South Hill and Puyallup Caching

Happy Earth Day!

I needed to go caching and not just for one or two.  I had envisioned the day going differently but I get what I can get.  I called Bev to see what she was doing and she said she would go with me.  Bob had to go help the guys with a job so he didn't get to go with us.  She said there were a few in the South Hill/Puyallup area we could go get.  I said okay and made a query for that area.  I asked her when she wanted to go and she never said so I got up around 8 the next day to ask.  She said whenever I get there.  Then she said she would drive if I buy the lunch or dinner.  I said okay.

I got all my stuff together and made a sandwich to bring with me.  I got to her house around 10 and parked the car.  I grabbed my stuff and walked towards the house.  She came out and asked why I was holding my stuff.  I told her, you said you were driving if I bought lunch/dinner.  She said no she didn't, her "smart" phone typo'd me the wrong message.  Apparently I was suppose to drive and she was going to buy lunch/dinner.  I said okay.  I put my stuff back in the car and off towards Hwy 161 we went via McKenna.

Our first ones were along 161 just before you got to the busy part of South Hill.  There was two inside this park they called "new park" but we really didn't know how to get to it.  It was kind of hidden off the main drag.  We parked near a business and walked into the park.  I didn't have the first one we came to but Bev did.  She didn't remember coming here so she assumed Bob came and got it with Kenny or Mike one day.  We started searching for A New Park (GCY6FH).  The coords bounced around everywhere.  All of a sudden a guy walking his dogs walked by while we looked for the cache and he knew what we were looking for. Then he got distracted talking to the Pierce County worker. I moved my search to the other side, found a good spot and I knew that's what I was looking for.

We walked towards the other one at the far end of the park, It Is What It Is (GC56BRY).  Some people have been finding it and others have not.  I was guessing it would be similar to the one I had just found. We made it to the fence line and started looking.  After searching a bit in the area I decided to expand closer to the corner.  And...there it was!  It was similar to the one I had just found.  I yelled to Bev to come over towards me to shower her where it was.  We signed the log and put it back as we found it.

We walked back to the car and headed to the next few caches.  South Hill Park contained four caches we could get.  We parked the car and started with the closest one first, Pooper Scooper 3 (GC40DTM) was no where to be found.  We had to log it as a DNF.  We were bummed.  We walked to the next one, it was a multi called We Now Have a Hero (GC40DTM).  We didn't find that one either.  We were starting to wonder if coming to this park was a good idea.  We followed the trail to the next one, Back to the Future (GC5PDAV) and it was actually there.  We had to hide behind the stump so the muggles didn't see us when they walked by.

We followed the trail and finished up our experience at South Hill Park (GC500JP7) with a cache that bears the same name.  It was in a tree cover with a lot of rotting stumps.  The coords bounced a bit so it was hard to pin point the exact stump that it was hiding near.  I found it after a few failed attempts.

We used the restroom before heading back to the car and looked at the map for the next cache.  The next one was over by the South Hill mall.  I remember years ago getting all the caches near here but I guess there were more put out.  Let's Go To Lunch (GC4X6C1) was behind the restaurants in a place I've gotten a cache once before.  It was crammed between two branches.

We drove over to the Costco to find Loafers (GC574BT) and struck out after searching for nothing for too long.  We were pretty bummed that we already have 3 DNF's on the day.  We saw there was one at the park and ride again, almost in the exact same spot as the one that used to be here was.  Mr. Hoover (GC4TFNY) was a tribute cache by Hoovers69 for his dad.  When we rolled up of course there was a guy in a truck less than 40 feet from the cache.  We really weren't sure what we were looking for but after using our brains we found the cache quickly.

We went towards the western side of Puyallup near the Clark Creek area to some caches we both didn't have.  One was along the pipeline called Cross Roads 2 (GC55E3R) and the other was almost underneath Hwy 510 called Deer Crossing (GC5E96C) and that container had a fake spider next to it that moved if you touched it wrong.  It had Bev jumping from it.  Haha.

The Mystery of the Powerless Power Pole (GC4RXGR) was one we had to go see.  It had a bunch of favorite points and we read some of the logs and it sounded like a really creative one.  I plugged the coords into Nuvi and she lead us to the back side of Clark Creek Park.  The corner didn't allow us to park there legally so we turned around and parked in front of a truck on the side of the road.  We weren't going to be gone that long so we figured it was a good spot.  We followed our GPS into the forest and started looking.  It was an actual power pole.  We read the hints and tried to figure out how to get the cache out of the device.  The cache concept was brilliant and the story that went with the cache was creative.  Eventually we figured out how to open it.  I gave it a favorite point.

