded the kids up on the golf cart and went around the corner.  But, you can probably guess what happened...


We were at the right spot, of that I have no doubt.  But it was in a location right off the parking lot, highly visible and has clearly been muggled.  I hope the owner reads the field logs soon and replaces the cache.  But, the best part is that the kids all had fun looking.  My cousin was skeptical that they'd find any caches in Vietnam...surely no one there plays the game?  So, I simply plugged in the word Hanoi into my app then starting asking him, "So, do you know where the National Military Museum is?"  Uh huh.  "How about the Master Pagoda?"  Yes, I do.  "Well, what about "Cuc Phuong?"  Ok, he was getting the idea.  Those came from the first list of 10 that showed up.  So, hopefully, once they make it back home, they might remember geocaching and give it a shot.  I think it'd be pretty exciting caching in another country!

Jonesin' for a cache

I am itching to go caching, but it's been so blazin' hot around here.  I am really looking forward to the fall so we can go anytime we wish.  I've been entering the Geocaching.com and Geico sweepstakes, hoping to win one of the GPS units they are giving away.  And, of course, I'd love to find one of those trackable geckos that have been released.  I wonder if any have been found around here?

I am taking the little one to the beach for a few days this week, so maybe we can locate a few that benefit from an ocean breeze.  Cross your fingers for us and happy caching!

Caching in 95+ weather

Well, this headline isn't all that catchy given the fact that we are in South Carolina.  We spend more of our year above 90 degrees than below. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but if you live here, you know what I'm saying.

Today was a perfect day off for me.  Got my sweet little one up and at 'em and delivered her to the most awesome Summer Camp of all time.  Then, I came home and (wait for it, wait for it)...WENT BACK TO BED!  That's right.  You guys were at work and I was snoozing away with no clock set!  Then, I got up and cooked a crab cake while making myself a list of nearby geocaches.  

First, I went back to one in my neighborhood that I hadn't been able to find before.  I knew then that I was right on top of it, but just couldn't put my finger on it.  So, today, I went right back to that spot, wandered around a little bit and bam! there it was!  Good feeling.  

Then, I headed out to a new one that has only been found once so far. It was a killer.  I wandered around in a mini-forest of bamboo in one of our town's nicest neighborhoods. After I actually left the road and climbed into the bamboo, I heard sirens. Getting closer and closer.  Passed this street, but then stopped immediately after.  So, now, I'm waiting for the cops to come up behind me and begin interrogating me as to why I am lurking around in bamboo in the middle of the day.  Dodged a bullet there...apparently there was an actual emergency somewhere instead of Mrs. Cravitts calling the cops on me!  Didn't find it by the way :-(

Lastly, I hit one in the Presidentlal Series by bobandia.  This was one of the toughest for me yet.  I knew I was right on it.  I took my time and put on my eagle vision. I crouched, I looked up, I looked down, I ran my hand along surfaces, I got a nice thorn right in the pad of my finger!  I was about to give up because at this point I think we'd hit 100 degrees and I was feeling a bit toasty.  Then, just as I sighed with frustration, there it was staring right at me!  (Insert maniacal laugh here)

I gotta tell ya, I almost skipped back to my car after this one.  I was so jacked! And, to bobania, that was an awesome hide!  I feel really proud of myself and feel like I'm evolving as a novice cacher.  I'm so glad I got into this cool hobby.  Even though my friend Cannon thinks I'm a cool nerd.

Bringing friends into the fold

Yesterday shaped up to be a great little family day.  We took the little adventurer out to use our www.KidsBowlFree.com membership since we all had the day off and since it was already over 90 degrees at 10:00 in the morning.  In the course of our first game, our friend Mike called and he and his son came to join in.  The kids had a great time bowling and during our time there, the subject of geocaching came up.  

They were intrigued.  It just so happened that I had a list in the car of about a half dozen caches in the downtown area that I had already planned on hitting on our way home.  Now we had virgin partners.  Yeah!

