St. Patrick's Day 2012

Derek and I spent the day in Tacoma grabbing caches and doing some of the challenges in the area. We focused our search around the Washington Century Challenge. Combining difficulty and terrain to 100 stars.







We grabbed about 20 caches and did 3 challenges. We had Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and headed back to his apartment for some green beer because we were not going to pay a cover charge. This was my first time drinking green beer on St. Patrick's Day.

Colorado 2012-Day 6

My alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. and today was going to be a long long day. I washed my face, brushed my hair and got dressed. I packed everything in my suitcase and the stuff I needed with me in my back pack. We took the couch apart and took that down stairs first, then the chairs, the tv and then the bed. I got all my stuff and took it down to the car. It was nearing time to go to the airport. I had so much stuff to take with me. I was already exhausted and it was only 7 a.m. There really wasn't enough time to eat (plus there wasn't any food in the apt at this point) and I really didn't want to spend money at the airport because it's expensive. They dropped me off and I walked into the Southwest area. I put name tags on the bags, stood in line to check in my two suitcases (one was mine, the other Erika's with clothes packed in it) and printed off my security check. I stood in another line for security, when it was my turn the lady took my ID and my slip and noticed I was from Washington. She said, "oh, I used to live in the Tri-Cities." I just smiled and went on my way. I walked down to the shuttles and got the one that was going to the terminal. There were lots of people with goggle sunburns, you knew they were skiing or snowboarding over the weekend. I got off the shuttle and headed to my gate. I got my boarding pass from customer service and sat and waited to board. I was one of the last ones on the plane so most of the good seats were taken. All that was left was the middle seats. Not a fan. As long as I wasn't sitting near a crying baby or someone who smells like cigarettes, I was fine. I chose a seat near the front, between a fat guy who stared at his IPad for most of the flight and a lady who had a permanent scowl on her face. She spent most of the time reading her Kindle. This was my first WiFi flight so everyone on board was hooked in. I read my book for majority of the flight. We got drinks and a couple of snacks halfway into the flight. As we approached Seattle, the pilot mentioned that it was in the upper 40's and raining. Great, I left nice weather for some crappy weather. What a great day. I got off the plane, headed to baggage claim, Grandma was sitting there waiting for me. The luggage came off fast, I grabbed both and we headed to the sky bridge and to her van. We got home about a hour and a half later and I made some food and headed over to Bob and Bev's house to drop off her coins and shot glass she wanted. I really didn't envision this trip to turn out the way it did but it did unfortunately. Next trip: San Antonio, Texas.

Colorado 2012-Day 5

We got up early today because dad wanted to go out to breakfast for Erika's last day and our last day we would see her until September. We drove over near the mall to the IHOP. That place was packed. All the IHOP employees were wearing Lorax shirts for the promotion of the new movie. We went over to the Walmart nearby to get some last min things that Erika needed before she was sent off. We headed back to her apartment and she got rid of a few things to people from Craigslist. We wished she would have gotten rid of more of it before we arrived on Wednesday. Oh well. Mom and I took a 2 hour walk down the east side of the High Line Canal Trail. We got 12 I think and I got my 2200th cache.



We got back, rested It was almost time to go and Erika packed up all the stuff she needed. Off to the recruiter's office we go. She went into the office and came back out and said we could come in and look around. We met her recruiter, said our goodbyes and went back to her apartment. I wanted to go to the goodwill before it closed but by the time people got motivated, it was too late. We watched Sparticus, washed clothes and cleaned a little more. It was about time for dinner and dad really wasn't hungry so mom and I jumped into the car and headed to Buffalo Wild Wings. I just couldn't help myself, it was less than a mile from her house. The one back at home is in Tacoma, it's the only one in Washington...so far. Plus every time we go, it's packed. We walked in and headed to the bar since it was a seat yourself option. Mom asked what was good here, I told her just about everything, it just depends on what mood you were in. She got a burger and I got my wings. We watched the Colorado Avalanche play while we ate. Afterwards we went to Target to grab another bin to pack her stuff in, we grabbed popcorn and decided what to bring dad home. We headed over to this noodle place and ordered dad some soup like pad thai. Nearby there was a cache, of course I grabbed it. We went home, gave dad his food and put in Tremors to watch while we waited for bedtime. I knew there was two caches outside her apartment so I talked mom into going and getting them with me. We got back and I packed my stuff as best as I could since my flight left early the next day and we had a lot to do in the morning. Tomorrow: Seattle bound and rain.

Colorado 2012-Day 4

We all got up and dinked around for a bit and then got ready to go to Boulder. No one was really excited to go anywhere except for mom and I. When we were here last, we really didn't have the time to go and explore the towns around Aurora. We got in the car, plugged the city into the GPS and we were on our way. We stopped and got gas outside of Denver and headed out towards Boulder, on the edge of the mountains. We really didn't have a plan of what we were going to do once we got there. We saw where the University of Colorado was amongst the town, main street and the tourist district. No one cared what we did so that posed a problem and stress for everyone. I just didn't want to sit in Erika's apartment doing nothing. I also thought this would be fun to do something together. I parked near the webcam I wanted to do while Erika and dad wandered into a bookstore and mom sat in the car so we didn't have to pay for parking.