I took Bev to go find the one at De Coursey Park and we tried looking for one called Evil Eye (GC5BXQ8) but we couldn't find it.  We even phone a friend.  We finished off the afternoon near Sparks Stadium to grab one more to make it an even 10 caches at Friday Night Lights (GC5QVYB).  That one wasn't hidden very well and we could see it from the sidewalk.

We went up the hill and got back onto Hwy 161 and made our way to Sonic.  Bev has never been to Sonic and she wanted to try it.  Since we had cash we decided to go through the drive thru instead of ordering it with a car and having them bring it to us.  Once our food came, we ordered the standard burger and fries with a drink, we ate it inside the car.  Bev said it was pretty good food and would probably come here again at some point.  I dropped her off at her house and went home.

Next Adventure:  Celebrating 15 Years of Geocaching and Cinco de Mayo Game Night

Seattle Storm Draft Day at World Sports Grille/Art Marble 21

About a week ago I get a text message from Shauna asking if I had Thursday off.  I said yes and why?  She wanted to know if I wanted to go with her to the Seattle Storm draft day.  I said sure...should be fun.  I haven't seen Shauna in a while due to work, days off and just life being busy.  BJ couldn't go because she had to work.

I got up and got my stuff ready.  I found my Storm shirt and I got to wear shorts!  It was suppose to be nice and I took that chance and it paid off.  I did a few loads of laundry and ate lunch before I left to head over to Shauna's house at one.

When I got there I went through a series of dog gates and parked my car over on the far side of the driveway so it wouldn't be in the way.  She showed me her new baby chickens, the new greenhouse she built and of course all of the dogs and cats.  She went and changed into clean clothes while BJ and I sat at the pond and caught up.  It was almost 1:30 and we had to get on the road and she had to go to work.

We got into their new car, a Chevy Volt, a half electric, half gas powered car.  When she turned the ignition you could barley hear that the car was even on. Shauna forgot to eat while doing chores so we stopped at the new convenience store on the Nisqually Rez.  She got a few things from the hot deli and I got a drink.  We continued on our way to Seattle with no traffic.

The GPS said that we would get there with a half hour to spare.  She said we can find a parking spot and walk around the lake until the event starts.  I didn't realize that the event was going to be near Lake Union.  I thought it was going to be at the Westlake Center, not the street Westlake.  We got off of I-5 and followed the directions to the road we needed.  We were hoping there would be parking nearby.

We merged in front of people, Shauna was fearless, and turned right on the correct road.   We saw some parking nearby and took it.  It was right against Lake Union.  We only had to pay up until 4 p.m., which was only two hours.  We grabbed the stuff that we would need and locked up the car.  Since we were there a little early, we walked around near the lake.  We saw some baby Canadian geese and their parents and watched them float in the water.  A lady Storm fan walked up to us and started talking to us.  She told us that just 20 minutes or so ago she had to chase a dog away from them.  Seattle has a strict leash policy and the dog should not have been off the leash.  The dog ended up killing one of the baby geese.  The head was still floating in the water.

We walked across the street and into an old building on the corner that used to be called The World Sports Grille now known as Art Marble 21.  It's been several things throughout history starting in 1921 when it was the Art Marble Company, the building's original owners.  It felt very historical inside.

We signed in, got our name tags and grabbed a handful of free coins to play the games downstairs.  We played a lot of shooter/driving games while we waited for the event to start.  We went through a lot of coins.

The event was about the start upstairs so we wandered up there looking for our free t-shirt and our free food.  We got our shirt and went over to the food.  It was picked over bad.  We went back downstairs to play one more shooting game and to give them time to bring more food.  When we returned upstairs more food arrived.  It looked like they catered from Qdoba.  I grabbed at much food as possible because it went fast.

As soon as we found a place to stand and eat they announced that the Seattle Storm had selected their first draft choice.  They had first pick and third pick in the first round. Jewel Loyd was our first pick and she played for Notre Dame.  Our third pick was Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and she played for UCONN.  We finished our food and then got the courage to get our shirts out and have Sue Bird sign them while we were waiting for our last two picks.

 

I can now add my shirt to my photo with Sue Bird and the 2010 team poster with all of their autographs on it.  We took over a table a group of people vacated and made ourselves at home for the last two picks of the WNBA draft.  Since it was also a really nice day we decided to leave and enjoy outside around Lake Union.  She asked me if there were any geocaches in the area and there were two we could go get.

