TFTH

New look to Geocaching.com

2011-05-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

Groundspeak updated the Geocaching website today, giving it a new look. It's seems ok to me, but I'm really mourning the photo gallery on the frontpage. It was my favorite thing to check out. I think that it motivated a lot of people to try and take interesting photos, in an effort to get on the frontpage. It also brought out a fun, human, adventurous feel for new and old cachers alike. :-(

On a good note, Groundspeak put out a cute video in preparation for the update. Thanks for the laugh!

"Click, Clack, Clatter, Clackety"

2010-05-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

This was a cool experience, I may post a bit more detail about it when I can, and I'll post more pictures when I'm up to it. Click, Clack, Clatter, Clackety:

"I've wanted to do this cache for a while, but it's a bit off the beaten tracks and I haven't been able to bike the loop trail anymore like I used to. So I've put it off for a while.

We've been staying in a hotel for over a week, after our recent house fire. I've looked around to see if there was a cache within (reasonable) walking distance for me to go to, and this was the closest one. I finally decided to get out and do it tonight.

I didn't have a gps, so I looked at the maps and hoped they were accurate. I'm fortunate that they were spot on! I was able to make an easy find. :-)

I intended just to get out for a quick walk, but I ended up taking a while, it was such a beautiful evening. There was a storm on the edge of town, that I was worried would curtail my walk (I saw lightening when I was leaving the hotel), but it quickly faded away. The air was warm, despite the storm, although the wind picked up pretty hard towards the end of my walk.

I walked all the way down to the start of the art deco foot bridge across the Wenatchee River, and back. I saw a lot of neat things along the way: two wild kitties, a hawk, red wing blackbirds, lots of people going by on bikes and skateboards - one lady stopped and had a nice little chat with me, (heard) a marmot - who was upset at me for being too close to his area by the Wenatchee River, lots of pretty variations of the color green, flowering dogwoods, wild roses, a sea of grasses waving in the wind like waves of the ocean, beautiful cloud formations, and a gorgeous sunset.

Thank you for dragging me out of my hotel room for a little while. 8-D"

Late night date/caching adventure

2010-05-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

My log for the cache, Kirkland Signature:

My husband and I snuck out of the house for a quick date, after putting the kiddos to bed. We got a couple yummy blizzards (remakes of a past mistake from the Dairy Queen 25 anniversary buy one get one for 25 cents), and wanted to find somewhere close by to park and eat them, with a nice view. All41 drove to this parking lot, because he knew there was a pretty view from there during the day. I laughed a bit, and told him it was nighttime, and that the view might not be as great. We got to the parking lot, and parked in one spot, but there was a bright sign in the way of a view. We moved, parked again, but there was a bush in the way. I will not tell you how many times we moved to try and get an uncluttered view of Wenatchee, but lets just say that there was one other vehicle in the parking lot, with a guy sitting in it watching, and he probably thought we were totally crazy. I just started laughing and laughing, and couldn't stop, which only spurred on my poor husband to try harder to find a good spot. We basically stopped trying after a while, and just sat and enjoyed our lovely dessert. :P

When we were through, I mentioned that there was a cache here that I hadn't been to, and that we had to do it right then. We have an iphone, so we used it to try and get to the correct spot, but unfortunately, it wouldn't narrow down, and showed our accuracy as being 100' or more. I took out the flashlight and fortunately, we found it within minutes. I felt a bit exposed, because there were still people working in the opposite corner of the parking lot, and I felt conspicious with my flashlight. The last time we went to a cache in this spot, years ago, a policeman stopped and questioned us. Fortunately, he knew about caching, so all was well. But since this time was at night as well, I was having flashbacks of having a police car show up. But all was quiet this night. 8D Patudle's police log, My police log.

Thanks for adding to our silly, little, adventurous date. :D

Geocaching History and Lost & Found Events

2010-05-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, on May 2, 2000, selective availability was turned off. The next day, Dave Ulmer placed the first cache, The Original Stash by the side of a road in the woods near Beavercreek, OR. Then he posted the coordinates for the cache to an usenet group. The cache was found within 2 days. At that time it was called a "stash", a "GPS Stash Hunt", but after a little while, they decided to call it a Geocache because of the possible negative connotations towards the word "stash".

Unfortunately, within a few months, the container was damaged by roadside mowing crews. A cacher found the remains, and wanting to preserve the history, placed another cache within 100', safely up the hill. The Un-Original Stash is still active today.

In 2003, an effort was underway to create a memorial plaque and tribute cache at the site of the original cache. Here is a Geocaching forum thread discussing this: MEMORIAL AT THE ORIGINAL GEOCACHE SITE. The dedication was attended by several geocaching enthusiasts, including Dave Ulmer. The ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE © cache is also still active today. It is one of the most sought after cache finds around the world, over 3,000 finds as of this post. I'm sure that number will jump up around Geowoodstock time, when thousands of geocachers will be visiting the NW.