This rocked the Casbah!  First, it was a blast introducing geocaching to friends, especially another child.  Second, it was a daily personal best for us, as we hit 5 in one day.  Third, Mike and Duncan both loved it and I think want to continue on with it.  Frankly, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to play once they learn about it.  

Mama Plover; see 4 well camo'd eggs beneath her!

So, we introduced them to a cool hide on Washington Street, then on to Tunnelvision, then the Secret Garden, the corner of Assembly and Pendleton and lastly right across from the Thirsty Fellow...then of course it was ridiculously convenient to pop in for a snack and a beer.  The coolest thing was an accidental discovery.  As we crossed a now vacant lot, covered in gravel, we came across a mama bird who was clearly trying to distract us.  Neil identified her as a "plover."  And, as we were instructing the kids to move away because she was trying to protect something, we spotted 4 eggs in a "nest" right there on the ground.  The eggs looked exactly like the stones in this lot.  If the mama hadn't been there, someone would have never noticed them or could have even stepped on them.  She's pretty smart to have laid her eggs in such a well camo'd spot. It was truly fascinating to see.  Of course, we continued on our way, and she settled down and sat back on top of her little nest.  It was a cool moment for all of us.

The Washington Street hide turned out to be (literally) right outside the office of a friend of mine.  This morning I texted her that I was outside. Come outta there...she's been accusing me of being obsessed with geocaching, you see.  So, I showed her how my iPhone app works and she discovered the cache.  I think she was impressed to learn that that little container has been hiding there since 2009, right under her nose!  We may have two more caching buddies (K and daughter A) soon!

Girls' Day Off

I posted on Facebook the other day how I'd love to just win the Powerball so I could do fun Mommy stuff all the time.  It's weird because I've never felt like I'd ever be the kind of person who could be happy, or even tolerate not working.  But, as Vivian gets older, I find my mind wandering into the land of What If.  So, maybe this is a sign that I need to get my Powerball tickets with regularity...

I decided that on Tuesday, Vivi and I would take the day off.  I wanted to surprise her, especially since lately I get this question a lot in the  mornings and have to tell her, "no, it's a school day, gotta go."  It was so fun to spring it on her as she was waking up...we're taking a Girls' Day Off! Just us girls.


I'm going to take the liberty of assuming that by reading this, you're interested in what we did.  Therefore, I'm gonna tell you about it. If this isn't what you had in mind, click over to Gastronomy (by a Wanna-Be Chef) now.  It's a great blog, I hear :-)

So, first we went by Edventure to register for the afterschool program.  I still can't believe that come mid-August, my child will be in Kindergarten!  Then, I took her with me to donate some of her old clothes to Hannah House.  She's heard me talk about the place and she's gotten really good about understanding the need for donating to less fortunate people.  So, she helped me carry in the bags of her clothes and shoes that she's outgrown.  I think it helped her understand even more.  

Then, we headed to Irmo to meet my mom at Anchor Lanes and tried out our new family pass for Kids Bowl Free.  It was great!  I can't remember the last time I went bowling, but I do know that while I never really think about going bowling, once I'm there, it's always fun.  Thanks to Kids Bowl Free, she can play all summer.  I went ahead and purchased the family pass, so that we grown-ups can play for free too.  I'm excited about this family-friendly activity, especially since it's a nice air-conditioned hobby for our 100+ degree SC summers!  Funny thing is that Vivian won...she smoked us!  And she had lots of fun, so totally worth it!

Next, we took her to lunch then to Toys R Us with mom.  It's dangerous enough entering a toy store with a 5-year old, but add the Grandmother and the bucks are gonna fly!  But, my sweet girl was told she could pick out 2 toys and guess what she told me on the way to the store?  "I know Grandma said I could get two toys, but I think I'll just get one."  Wow!  Where did that come from?


So, from there, we headed over to Dutch Square in search of a cache.  I had scouted it out previously so I could be sure Vivi could find it.  This trip was for Viv to "teach" Grandma how to cache.  She was doing a fine job as coach and then I heard the telltale excited gasp and she found the tube hidden in a tree.  This one has been placed there since 2009, per the log inside.  Isn't that cool that for two years that little camoflagued tube has hidden there for people like us to seek and find?  

