Geo-What?!?

This is the question that we get 9 times out of 10 when we mention geocaching. I bet some of you are already scratching your head, what is this strange word you are speaking?!? Believe me I understand, I was one of you before we started this crazy geocaching adventure back in 2010. We started out by testing the waters to see if this was something our family would enjoy and now anytime we go to a new city we MUST find at least one geocache, if not 20. 🙂

This is a picture from one of our first finds.

So I bet you are still pondering the question, “Well, what is geocaching?” In short, it’s an outdoor treasure hunt that you play with 5 million of your closest friends using a GPS. 🙂

Geocaching began in the year 2000 with the first cache located in Oregon and from there it has grown to 2,152,410 active geocaches around the world. Pretty cool, huh! Our family has only found 104, we need to get busy, real busy! 🙂

For all your questions regarding geocaching the best place to start is Geocaching 101. This will answer ALL your questions. It really helped us when we started. The acronyms/words left us puzzled, TFTH, DNF, Hitchhiker, Muggle, etc. do huh? We were perplexed until we found the glossary of terms and now my, oh, my how our vocabulary has changed. Now when someone mentions muggles, we don’t think of Harry Potter, we think “Oh, they no nothing about geocaching. We must operate in stealth mode.” 🙂

Geocaching opens you up to a whole new world. We went to Savannah in 2011 for the umpteenth time but this time did geocaching, we saw parts of the city that we never would have seen if not for this adventure. It is a great way to explore a new city and even your hometown. With over 2 million caches you can ALWAYS find one no matter your location.  Here is one in Bora Bora, another one in Greenville, SC, and how about Anchorage, Alaska. See no matter what part of the world you are in, you can always find a cache!

Geocaching in Savannah, GA 2011.

We also use geocaching to break up the monotony of a road trip. On a 7 hour road trip to Cape San Blas we stopped every hour or so to find a geocache. This made the trip less “Are we there yet?” and more “Where’s the next geocache?”. The kids loved finding all the S.W.A.G along the way to the beach and it gave us all a chance to explore new cities that we usually just pass right through. I think everyone’s favorite stop though was in Blountstown, Fl, we stayed there for over half an hour exploring, climbing, just enjoying this great find.

We found a cache in Blountstown, Fl.

This August geocachers all over the world will be participating in “31 days of geocaching“. Each day in August that you geocache you will receive a  calender style souvenir. We love rewards, therefore, we will be participating as much as we can. Our goal being 31 new souvenirs, of course!

Maybe by the end of the year our family will hit the 200th find!

If you haven’t already started geocaching with your family, I hope this intrigues you enough to give it a try. What better way to spend time with your family outdoors than on a treasure hunt!

 

 

Cape Life

We’re baacckk…

Sorry for the lack of posting this past week, we were having a wonderful vacation with our family at Cape San Blas. Shhh..don’t let the secret out but that place is amazing.

Top ten reasons we love Cape San Blas.

10. Night-time on the beach = roasting marshmallows by the fire, swimming under the moonlight, fireworks, stars that are oh so bright!

9. Beautiful.

Sunset over the bay.

8. Non-touristy. If you want go-karts, para-sailing, theaters, restaurants, etc., then this is not the place for you. But if you want the beach, quality time with your family, bike riding trails, kayaking, the easy-breezy life, then this is the place for you.

7. Quiet.

6. Scalloping, what is that you ask? Scallops are a mollusk, and my family likes to fry them, of course we do, we are from the south after all and we fry everything. St. Joseph Bay is a great place to go snorkeling to find scallops. Although, I don’t eat them I do like to help find them for the family to enjoy. We had such a wonderful time scalloping on this vacation.Click on this link for more information on scalloping at Cape San Blas: http://www.capesanblas.com/things-to-do-scalloping.cfm

Our first attempt at scalloping. We also found some hermit crabs.

Chris getting the mollusk out.

This is what they look like after getting them out of the shell.

All fried up and ready to eat.

5. Take your stuff to beach and leave it for the week. When you go to the beach it seems like you are always toting your chairs, your tent, your umbrella, your beach toys, and more and more and more back and forth to the beach. I love Cape San Blas because you only have to do it once! Saturday evening we took our items to the beach and left it until Friday evening. This saved us so much time everyday.

4. Quiet. Yes, I know this is the second time I listed this but I am telling you it is so quiet and peaceful.

3. Indian Pass Raw Bar. Although, I don’t care for seafood everyone else in the family does and so this is always a stop on our trip to Cape San Blas.

The cousins at Indian Pass Raw Bar.

Chris loves his grub!

Raw oysters…some like it I suppose.

Lydia not so much!

2. The beach, of course! The water is crystal clear, the skies are oh so blue, and the sand never gets hot! (Ignore the spots on the pics, that’s the camera. 🙂 )

1. Family Time. Period. That should always be the most important of any vacation, the time that you spend with the ones you love. Cape San Blas takes away all of the distractions and leaves you with your family. Cooking together, playing together, making those precious memories together, your family time is so important. But just remember no matter if you go to Cape San Blas, the mountains, Paris, or stay home, use your time wisely and make lots and lots of memories with your family!

“Sometimes you will never know the value of something,until it becomes a memory.”
― Dr. Seuss