After about 20 min we all met back at the car and drove further down the street to park for two hours. We wandered Pearl Street. Mom and I went into a few stores, took a couple pictures and read some brochures.







It was past lunch time and everyone was getting hungry. No one wanted to say what they wanted for lunch. No one could make up their minds so I decided as the driver to just go home. I was getting tired of the indecisiveness. We ended up not having lunch and everyone went about their business. Mom and dad went driving around to random antique shops, Erika went for a run and I went geocaching. I walked on the High Line Canal Trail, which spans over 50 miles.



I took the west route today, leaving some for Sunday afternoon. I left around 3 and came back just before it got dark. I got about 6. I walked into the apartment and mom was making chicken since we had to eat it all before tomorrow. We watched Sparticus, Bones and other random shows while we waited for bed time. Tomorrow: last day we'll see Erika until September.

Colorado 2012-Day 3

Got up early once again. The altitude is really affecting everyone. Every time I blow my nose, blood comes out of it and my nose is raw. Sadly no Boulder today. Instead dad changed the schedule. Everyone was frustrated because no one would work together and communicate. The only reason why there was a schedule to begin with is because certain things were open on certain days at certain times. And there wasn't really that much cleaning to do since Erika did most of it already. Mountain out of a mole hill. I just thought it would be fun for Erika to get out of her apartment and see the area before she left for boot camp. Instead I got "doesn't matter, I don't care and I don't know" answers. I wanted input so everyone can express their opinion. So to get away from the hostility, mom and I went for a walk in Expo Park. We were gone for a couple hours. They were in and out getting rid of stuff in town. We got back and they wanted Mexican for lunch. We assumed we were going to a sit down Mexican restaurant. We went to Chipotle. I've only been there once, mom hasn't been. Everyone had to chill out a bit. Dad cleaned the kitchen for a while, mom and I washed the walls, while Erika sat in front of her computer watching shows on the internet. You could only do so much when there really isn't that much to do. Mom and dad watched Sparticus, I watched some of my Hulu shows until I ran out and Erika gave me access to her Netflix account so I watched some Bones, Erika was watching a bunch of random shows including South Park. Clothes were washed everyday we were there. We packed up some of her clothes because I was to take the purple suitcase with me on the plane, since I am allowed 2 checked in suitcases for free. Most of the night was easy going. Ate dinner and went to bed early. The time difference was staring to mess me up. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.

Colorado 2012-Day 2

Once again, we got up way to early. Because everyone's internal clock is messed up with the hour difference time zone, we all got up at 5 a.m. instead of 6. Grumble grumble. We ate breakfast, people showered, we all got ready and we headed out to Colorado Springs. The night before we ordered tickets online to Cave of the Winds. We didn't have a printer so our first stop along I-25 was the FedEx place, which we found out bought out all the Kinkos. She set us all up and for some reason their server did not work with Yahoo. It thought it was malicious and blocked everything. So the girl said, oh, send it to me through your phone and I'll print it for you. Thank god for smart phones. A few min later we had our printed out tickets and a random act of kindness from a stranger. We asked her what we owed and she said it was on the house because of the Yahoo problem. We hopped in the car and headed towards the cave. Hwy 24 in Colorado was interesting. Had to be careful on it, it's not taken care of very well. Most of the roads in Colorado suck. We got to the turn off and the road was very windy. We got to the top, parked the car and got out. We headed towards the building. There wasn't very many people due to the weather and the fact it was winter. We had to wait about a half hour until the group ahead of us came back.



Our tour guide was Brandy and she was very nice. We were the only people in our group. She started off by giving us the history before the cave. How it was discovered, the names, years, significances. We learned about each section of the cave, all the different formations and names.





At one point, she asked if she could turn the lights out. We were totally on board. First she showed us an old school lantern and then wanted us to experience total pitch black. The darkest areas you will ever experience are in a cave or at the bottom of the ocean. Once the lights were out she said to look around and even wave your had in front of your face. You will not see anything and if you do you are hallucinating. It is your brain's way of trying to see something while in total darkness. Even after 30 seconds of the dark you started seeing things. She turned the lights on and we continued on the tour. It was around a 40 minute tour. It was pretty incredible these amazing creations are still around. She thanked us and we got our picture she took at the beginning of the tour. From there we went to Manitou Cave Dwellings, similar to the ones we saw in southwestern Colorado Summer 2010. These ones weren't as remote. We ate lunch, walked around the gift shop and looked at the dwellings.





It got colder. We wrapped it up and headed over to the Garden of the Gods. Awesome rock formations. I wish we could have spent more time here.







From there, we tried to go see Seven Falls, sadly it was frozen and not worth the $9 dollars per person. It was around 4ish and we decided to head back to Aurora. Traffic started getting bad. There was a bad crash up ahead that messed up traffic for a while. Then it snowed. We got back before the bad rush hour started. We were happy to be back to the apartment. We made dinner, showered, watched some shows and went to bed.

Tomorrow: Cleaning...