I used the rest of my battery power on the cell phone to get the coords and write them down.  I'm glad I brought the GPS but for some reason it reset itself back to factory settings and it didn't show the information at the top of the map that shows the arrow and the distance to the cache.  I had to use the compass.  I Wood, Would You? (GC2EV6Q) took us across the small part of the south end of Lake Union near the boating museum.  It was closed but the boats and ships were pretty cool to look at.  The GPS took us to the end of a metal dock.  I had to be careful because there were muggles around sightseeing.  It wasn't found by the last cacher but I found a place it had to be.  I felt with my foot before I squatted down to grab the thing.  It was a tiny ammo box attached to a magnet.  How does one miss this?  We forgot a pen so we went into the cafe nearby to borrow one and then took it back to its hiding spot.  We took a few pictures.

We walked back to the car and grabbed a pen before walking down the path along Lake Union to magnetic bison! (GC49VH7).  We really had to dodge a lot of muggles walking their dogs, jogging and taking an evening stroll.  The cache was not in the first place I looked but we expanded our search zone and found it near some cut back blackberry bushes. Shauna was amazed that I could find these little containers.  We walked back, got in the car and made our way to I-5 south cutting off people as we went.  They were still doing construction on Mercer so it was a zoo anyway.  We got back to her house and I told her thank you for inviting me.  It was a nice change of scenery from what my days off were the past few weeks.

Next Adventure: South Hill and Puyallup Caching

Buffalo Wild Wings, Coldstone, Car Maintenence and Caching

After I was done with work I had my review.  Kinda what I thought would happen but I'm not going to really let it bother me too much.  I clocked out and headed back to my house to get ready to head to Puyallup for our date night.  He met me at my house.  He had a dentist appointment earlier and just hung out until I got off work.  We got cleaned up and I made sure I had everything all packed and ready to go.  We took his car because he had a car appointment at Korum the next day to service his Subie.

We got to Buffalo around 7ish and sat ourselves in the bar.  We made it before happy hour ended but were ignored for about 15 minutes.  When our waitress did show up we asked her if we could get the happy hour prices since we were clearly here before 7.  She said she would go ask her manager.  When she came back she said that they would honor the happy hour price for our beer.  With our beers and waters in front of us we ordered our food right away...mostly becasue we didn't know how long it would take to get our food.  I ordered my usual and Ben ordered his usual as well but tried the Blue Moon wing sauce.  He wasn't a fan and he thought it would be better than it was.  He ate them anyway.

We paid and got in the car to go get ice cream.  I wasn't sure if I had enough room for ice cream at Coldstone.  We got inside and debated what to do.  I ended up getting an Oreo like it size and Ben got a peanut butter shake.  They were both tasty.  We went the back way to Bonney Lake mostly because of the scary incident that happened with the 410 overpass and Angeline Road the other day.  A piece of the concrete fell and smashed a car below killing three people.  When we got to the house we smelled burning electrical.  The fridge compressor had died.  Trish and Amy were getting massages.  We unloaded our stuff from the car and put it downstairs by that time they had come home.  We were internetting.  Then we helped Trish take the stuff out of the fridge and into coolers.  Ben and I went to Safeway and bought some ice.

We hung around for a bit and then decided to head down stairs to watch a movie.  We ended up choosing She's Out of Your League.  His computer died just before 2 a.m. and we didn't finish it.  It was telling us to go to bed so we did.

We got up late the next day and was very late to his car appointment at Korum.  Trish told us to bring it in as soon as we could.  We got there around 1ish, dropped it off and walked to H&R Block to ask a few tax questions before Ben submitted his Turbo Tax.  Then we walked to Fred Meyer for some breakfast/lunch.  He got a sandwich and I bought a lunchable. We were going to his grandma's house for dinner so we picked up some mini cinnamon rolls for dessert.  By that time his car was done so we went and bothered Trish for a little while.  It was a nice day so we decided to go find a few caches in the area before we had to go pick up Amy from work.

I found the closest one, Big League (GC5M8RT) inside a small park called Sam Peach.  I found out my GPS reset itself and I had to use the compass to navigate instead of the information button on the map.  I will have to work on it.  We wandered over towards the bench.  I was not expecting this container but after we found it the title made perfect sense.  We signed the log, goofed around and returned to the car.

We drove around until we ended up at De Coursey Park, near Clark Creek Park (we didn't have time to do the caches inside that park).  Ben said he had his senior pictures taken at the park near the pond.  We parked the car and ended up feeding a squirrel pieces of cookie.  At one point when I had the car door open, I thought the darn thing was going to jump into my lap!

We got out and headed across the street towards the cache, De Coursey Park (GC56VMV).  We found out after walking that it was on the other side of the pond!  We took a few pictures and made it over to the cache.  It wasn't hard to find.  I left a pathtag after we signed the logbook.

It was time to go get Amy from work so we went the back way to Bonney Lake, picked her up and took her to the house, there, we finished our movie, Ben filed his taxes and we packed up all of our stuff so we could go home right after visiting his grandma.