Here is a youtube video with Dave Ulmer showing and discussing his first hide, and then a video of them placing the plaque:

Here is the original Geocaching website, created by Mike Teague.

After becoming interested in Geocaching, Jeremy Irish created a new site in September 2000, with input from Mike Teague. Soon, Jeremy realized that the site would become larger than he could handle all by himself, and so he partnered with two co-workers, Bryan Roth and Elias Alvord. When Groundspeak first started, there were less than 100 caches worldwide. Now, almost 10 years later, there are over 1 million.

Here are some links that have more interesting information:

Geocaching History

A bookmark list of the first 100 caches

Today's Cacher article about Dave Ulmer

Early Gecaching Timeline

This year is full of events celebrating the 10 anniversary of Geocaching. The first Events are occuring around the world this weekend, all with some form of the name, "10 Years! (location)". Each Event celebrating this anniversary will be getting a special cache type icon. Here is my Event, which is being held tomorrow night: 10 Years! Wenatchee Valley, WA.

There are many new items being sold by Shop Groundspeak and other stores. Shop Groundspeak has geocoins, stickers (pictured at the top of this post), t-shirts, etc. with the 10 year logo. I wanted to post pictures of everything, but there's too many things, just go to the link provided.

Here's a pic of the geocoins from Shop Groundspeak:

Here is another version from Geoswag.com:

For the first time, the annual Mega Event, Geowoodstock, will be hosted by Washington State. This is great timing for the 10 year anniversary, so the theme around this event and others that weekend, is this anniversary. Groundspeak has decided to open up the grounds around their building, so that cachers can come and meet the lackeys and sign the Groundspeak Headquarters logbook. This Event will be held the day after Geowoodstock, and is called Lost & Found Celebration. This will help geocachers to complete "The (Geocaching) Trifecta", which is finding the top three desired northwest caches - Groundspeak Headquarters, ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE ©, and Mission 9: Tunnel of Light.

There is a link on the Geocaching homepage that discusses all of these "Lost & Found" Events: Lost and Found Tour.

Known Events (at this posting) revolving around Geowoodstock/Lost & Found in the summer:

July 1 –

On the Road to Geowoodstock VIII ~ Waterville Hwy2

On the Road to GeoWoodstock: Everett

July 2 –

COWWS Friday Meet & Greet and Luau

Going APE!

July 3 –

Geowoodstock VIII

C.I.T.O.@ GW VIII

Midnight Geocoin Madness II ~ MGM 2

July 4 -

Lost & Found Celebration

10 Years! Wenatchee Valley, WA

2010-04-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm pretty excited. For a while now (probably a couple years, sadly enough), we've wanted to get some sort of an official logbook going for Cache-cadian Events (and any other Events that are Cache-cadian-like). We've fudged for a few years, using sheets of paper to log in at Events instead.

Well, now that the 10 year anniversary of selective availability and the first Geocache is coming up, I felt like we needed to finally get on the ball. I'm hosting a 10! Years Event, in a little over a week, 10 Years! Wenatchee Valley, WA, and wanted to mark the occasion with something special.

Well, I guess it might be a bit corny, but I decided to get something like a treasure chest, something you wouldn't be able to have outside due to weatherproofing, but would be cool to bring to Events (like the treasure chest at Groundspeak Headquarters). This is not a traveling cache! :-p It's just a place to put our Event logbook, and maybe Trackables that people want to bring and trade during the Event. Then, if there's any Trackables left at the end of the Event, the organizer has it in one spot and can be responsible for placing them in a cache after the Event.

Patudles, Water Lily and I went to Ross a few days ago, and spent a while trying to decide between all the different kinds of chests they had there. They were all very nice, most of them made out of wood (or fake wood, I'm sure). Each container had good points and bad points, so I took way too long to decide. We finally decided on one that unfortunately looks a bit more like a clothes trunk than a treasure chest. But it has a handle, is roomy, and best of all - it's covered with a map. Can't get much more Geocaching then that. :-)

I also made an order with Shop Groundspeak, for a bunch of doorprizes and some Geocaching 10 Year Anniversary T-Shirts for my parents and 'Tudles. I figured that this would be a fun time to have doorprizes. All the Cache-cadian stuff will be covered by the WSGA yearly allowance they give to chapters for Events.

My Groundspeak order only took two days to get here, and so I have a bunch of goodies, although wouldn't you know that they would come out with a bunch of things (like the 10! Year Geocoin) right after I received my new order. Lol.

The container is made of pleather, I suppose:

Here's my signal wuz here! trackable, posing with the container:

All my doorprizes, and logbook:

Top 30

2010-04-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok...I have no life. :-p

I used to post heavily in the Geocaching Forums, but as I have gotten sicker, it's harder for me to formulate my words and thoughts, so I mostly lurk. But lately, I've been posting more.

The motivation? To rise above Sparky-Watts, who stopped posting four whole years ago yet still remained one of the top posters all this time, to become the thirtieth top poster in the Geocaching Forums!

Yaaaaay!!! Oooooh!!! Aaaaah!!!