So, we retreated into the A/C of Grandma's house and chilled with a movie before heading home and playing in the slip & slide.  Our backyard is lumpy and inhabited by a dog, so the front yard is preferable for this type of thing, as redneck as it is having a little pool in the front yard. But that water felt awesome and seeing my little one splash around and run through sprinklers is so priceless that I can deal with looking a little red around the collar!

Little Cacher is Getting Into It!

After taking Vivi back to the secret garden, she has become a geocaching enthusiast, much to my delight.  I am hooked.  I knew this was a hobby for me when I first learned about it.  I've actually been having geocaching dreams.  Surely as I become more experienced I won't be quite so obsessed.  Right?  

Now, the kiddo is asking me in the mornings, "Mommy, can we go geocaching before school?"  Yahoo!  So, we've been busy.  What I try to do is spend some time on my days off to scout some out so I can return with her and make sure she finds them.  One cool one recently was "You're by Boy, Blue!".  It was a large cache devoted to Blue from the movie "Old School."  It had tons of cool trade items, so Vivi was able to take a little yellow person figurine and leave some erasers behind.  She now has her packed-and-ready caching backpack which includes her treasure box, trade items, extra pens, water, snacks and a journal.  (She's not much of an author yet, but she likes having this leather-bound journal available to her!)

Yesterday morning, we stopped at Realtor Park to look for another.  As we arrived, I first noticed the sprinklers were on.  We searched and according to the coordinates, should have been right on top of the cache, but we had no luck. Will have to think about it and come back to try again.  But, one cool thing to report.  I had the opportunity to be "Super-ultra-cool Mom."  If you think for a moment, you can probably guess where this is going...


"Mommy, can I run in the sprinkler?"  We don't have any other clothes and we ARE going to school.  "Please?"  Ok, but run fast through the sprinkly part so you don't get soaked.  "Ok."  Once through the sprinkly part.  Twice through the sprinkly part.  Third time,  slo-mo through the not-sprinkly but right in the stream from the sprinkler head part.  Soaking wet torso.  Really happy little girl.  "Are we going to school now?" Yep, load up.

As Vivi joins her friends, the first thing she shares is that we just ran through the sprinkers. Two little girls look at me for validation. Yep, I'm that girl. Super-ultra-cool Mom.

Urban caching

We've had some fun finds lately.  I went back to the first one we ever tried to find and located it this time!  Turns out I just needed more familiarity with using the app.  Found a cleverly placed one at Andy's Deli.  Yesterday morning, I located one near the State House that had fun little trinkets in it. I took Vivian back there when I picked her up from school so she could find it.  She traded a blue marble for a yellow polka-dotted one.  She was quite excited about that find!

Today I sought out a "secret garden" not far from campus.  I never had any idea this place was there.  It's a sweet little rail fence garden, which has given me tons of ideas for a garden in my backyard for Vivian.  It took me a little time wandering around to find the cache, but that's ok because there are lots of cool species in the garden.  When I finally located it, I was so pleased to find that it's not a micro.  It has lots of little trade items in it, so I'm taking Viv back this afternoon so she can find it herself.

I then went and bought us a stash of fun small trade items.  I got some smiley face erasers, erasers with messages like "You did it!". mini Play-dohs and mini Tinkerbell fairy frisbees.  I hope other kids will like discovering these little treasures.  I also decorated a plastic box that I have for Vivian to store her Geocache finds.  It's a surprise, so I sure hope she likes it!

Newbies are Gettin' the Hang of it

The bunny ears have migrated to her waist.  But she's still incognito!

I've been waiting so long to try geocaching so I'm excited that the time has finally arrived.  All these years I've been waiting for Viv to get old enough to understand it and to want to participate.  The problem with scenarios like this is that there's a 50% chance that the child won't get into it.  What a let-down that would be!  

