San Juans, August 2011

I collect cans just so we could go on a vacation every summer. This year I collected over 400 lbs of cans. Mom and I took the cans in on the Monday before we left. We gathered them all up and crammed them into the trailer attached the suburban. We took them into Tumwater because the other recycle places weren’t going to give us as much per pound. The way there was uneventful. We met dad because I can’t back up a trailer to save my life. We started unloading the cans. We ended up getting just over $270 bucks, more than last year by far. We got our check, stopped by the bank and finally were on our way home. Some lady tried to cause an accident on Ol’ 99 just south of Tumwater. Very thankful she didn’t or we would have been hurt badly. We got home and started getting ready for our trip. Mom made the phone calls and the arrangements for where we were going to stay, how much the ferry will be and so on. I started washing clothes and writing down what kind of food we’d need for thee days.

On Tuesday night I had Derek get his things together and sleep in Doug’s bed so he didn’t have to hurry and get here to leave early Wednesday morning. That morning we got up and packed mom’s car. We got a Discovery Pass, a new way to take more money from us, to keep the state parks open on Monday after the cans at Sunbird’s. We would need it where we were going. Mom had booked a cabin at a place just outside of Anacortes called Pioneer Trails Campground. This was my first time that I could remember being at an RV park. Lots of people who were here looked like they lived here for months on end or even actually lived here year round. I even saw a cat.

Before we got there we stopped in Mount Vernon to grab some lunch. We went to McDonalds because I wanted the Smurfs from the Happy Meals. Lol. We got to the campsite around 1:30 and moved all of our stuff in. It was quite the comfy cabin.



We all got back in the car and headed south towards Oak Harbor, down at the end of the island. None of us have been here before, so we explored as much as we could. Derek and I did a little geocaching because we had a mission to get all of the counties and DeLorme squares since we were up there.





Dad really didn’t enjoy the geocaching, in fact he complained about it a little, but still let us do it anyway. He didn’t really have a choice since I was the driver. We drove back up the island to Deception Pass, the place mom created around the vacation. The state park was pretty cool.





Derek and I did some geocaching while mom and dad walked around the beach front near the bridge. We took it all in because we have no idea when we’ll be back to this area, especially on a nice day. We headed up closer to the bridge and walked on it and around it to see it from the different angles. We were definitely high up when you looked down to the ocean. Mom, Derek and I completed an earthcache at this site before finishing up in the Deception Pass area.







It was getting darker and we decided to drive home the long way back to the campsite via the scenic route to Anacortes and around to our cabin. The area was absolutely stunning. I’m glad we decided to go that way. We grabbed a few more geocaches before we got hungry and went back to the fort. We started a fire and had some hotdogs, chips and potato salad. We hung out at the cabin, visited and eventually got ready for bed because tomorrow will be a long day.

We all got up by 7ish to get all of our stuff ready to get on the ferry. We weren’t sure how long it would take to get to the ferry terminal in Anacortes or if we would get on the first or second ferry. So we took a gamble and headed out. I haven’t been on a ferry since I was in 4th grade (which was 1994) with Mr. Pitts and some other students. We rode the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle to go to a Mariner’s game in the Kingdome. We got to the terminal, paid our fees and drove the car to the appropriate lane for Friday Harbor. We were the LAST car on the first ferry called the Hyak.







We took a few pictures because we were excited to be on a ferry. The ride took about an hour and we saw the sign, Welcome to Friday Harbor. We got off at the terminal and started driving. We had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do. Mom started looking at her maps while we stopped every now and then to geocache. We had to hit specific areas to get the DeLorme squares and the counties. The first place we went on the island was the Lime Kilz State Park. Our Discovery Pass was paid for instantly on that trip. We went to several places that required the pass. The state park was pretty cool. They used to mine the limestone and incinerate it in the large structures they built out of brick and concrete. This was also an Earthcache and we learned a lot about the area. You can actually see it from Google Earth.







It was nearing lunch time so we drove to San Juan County Park. We brought stuff to make sandwiches and found a semi clean picnic table. We ate out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, chips and drinks and enjoyed the view. Someone said that we just missed the Orca whales by about a half hour. We drove around the rest of the island with stops along Roach Harbor, where we saw a camel called Mona. It kind of threw us off seeing a camel on the San Juan Islands.



Dad started freaking out and wanted to return to Friday Harbor because he thought we might not make it back for the ferry and we would be stranded there for the night. I told him it wouldn’t happen because we had two chances to go back. We headed to the terminal and the lady told us that the 4:00 ferry was full but we were guaranteed a 6:00 ferry ride back. We had to park the car for a short amount of time and then parked it in the appropriate lane to go back to Anacortes.



We had to wait a couple of hours so Derek and I went geocaching and mom and dad walked around the harbor. On our way up the street, a lady asked us where the liquor store was, she was very washed up looking. We found quite a few before heading back to the terminal. We got a t-shirt and had some ice cream as we waited. We were one of the first vehicles on the ferry. This one was called the Elwah.




We parked where we were supposed to and walked up to the lobby area and hung out reading travel magazines. We got to Anacortes around dinner time, headed back to our cabin and started a fire. Turns out we forgot our chicken for our sandwiches and mom and I had to run back into Anacortes for something for dinner. We grabbed some pulled pork to warm up and eat with the buns we brought. We relaxed, ate dinner and logged our stuff before we used the restroom and went to bed.