Hrmph. Not gonna keep the title for very long, GATOULIS is quickly catching up to me. That boy can post. Lol. :-D

Cache-cadian Rep

2009-12-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

Well...I'm now the Cache-cadian Rep for this year. Don't know how that happened, lol! Anyway, I was asked by/and or had conversations with several people about the subject, and they brought out that no one was coming forward to do it. So I said I was concerned about doing it because of my illness, but that I would do it if no one else stepped up. I guess that was good enough, and I was promptly nominated. :-p I ran unopposed, and that was that!

Here's what I wrote in my bio on my profile on the WSGA site about this subject:

"My MIL and I have been quite active in our local caching community since we started caching in 2002. We co-hosted the first Geocaching Event in our area, GCG2NC, on June 1, 2003. It was such a cool experience, meeting other cachers in a larger setting. That was one of the first experiences that showed us what a social thing that Geocaching could be. In the years after that, Patudles and I became sort of unofficial representatives for our area, and co-hosted the majority of Events for the next several years, until our group became big enough to have other cachers in the area start helping. It has been so fun to see our small community grow into such a large, vibrant one! Thanks to everyone for all the time and effort that you've put into making our area shine!

So when I was asked to be the Cache-cadian Representative, it wasn't too far of a stretch to say yes. I was hesitant, because of my illness, and other Geocaching duties that I'm involved in, but I'm glad to help out in any way that I can. Thank you so much to everyone that has supported and encouraged me. (hugs)

If you are a part of our Cache-cadian area (roughly North Central Washington - Based in Wenatchee, and includes Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, and parts of Kittitas and Grant Counties (Central WA North of I-90)), and would like to hold an Event or just help in any way that you can, please contact me! I would love to hear from you."

-----------------------------

I look forward to a great year for our area! I hope that I can attend all the meetings (except the campout, I'm sure), and that with all our great cachers, we can do a lot in this coming year.

During our most recent Event, I'll Be Home For Cachemas!, I had some interesting conversations with several different people. It seems that there is a need to hold another technology Event in our area. We had one a few years ago, and I would like to do one again. I'm thinking about maybe February or March, when people are really bored and there isn't much caching going on. We can learn about GSAK, Pocket Queries, and anything else people need help with. I just need to gather a few people who know what they're doing, make sure we can access the internet (I know my dad has internet, although I don't know if he'll be back from Arizona by then). I would also like a screen that we can hook a laptop up to so we can have a proper class, then perhaps some break-out groups.

I've had a couple people say that they would like to do an Event. I believe that The Navigatorz are still planning on doing a CITO? We can do another CITO as well. It works out if we do one on Make a Difference Day, in October, and one during Earth Day, in April. I think that g-people is a cacher who said they would like to do an Event, but I need to check up on that to make sure. My memory isn't the best, if I don't write it down soon enough. :-D

Well, there's some things already in the workds for this new year, I'm looking forward to it! Thanks again, everybody. :-)

10 Balloonies

2009-12-06T02:11:00.000-08:00

Oh, goodness, I think that I got a little too involved in the DARPA challenge today. :-D Well, I was alone most of the day, and it was a fun diversion.

Groundspeak decided to get Geocachers involved in the DARPA balloon contest. DARPA put up 10 red balloons randomly around the U.S. for one day, and the first person who could submit the location of all 10 balloons won $40,000. Groundspeak thought it would be a fun way to see if we could rally Geocachers around the country and find all the balloons. Groundspeak pledged to use the money, plus $10,000 of their own, to give to DonorsChoose.org. The money would go towards GPS equipment for schools.

I had a great time refreshing Groundspeak's balloon blog, and the forum thread, to see when new balloons popped up. They had a drawing of Signal on the blog, with 10 clear balloons. Every time a confirmed sighting came in, a balloon would be coloured red. I would get excited whenever balloons turned red. I am so easily amused. *rolls eyes*

In the end, MIT won. Groundspeak found 8 balloons, MIT found 10. They advertised that they would pay people something like $2,000 per balloon found. Groundspeak chose not to give incentives, like a free membership or something, because they wanted to win fair and square, without any bribing, which could potentially bite you in the end legally.

Although Groundspeak didn't win the contest, they decided to donate their $10,000 to DonorsChoose.org, anyway. Yay!

I'm proud of Groundspeak for organizing this at the last minute! It's amazing how many people got involved, with just a day or two warning! Our community of cachers is great, and I'm glad that I'm a part of such a large family. Thanks for yet another day of fun, even if I hardly had to leave my bedroom for it. :-p

Courtesy of holazola:

10 Balloonies Blog

Groundspeak Forum DARPA thread

update

2008-08-06T03:56:00.000-07:00

I know that it's been a long time since I got back from Australia, and I've only been able to post about our first day. To be honest, the trip took way more out of me than I realized at first. It's set me back quite a bit, and posting to my blog has taken a back seat. Caching has taken a back seat. I used to average (since I started caching early 2002) .5 caches per day. Since we've come back from Australia the second week of April: 'Tudles took me caching one day, I've been to two Events (which I hosted unfortunately), and I made all41 swing by an Earthcache the other day after a Dr. appointment. I think that's it, in 117 days. I did go through a little flurry of waymark postings, however (from places I've been to in the past but haven't submitted yet).