Thankfully Vivian seems to really be interested in the game.  And, she's getting pretty darn good at it too.  This morning she asked if we could go find one before school.  Yes!  I am so happy that she's liking it!  So, we went through all our morning chores (breakfast, teeth brushed, hair brushed, etc.) and hit the road.  We went down the street to Owens Field.  This cache was the best one for us so far.  It was cleverly hidden inside a tree and I didn't have to lead her to it.  She spotted it on her own!  And, she's understanding the whole idea of being clandestine.  For instance, she insisted on wearing bunny ears today so any "muggles" would mistake her for a rabbit rather than "someone who is getting cache."

Pretty crafty if you ask me!

2nd Cache...Success!

This morning, I was able to motivate my sweet little one to get a move on!  Finally, I have found (one) answer to get her to get dressed, eat, brush her teeth, get shoes on and out the door in real time rather than slo-mo.  I told her we'd go find a cache on the way to school.  Oh yeah, that did it!

We went by a park not far from here.  We had to climb through a hedge and search a little bit, but then Vivian found the micro container.  It was exciting, as you can probably imagine.  We signed the log, climbed out of the shrubs, hit the playground for a few minutes then went on our way to school.  

After dropping Vivi off, I stopped in Shandon to look for another micro, but this time to no avail.  I know I was standing right on it or next to it, but couldn't find the thing to save my life.  Will have to go back to that one again.  Oh, well.  Newbies must live and learn!

GeoCaching: The Quest(s) Begins

It's hard to believe that I became the Super-Mom that I am five years ago.  In so many ways, the time has flown, as people warn you that it will.  But in other ways, being a parent means waiting.  Waiting. And sometimes even more waiting.  For instance, about 4 1/2 or 5 years ago, I became aware of Geocaching.  I was instantly excited about it and eager to try it out.  But, alas, I realized...you can't take a baby geocaching.  

Well, let me back up.  I recognize that there are plenty of folks out there, probably even right this minute who are strapping on the Chacos, stuffing the baby in the sling and loading up the backpack to venture out on a geocache excursion.  I'm just not one of those people.  I was never afraid to take Vivi out on adventures, road trips, picnics, and what have you...I just didn't always WANT to.  I mean, come on...having a 10, 15, 20 pounder bound to your chest and hiking around in the woods gets:

1. heavy
2. sweaty
3. irritating
4. heavier
5. fun-buzz-killy

So, given the above, I opted to WAIT.  Wait until my sweet baby was old enough to walk on her own (effectively, you know like hiking) and old enough to actually understand what we were doing and enjoy it.

It dawned on me Friday that the wait was finally over.  She's five now.  We can do it!  So, I got us registered on www.Geocaching.com and immediately started researching caches near us.  It's evolved a lot since I intially learned about this sport (is that the right term, I wonder?)  I decided we'd start very small and simple to get the hang of it. After all, she is a kid.  She may not dig it at all.  I picked out a couple that are right around the corner from our house and made the plan for Saturday morning.

First, we chose a green space park about 2 blocks away.  I downloaded the Geocaching app on my iPhone and was literally figuring out all the features on the walk down there.  I know that we were right on top of the site of the cache, but couldn't find it to save our lives.  I suspect it's somewhere in this bed that is maintained by the city and thus thick with mulch.  And a plethera of holly bushes...that's right, holly and they are in full thorn.  We gave up on this one and headed to the next neighborhood park.  As we walked, I figured out even more about using my new app, so by the time we arrived, I was much more saavy.

This one we found!  After a few minutes, my partners (the mister and baby cacher) wandered off acting a little bored, but then I located it.  I called Vivi over and told her I knew it was either right next to me or right in front of me, but I needed her help.  She got down on the ground with me, looked inside a hollow, ivy-covered stump and there it was. A tiny film canister covered in camo duct tape.  Squeals of delight!  We opened it up and guess what we found?  Coordinates leading us back to the holly bush patch we just came from.  As you've probably already surmised, we just reveled in the fact that we found the cache, opted not to return to sticker bush-o-rama and headed home for breakfast.  And the coolest part?  Vivi immediately said, "Can we go find another one?"  I think she's diggin' it!  This has the potential to evolve into the family adventure activity I've been waiting these five years for!