Geocaching!

 Several years ago, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were avid geocachers. Eddie and I couldn't figure out the appeal. Why would you drive around looking for hidden boxes of junk and trinkets?

Now that I'm at the stage of life where I either get the boys out of the house and wear them out or risk them tearing the place down (add in trying to sell a house and keep it clean 24/7 for showings!), I am WAY more interested in a free outing that will burn both time and energy.

Geocaching found its way onto our Summer Bucket List this year, and after dropping James off at ABAC's tennis camp this week, Will and I were left with a few hours to kill while our house was being shown. I suggested geocaching and he was interested so I thought we'd give it a try.

Our first stop we probably looked for the cache for about 10 minutes before we finally found it. (We are using the Geocaching app!) We DID use the hint as well as the photos posted since we had no clue what we were looking for.


The next cache was placed in TyTy so we rode over, found the spot, and began the hunt. We looked and looked and looked and looked. After probably 20 minutes we gave up the search. We used the hints and the photos and still couldn't come up with anything.

Next, we found ourselves at the big magnolia in town where I KNEW it would be a tricky one. We searched high and low (using the hint "look down") and came away from this one empty handed as well.


After we picked up James, we decided to try one last spot and we came away victorious!




In full disclosure, pre-teen James got back in the car after we found this and asked, "So...what exactly was the point?" HA!

After talking to my brother-in-law today we realized a few errors we made. First, the app will tell you the SIZE of the cache you're looking for. I mistakenly assumed they'd all be similar to the first one we found, but he said some (like the second one we looked for) can be smaller than a penny and will be labeled "micro." Also, in the one like in the tree he suspects that it's in plain sight, but wrapped in something like camo tape so that it won't just jump right out at you. I do think it will be easier with a larger group and will probably enlist a few friends next time we go. (Will was way more interested in tree climbing than treasure hunting!)

Have you ever gone geocaching? Did you enjoy it?


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