I, and my husband, have spoken to some of you and we know that you have hoped to see some more posted here. I feel bad that I haven't done what I promised. Know that I'm thinking of you, and hoping that I'll be able to get back here and catch up soon. Thanks for the love and well wishes. It's been difficult, but I have faith that God will get us through.

Greetings from Down Under!

2008-03-31T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can see, I haven't made any posts from Australia. Don't worry, I'm alive! :-p

We have had a very hard time with the internet, things work a bit differently down here than at home, so it's been frustrating at times. I have found a very weak connection (cannot upload pictures), so I thought that I'd post an update very quickly. I'll have to get into more detail later.

We're having a good time, enjoying so many things that Australia has to offer! I have taken a gazillion pictures, done a few caches, and have the potential for tons of waymarks if I can organize them all when I get home. We've seen lots of neat animals, traveled a bit, and have great tans and lots of sand in funny places. The beaches here are some of the most beautiful I have ever visited. We had a very nice time visiting friends/family towards the beginning of the trip and now we're going up the coast towards Cairns (we'll see if we make it!).

I have about 4 more caches until I hit my 1200th, so hopefully that will happen in a day or so. I'm excited to make a milestone down here. We're also planning to let loose a TB while here, with a keychain that we have yet to buy (perhaps a boomerang or a kangaroo), with the goal to travel a bit and then come back home to us. Here is the TB page (it has minimal info at the moment): On Walkabout

I have been keeping up on my blog posts on my laptop every day, and plan to post them all when I get home. It will be late for them, but they will be real and immediate since I'm doing this as we go along. They will just be posted later so you can see everything then. Hopefully I'll get to that soon after coming home, depending on how long it takes to recover from the trip. I may do the posts slowly over time as I can (lots of pictures to upload!). This is the best that I've done keeping up a travel log, so we're happy!

G'day y'all, and see you soon from on top!

Monday, 3-17-08

2008-03-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

Driving away, a last look at home!

Logging Whitby's July Geoswag Coin and Pin Club Geocoin into my "home" cache Appleyard, in preparation for releasing it in Australia.

It’s been so many years since I’ve traveled this far. It brings back many memories and feelings. The last time I did this, I was a young adult, traveling alone with a 14 month old. This time, I’m 33, with a husband, a 14 year old daughter, and an 11 year old son. Quite a difference!

The day has been a large blur. I am sitting here, finally, a couple hours into the main flight, in a darkened compartment full of quietly slumbering strangers. I need to sleep, I know. But I did have a short nap on the flight from Seattle to LA.

We were meant to fly to San Francisco, and we were flying from there to Australia on United, not Quantas. That’s the problem with buying tickets so late. But through frustration and crankiness, God always finds a way to work things into something good. The flight to San Fransisco was delayed, which would have made us miss our flight to Australia. We would have had to stay the night in California. But they worked everything out to switch around flights, and we were very quickly rushed through and we’ve ended up being plopped down on Quantas and being wonderfully pampered by Australian flightcrew. Not too sure how that happened, and not going to question it! Lol.

Waiting at SEATAC while working everything out

All41, figuring things out

Alaskan

Flying from SEATAC to LAX:

Watching traffic from my airplane window.

Taxi down the runway

Evening clouds.

Sunset

It’s been a long time since I’ve actually had a meal on a flight, due to cut backs for domestic flights in the past few years. It feels odd, but very nice. Lots of cool snacks as well. I guess it better be for such expensive tickets! I just wish that I had an outlet to plug into, as my laptop leaked it’s energy somehow and I have less than a quarter battery from charging in a dark dirty corner at the layover at LAX (have I ever mentioned that LAX is the worst U.S. airport I’ve been to? almost third world in some areas). Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself. I just wanted to mention that I may have to save this and finish it later, but we’ll see how long my new ‘puter’s battery lasts!

Being rushed through SEATAC meant not having my handicap assistance that we had signed up for. After the last airport experience that I had, I said that I wouldn’t go on another flight again unless I had help pre-arranged. Unless you do, you end up getting caught up in the rush and it doesn’t happen and then travel can became miserable. But before we got out of the plane in San Francisco, a flight attendant announced that my help was waiting for me, which was a nice surprise. There was a wheelchair waiting for me, and it was wonderful. They also took us out on the tarmac, and we drove to the Quantas area by bus. We passed signs saying things like “yield for airplanes” or some such. One plane took off right next to us and scared me half to death. It was actually pretty neat. I didn’t think they allowed things like that, because of security.

Bus between airplanes

Don't get run over by a plane!

Beautiful LAX!