The next day, we packed up all of our stuff and decided to go Hwy 11 to Bellingham just to see more of Washington since none of us have really been up there, except Derek, he lived there at one point. We stopped by a few of the pullouts off of the highway just to see the view of the Sound.



It was beautiful, too bad we had to hurry up and hurry home. We entered Bellingham and drove around Western, just to see where Barlow went to school. Pretty campus, but it’s no WSU. We had a quick lunch at McDonald’s because they were still doing the Smurf toys. We headed back down towards Seattle. The traffic was horrendous so we stopped by Doug’s place in Shoreline for a while and visited. We got back on the road about an hour or two and headed home. The San Juans was quite an experience and would love to go back to Orcas Island next time.

Block Party and Ape Event

While I learned the sport of geocaching, I also learned about the huge events put on by Groundspeak and other major groups.  I heard about the Block Party.  Groundspeak had this huge event planned for a Saturday in August and I made sure to put it on my calender months in advance.  Groundspeak was also moving to another location just up the street in Fremont.  It was one of the coolest events I have been to so far.

We got up that morning and had all of our stuff ready from the night before, we even made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch.  We met Derek at his place and drove my mom's car because we had a Discovery Pass, which is now needed for all Washington State parks.  We were going to stay with Doug that night in Seattle because we needed to go to Snoqualmie Pass the next day for the Ape event at the tunnel.  It made more sense to stay in the area than driving all the way home and driving all the way back.  I just wanted to pop onto I-90 and drive only for 45 minutes.  We headed to Seattle that morning so we could find a decent parking spot.  We ended up parking at the Fremont Troll, which was actually a pretty nice parking spot.  We walked down the hill and to where the event was taking place.  There were tons of people here for the event.  People flew in from different countries and states to be here.  I never really realize how lucky we were only to be less than 60 miles from Groundspeak.

We got down to the action.  We weren't sure what we were going to do at this event.  We were still considered newbies at this point.  We signed the log book, which was this huge banner and there were tons of names on it already! 

 We stood in line for a t-shirt and other random stuff.  We walked around where all the vendors were.  They had some cool stuff.  Lots of tags and coins for sale.  Too bad I didn't have a lot of extra money.

We were given a small square package with a chain and a map in it.  Since they were bringing challenges into the thick of things they tried them out on us first.  There were 5 different events scattered around Fremont and we had to do the task and the volunteers would give us a puzzle piece.  We found caches as we did the challenges.  We finally found the troll cache after looking for it several times.  Apparently it was moved from its original location.  We did a few caches and a few challenges as we walked around Fremont.

The first challenge we did was figuring out what the hidden message was with flags.  Each flag had a different shape and color with a corresponding letter.  We quickly worked the hidden puzzle and were given our puzzle piece.  We headed to the next one.

 We had to take apart chocolate beans and throw them into a container until we had enough ounces and the volunteer would give us a second puzzle piece.  The third one we had to either scoot around or dress up in skiing/snowboarding gear and take a picture.

 The fourth one involve answering questions about the Fremont area, which the history of it was pretty weird.  For some reason we could not find the fifth one and we even walked past it twice!  It was at Freemont Mischief. a alcohol distillery.  We had to fill up a bottle with water and cork it.  If your cork came out, you had to do it again.  Afterwards, we walked around the waterfront getting the caches we didn't have.

We went back to the Block Party to take the picture and to see who won the raffle drawings.  We didn't win.

 We headed over to Doug's place in Shoreline for the night since we were going to the Ape Event in Snoqualmie.  Shauna could not use her Storm tickets so she emailed them to me and we printed them out.  It took us an hour to go 7 miles!!!   Traffic was horrible for some reason.  We got there just before the game started.  The Storm played pretty well and beat the Liberty.  We grabbed a few caches while we waited for Doug and mom to come get us since they dropped us off earlier.

 The next morning we got our stuff ready and headed out to Snoqualmie via I-90.  We got there pretty early and started discovering people's cars. 

We saw that Mike and Bob made it and headed for the tunnel.  That tunnel was awesome!  It's a 2.5 mile tunnel and it is pitch black through most of it.  You need a flashlight at a sweatshirt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snoqualmie_Tunnel

We grabbed all of the caches inside and on the other side of the tunnel.  I really wished we would have brought our bikes, we could have gone further.  Maybe next year?

We headed back and wow, my feet and legs were exhausted.   But definitely worth it.

Bob and Mike left and we stuck around a little while, used the bathroom and headed out.  We got stuck in the hour long back up headed west on I-90.  I was so upset.  It was hot and I wanted to be home.  We put it into park, shut it off and wandered around I-90 to find out what was happening and how long we were going to be there.  People rode their bikes, played football, catch and pulled out some lawn chairs and drank beer in the middle of the freeway.

An hour later people started to go back to their vehicles.  I was happy!  We found out the cause of the back-up.  It was bad.  It looked like a camper and a truck saw better days...

We stopped for a few more caches before making it home late that Sunday night.

Very excited for next year's Block Party and Ape Event.