People looking at our airplane

Kboy, playing a flying game to pass the time during our layover

Our plane

Water Lily reading with Signal during our layover

Panorama of LAX gate, with Water Lily in the middle

Well, to sum it up, we’re off. It’s been hard, but I’ve determined to do my best. To find the little good things and real moments even when it’s difficult. Isn’t that what we all need to do? Just at different levels and situations. It’s what we do with what we have that makes our lives worthwhile. I pray that I always remember that. Laughing with my daughter, getting a kiss on the cheek from my son, waving “I love you” in sign language to my husband across a crowded airplane. Life is good. :-)

Waymarks for the day:

"Seattle-Tacoma International Airport" Waymark in the Airport category

"Los Angeles International Airport – Los Angeles, CA" Waymark in the Airport category

Evening on Quantas:

Water Lily looking over the breakfast menu - lots of choices!

All41 and Kboy all the way across the plane

Water Lily with her Quantas fun bag!

Signal with a Wiggles toy from Quantas

Lights

All41 and Kboy, settling down for the night

Water Lily, falling asleep

Back of plane, looking at all the little personal tv's in the back of seats

Flightplan

getting ready

2008-03-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

Well, we're busy tearing our hair out with last minute things that we can't see how we can possibly finish in time. The worst part of a trip is always the preparation. Once you get on that airplane, there's nothing left that you can stress out about in that area, so you can sit back and sigh and just let the trip happen. In a little over 24 hours, we'll be on our way. :-)

Meanwhile, Signal's been getting advice from some locals that All41 brought back with him from his last trip to Australia in 1995. Signal's all ready for the trip. Although...perhaps he's just a bit too ready. :-p

I'm hoping to do some caching of course, although I'm starting to think that I'll end up doing much more waymarking. There are a few very nice waymarks that haven't been created yet, especially more away from the mainstream in the outback. I've already started up a few waymark pages in anticipation of creating them.

I've tried to count up all the caches I have, but it's been so long since I've logged. If I'm correct (although I'm likely forgetting a cache or two over the past couple months), then I should be around 1185. It's possible that I could get my 1,200th cache while there, which would be super cool. But I really need to catch up on my logs to feel safe with my calculations (and also have a chat with a few people who have gone caching with me over the past few months to see if I'm forgetting anything). But we'll see.

All41 joined up with Skype, and just had me do it today as well. Skype is a service that allows you to make phone calls over the computer. You can also do videos if you have a the capabilities. All41's laptop does, but mine does not. Skype has surprisingly good quality, both the video and the audio for the phone call. If the person you are talking to has Skype as well, it's free to make calls to them, anywhere in the world. To make phone calls to and from Australia (if the other party does not have Skype), is 2 cents a minute. Not bad, considering that 13 years ago, most of the phone calls that All41 and I made to each other before he found a better plan, were $1 a minute.

So for the past week he's been making a bunch of calls over to Australia in the evenings, planning everything out. He'll turn on the speaker for his laptop so that I can listen to the other person. I've been enjoying the Australian accents and wonderful characteristics that I've missed all these years.

We tried Skype with my parents a couple days ago. They were at their house, and we were at ours. About 2 miles apart. :-p But they have a video camera in their laptop as well, so we all clustered around our respective computer screens and grinned and giggled over seeing each other. It is cool the possibilities now.

So, if we manage to get internet here and there on the trip, we'll be using Skype to keep up with family and friends. People can get ahold of me using my account name, ambrosia_apples.

I'm participating in a geocoin exchange that's rather fun. First time I've done something like this, but this one sorta jumped out at me and decided to do it. Participants submitted their name and a nearby cache. We each get another's name and location, and then activate a coin to be adopted by the other. Then, we drop the coin in a cache with the mission to get to the other cacher. My coin is coming to me from the Netherlands, and the one I'm sending is suppose to go to Germany. I hope they do well!!! I emailed the person I'm sending a coin to, and asked if they wanted me to take the coin to Australia and either dip it and bring it back with me, or just leave it in Australia. They thought that it would be fun to have me leave it there in Australia. :-D

Here's the gc.com forum link about the coin trade: Suprise, Trade & Travel

Here's the coin I'm sending out: Whitby's July Geoswag Coin and Pin Club Geocoin

Here's the coin that's being sent to me: Ambrosia's 12 Provincien Geocoinrace GeoTag

heading out

2008-03-08T02:24:00.001-08:00

We're heading out to Australia in a week and a half. J We'll be gone for 3 weeks or so. I'm creating pq's (thanks, for the extra help, Lep!), and working on bookmarks, and looking at waymarks. I'm hoping to get some caches and waymarks in cool locations.

I would love to keep up this blog, but I know that the trip will be very exhausting for me and I will be having a hard time just getting through. I have a hard time keeping up on this blog even when I'm at home and in my bed! But I'll try to do my best.

Also, I have no idea how often we'll be able to access the internet. We won't be staying in hotels, and I'm not sure how war driving would work in another country.

I intend to write my posts in a word document, set aside my pictures, and then when I have access to internet I'll post everything all at once. If I actually am able to write up my posts, hopefully that will mean that I might be able to post several blog posts at once when I have the access.

Hopefully, people can see how we're doing as we go along!

Meet & Greet Groundspeak & Garmin in Seattle

2008-01-26T23:59:00.000-08:00

Alright, I waited so long to post this (it sat as a draft for a long time), that I've forgotten all the witty stuff I was going to write about this event. Ah, well, the story of my life right now. *rolls eyes*

I guess I shall content myself with just posting the pictures and a comment on most of them.

The Meet & Greet Groundspeak & Garmin in Seattle Event was great! We met with Groundspeak and Garmin at the REI Flagship Store in Seattle, WA. Lots of people came, and we got cookies! :-) We mingled, exchanged trackables, heard a few important people talk, won some stuff, and tried out the Wherigo on the neat REI grounds.

Sign on the back of the toilet stall door in REI:

WSGA, doing a great job checking everyone in:

Brand new Colorado's (my brother put his pocket knife next to them to gauge the size):

The next two pics are people gathering for the meeting (second one is a panorama):

AndrewRJ, trashtalking me:

View of Seattle from the Conference room:

AndrewRJ and my daughter, Water Lily, having a nice talk:

Wherigo cookies, I finally get to have one! Pertty:

More people pouring in:

Garmin guy (I think):

Standing room only:

Wander Lost, winning a Wherigo Geocoin. (I won one too, I think the drawing was rigged!):

Jeremy giving a talk. The picture on the screen is of the ORIGINAL STASH TRIBUTE PLAQUE, where the first geocache was placed near Portland, OR:

My husband, All41, taking a picture with Water Lily:

A picture of Jeremy's son with a GPS (awww!):

Nerd version of People Pong, lol:

Posing with Signal (you can see my son, Kboy, right behind them, being bored or something, haha):

Milling around after the main meeting:

This guy had a bunch of Jeep TB's around his neck:

Signal, posing with a TB:

Another class, I can't remember, either the same one again, or teaching about how to Wherigo:

My brother, Zephyr, talking to Jeremy for a while:

A cool TB that I dropped off:

My MIL Patudles, All41, and Zephyr:

A group of us, walking through REI to get outside and Wherigo:

At the start of the Wherigo, REI Ice Climber, outside the entrance to REI (led by Shauna):

Zephyr and Water Lily, reading the Wherigo cartridge:

All41, peaking over Kboy's shoulder at the GPS:

"This is how we do it...":

The starting clue:

Learning how to Wherigo:

Peeking over Kboy's shoulder, as he's reading the cartridge:

Water Lily, posing behind a holly:

Taking each other's picture:

Catching Annie, taking pictures of our group:

REI's waterfall:

A see-through compass, to the floor below:

Jeremy, posing with my Signal:

Going after the cache outside REI, Do Not Find This Cache!, with Pyewacket and Zephyr:

We had this frog carving in the door pointed out to us, and were told we had to take a picture of Signal with it:

Panorama of the front entrance of REI, a beautifully landscaped natural area!:

big weekend

2008-01-26T00:49:00.000-08:00

Okily dokily, we're here!

Against my better judgment, I decided to come this weekend. My antibiotic treatment is over, although I'm not over what I needed it for, which sucks. But I've gotten used to my body not healing from things that normal people wouldn't have issues with. So I just go on and do what I can. And this weekend, that means doing as much as I can over here on the Wetside!

We had a long hard day getting out, but it finally happened. All in all, everything worked out fine.

Leaving home, in the winter afternoon light:

We're spending the weekend with my brother, in Seattle. I'm laying on the fold out futon with my family scattered about in the living room, listening to the peaceful sounds of sleep. Aaaah. I'm happy to finally be resting, and I hope it will be enough to be bright eyed and bushy tailed at REI at 10am for the Event. I'm excited! The will attend is up to 100, now. Wow. And it sounds like my brother is going to go. He likes REI, and he's interested in the new Garmin Colorado.

We went to the Spaghetti Factory tonight, which was great because I've been meaning to Waymark it for the Noodle category. It hadn't occured to me, but when we were discussing it with Koko last month (who owns the category), she thought it sounded perfect. We also went to one in Tacoma on the way back from the Vancouver CM weekend, and I'll waymark that one as well. Just need to wrap them up!

We ate in the trolley, and even had the employees come and sing happy birthday to the kids (Water Lily turns 14 on February 1, and Kboy turns 11 on February 26).

I'd love to show more of my Spaghetti Factory pictures, especially my bathroom ones. :-D But I'm sleepy tired so I'm calling it a night. I did really like the pictures I took of the inside restaurant details, I was happy with how they came out. I've been to a lot of Spaghetti Factories around the country (and some of the related restaurants in Canada), but I've always loved Seattle's the best. Perhaps I'm biased.

I'll end with my favorite detail photo from this evening:

On the way to my brother's tonight, we were close and so All41 wanted to stop for a minute at my cache, "Still Sleepless in Seattle", to see the houseboats at night. Very peaceful and quiet, although with not a lot of house lights so I wasn't getting the pictures that I would have liked.

While we were there, Water Lily started freaking out because she was hearing some stranges sounds that we didn't hear. She described it like the signals you can use for dogs that are so high pitched you don't really hear them, but just a little. Finally, I heard it too, and realized that it was the sound of the electricity on the high powered lines above us. It would be perfectly quiet, and then, zing! We had a good laugh. I checked to make sure my cache was where it should be and that the logbook was fine, and then I had to go because the family was already in the car waiting.

My family at "Still Sleepless in Seattle":

I'll take lots of pictures tomorrow, and someday I'll be able to get them ready for posting to the blog and cache page. :-p

events

2008-01-17T04:57:00.001-08:00

Well, I still haven't given the update for the CM weekend, mainly because I haven't gone through all my pics yet, which is overwhelming me. I'd like to have them to post some to the blog as I'm writing. I'm afraid this is the main reason why I've never really suceeded in blogging. The pictures mess me up every time.

So in the meantime, I'm posting about some upcoming Events. Both happen on the same weekend, which I suppose is a good thing, although after how I've reacted so badly to Vancouver (I've gotten so sick that I'm on antibiotics at the moment, which doesn't seem to be helping yet), I'm a bit afraid of this next big weekend. Frankly, I know I shouldn't go and I don't want to when I think of the fear of being so sick, but then I think of what I'd be missing and I inanely plug ahead.

The first Event is Meet & Greet Groundspeak & Garmin in Seattle, on Saturday 1/26/08. I was so disapointed to miss the unveling in NV, but was happily surpised when they posted this similar Event in Seattle for less than I month later. All41 and I witnessed the first sneak peek wherigo unveiling at Groundspeak in April of 2006, and when we went to Groundspeak last December we got to play with wherigo outside for a bit. So I really want to be there for this official wherigo unveiling. I don't believe that I'll be into wherigo hugely, although I can see it's potential uses, while All41 thinks it's tremendous. But I love anything Groundspeak, so I want to be a part of it all. There are already 70 signed up for it, and if you times that by two, you've got 140 attending, potentially.

I'm just wondering if this guy's going to be there:

The second Event is Floating the Skagit, on Sunday 1/27/08. Here is the GC.com forum thread discussing the Event. My husband is hosting this, which means he took care of the whole boating end, and I've done all the rest of the work. It consumed a good portion of several days to work on the cache page, the forum thread, who had already signed up and who was signing up. I stayed up late, I kept falling asleep on myself while typing no matter what time of day it was. It's sort of a fuzzy memory. The most important thing to me was that I didn't mess something up because I couldn't see through my sleep blurred eyes, or because my brain was smooshy. I'd told 'Tudles that I was done with Events for a while after hosting 3 in a row this fall. So how did I get suckered into this one? Lol. This is our third GeoRafting Event (besides all the other rafting groups we've taken out over the years), so I guess we're old pros. Hopefully it will be a great trip.

It looks like we're planning on staying at my brother Zephyr's for the weekend in Seattle. I'll see what I can drag him to, hopefully at least the Garmin/Groundspeak Event. If I crash after that Event, I can stay at his place on Sunday and rest while everyone goes up to the Skagit for the float, although I really hope that I can go.

Speaking of Events.....here's an interesting factoid: in the past 4 months, (not including the caches I did on the CM), I've been to 7 Events and to 7 caches. Even adding the CM caches (I really don't know how many) at perhaps 25 or 30, that's still a strong leaning over on the Events side, more than usual for me.

phew!

2008-01-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

It's taken me until now to post an update. This weekend was so much harder on me than I thought it would be! I've been having a very hard time getting over it.

I'll try to post some info in here very soon.

we're here

2008-01-04T12:59:00.000-08:00

Whew! That's one of the hardest trip days that we have had. But we're finally here, and hopefully can get enough sleep to make it in the morning. Bleh!

We've been having a lot of problems setting up my laptop after those evil people ripped it's guts out and replaced them with who-knows-what. As of today, we couldn't download our CM query into our GPS'rs, and since we were getting in late, I was having bad images of the start of the CM without any coords. I couldn't do it through GSAK, or through Mapsource. I knew it was probably a simple thing, but that didn't help me any.

I called Allanon while he was in the middle of the pre-event dinner and the WSGA board meeting, but got his voice mail. Hoping that AndrewRJ had come with him, I called his phone too and also got a voice mail. Fortunately, Andrew called back right away. He had decided to stay home because he has a brand new baby and didn't feel like leaving her yet. We had a nice chat about babies and caching and GPS (new stuff!), and what he thought the problem was with Mapsource. Problem was I was driving over Cascade Mountain passes and didn't have internet for that fix. Then, I got a call back from Allanon. He was busy with meetings, so he passed his phone to Landrover. Even though Landrover was super patient and nice to me, I felt very unintelligent, because even the basic things he was trying to ask me and talk to me about, sounded like Chinese to me. But after a few tries, we got to the point where I understood what I should try to do.

So......finally after all that, I can use Mapsource with GSAK now, and I can download caches into our GPS'rs from either GSAK or Mapsource! What a big load off! The GSAK was a simple checkbox that I had been afraid to check while I was wandering around GSAK on my own earlier. Viola. The Mapsource just needed to be updated to the newest version online. Now I have everything set up.

Thanks, AndrewRJ, Landrover, and Allanon! I don't know what I'd do without my geocaching friends. Thanks for putting up with my fumblings. :-D

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Vancouver CM

2008-01-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

It's official. We're going to the Vancouver (WA) Cache Machine. YAY! I've been wanting to go on one for soooooo long. I've gotten down after the past few have come and gone and I haven't been able to go because I wasn't feeling well enough. But somehow it's all worked out for this one. I just hope that I wake up tomorrow morning and can get up and get going.

Our group is going to be All41, me, Water Lily, Kboy and Patudles (All41's mom). We're having some work done on our Subaru right now, so it looks like with a little help from the insurance company, we'll be going in a spiffy Chevy Uplander. Much more room! But it's not allwheel drive, and as I'm looking out the window at all the snow falling out of the sky, I'm a bit nervous. The snow's pretty deep out there. Hopefully the roads down to Vancouver will be ok.

I have this crazy notion that I'll have moments in my CM day where I'll be able to find the internet and post some of my blog in real time. Um, yeah, whatever! Although I will be trying to take it easy as much as possible. That's one of the great things about CM's, even if I only do the super easy ones right next to the car, I'll still get a bunch of caches. In my caching draught, that sounds pretty good! I'm really looking forward to meeting some new people, and seeing some of my friends as well! Hugs!

Anyways, it doesn't matter if I'm blogging live, because I don't have an audience yet. But that would be really cool if I did, and could.

Well, we're leaving really soon, so I should get of the blog. We're picking up the kids from school and heading down to the pre event dinner tonight. It should take about 5 hours to drive there.

Not exactly caching weather!

last half year's stats

2008-01-01T04:26:00.001-08:00

I just went over some really quick stats for the past half year (that probably doesn't mean anything to anyone but me). It made me sad to see how little I've been doing, when I used to average a cache every other day. And a whole lot of the caching this past half year seemed to revolve around being out for Dr. visits.

I want to cache all the time, but I've just not been well enough. I feel like I'm not a Geocacher anymore!

I want to resolve to have a better year this year, somehow, with God's help.

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1 Event in December.

3 caches in November (on one trip) - driving home from Thanksgiving, 'Tudles kidnapped me for a couple quickies.

1 Cache and 1 Event in October - (the Cache was) driving home from the Dr. in Yakima.

3 Caches and 2 Events in September (on one trip (except 1 of the events) - after the event for ODragon and co., we did a few Caches.

4 Caches in July (on three trips) - did one while placing my own Cache, 2 while driving to Leavenworth (for family time), 1 coming home from the Dr. in Connell.

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That's 12 Caches in 6 months, an average of 2 a month instead of my usual 15 (?) a month average.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

I'm starting a blog about Geocaching and Waymarking. I have other blogs, and I keep thinking that I should just have this one huge blog and not spread myself out so thin that I don't post to any of them (which will probably happen). But each one is a bit different, and I want to cater to what my audience may want to read about. Some people might love seeing my adventures with Groundspeak, but be utterly bored hearing about me planting bulbs in my yard. Lol.

I'm looking forward to the new year of caching. I will do my best to keep up with my posts. In the meantime, I'll start filling in my past posts as best as I can, probably starting from the beginning.

I'm trying out the little slideshow there on the right of the blog. All the pictures are from my flickr account, from our caching and waymarking over the years.

groundspeak

2007-12-07T23:59:00.000-08:00

We visited Groundspeak Headquarters again today. All41 hasn't been to the new one, so we were able to go since we were there on a Friday.

We were in Seattle for our 12th anniversary. Our actual anniversary is on the 15th, but we celebrated it a week early due to family schedules.

Signal is wearing a tux, for our anniversary!

In 2006, I won an Idiot's Guide to Geocaching. Jeremy had said that normally they have Koko draw a picture of Signal in the books they give out like that, and he saw that mine didn't have one. So he told me to bring it in to Groundspeak to get the drawing from Koko. I think that is was so much more special to get the drawing from her personally, and to get the special little Signal. Thank you, Koko!

This is the container for the Trackables. It's so funny that this is the size of a regular cache, and it goes inside the huge treasure chest at Groundpeak.

This is the Groundspeak Headquarters logbook. Our whole family signed it back in April of 2006. This is the page that we signed. I photoshopped out part of my son's name, because he signed his real one. :-p All41, Ambrosia, Water Lily and Kboy.

A little Signal, topping a christmas tree underneath the flat screen.

Love<3 is showing All41 how the screen works. I saw a friend's log pop up on the screen while we were there!