We drove to Auburn the back way past Lake Tapps.  There was no water inside the lake except a few areas were the lake bed was deeper.  We saw a few bald eagles too.

We got to his grandma's house and visited a few minutes before dinner was done.  Shelly made biscuits and gravy and veggies.  We watched TV in the background and listened to Dave and Tony's stories.  We stayed until about 9 and headed back home.  We had a lengthy discussion about our future and it was definitely insightful.  I can't wait!  We hung out a little while until Ben had to go back to the fire station.

Next Adventure:  Seattle Storm Draft Day at World Sports Grille/Art Marble 21

Seattle Sounders (S2) Game

Ben and I got to talking about our upcoming days off.  I mentioned a Mariner game but they were going to be in California on the days we had discussed.  He then brought up going to a Sounders 2 game this weekend.  I asked him, who are the Sounders 2?  They are the reserve team for the Sounders.  Basically they are the Sounders JV team.  Instead of having them just practice and sit on the bench, they created this team to play against other secondary teams in the USL.  S2 was created on October 14, 2014 and they had their inaugural game March 21 against the Sacramento Republic and won 4-2.

I told Ben that we should go because it would be fun.  We planned on going as soon as I got off of work.  He had scheduled a meeting with his tax guy but ended up not going.  I got off work around 4:30 and hurried as fast as I could safely towards Tukwila via Hwy7, 512, 167 to 405.  I had been to Starfire once before back a few years ago with Bob and Bev geocaching, never for soccer.  I met him and we ate dinner near the mall at a Mongolian grill, Ben was craving a teriyaki like meal, and this was the closest with the amount of time we had left before the game.  I had enough to fill me up and he scarfed down two giant plates of food.  I changed my clothes into my Sounders gear.  I followed him to the complex where we should have gotten there sooner and brought cash with us for the parking fee, $5.  We had to turn around and head to the overflow lot where the parking guys let us park there for free.  There's the silver lining for being late, plus we really didn't have to walk that far.

He told me a little bit about the complex and where we were going to sit.  We had to go to will call to get our tickets.  Ben talked to a few people he knew from the Emerald City Supporters.  I saw a photo booth so we had to go take a picture.  We chatted with the guy who was running it.

We didn't know if the complex had food or not or we would have eaten dinner here.  They also served beer.  My bag got checked and our tickets were scanned.  I followed Ben to the far end where the ECS supporters and the flags were.  We found our spot on the bleachers and waited for the game to start.  We were sad we both didn't have enough cash to go buy beer.  Ben said he would go to his car to get some money for beer at half time.

I found an S2 flag on the bleachers so I put it to some good use.  It was just like being at a Sounders game at CenturyLink just at a smaller scale.  The same chants, the same flags, the same crazy Sounders fans were all around us.  It was a good time.  The Timbers scored first on a header.  No one was defending goal side.

At half time Ben went and got some money for us to have a six dollar beer but it was part of the crazy soccer experience.  I thanked him for running out to the car and for the beer.   Just as he was paying for it we shot a penalty kick and it went into the goal.  Game was now tied 1-1.

Five minutes before the game ended (with stoppage time) we scored a really awesome goal.  Right over the Timber's keeper's head.  It was awesome!  The crowd went nuts!  The S2 were still undefeated for the season.  The team was given doughnuts by some fan as they were heading back to the locker room.  The interaction with the players were more intimate at Starfire.  I saw one of the players give a fan his captain arm band.  I tried to find more S2 flags but couldn't find any.  I did managed to grab a program before we left the stands.  We used the restroom before we walked back to the car.

 

We hung out in his car for a while chatting about our upcoming days off and what we were going to do.  He was going to stay in town and hang out with his friend Dion.  I had to go home because I had to work the next day.  I got home around 11:30.  It was a fun evening.  I hope to go to more in the future.

Next Adventure:  TBA

Errands and Tumwater Caching

After work I needed to go put my check in the bank.  I was going to try and have dinner with Ben but he had a meeting at 6 and I wasn't going to make it.  I went to the store and to the bank.  I had to wait in line at the bank.  After the bank I knew mom wasn't going to be home to cook dinner so I thought Eagan's in Tumwater sounded good.  Plus, I haven't had it in a while.  I parked and walked in.

I wasn't really feeling the special for the day so I ordered my usual, cheeseburger and fries with a side of tarter.  I sat down and waited until they called my number.  It was weird eating food by myself.  Every time I've been here it was with at least one or more people.  I silently sat there and ate my food while I texted Ben and Bev.  I also wrote down a few caches in the area I did not have.  There were five to get since it wasn't raining and I had some time before it got dark.

I put the coords into Nuvi to the first cache, Shortcuts (GC5EC8P) and when I got there I knew I have been here before for another cache.  I parked in the same place and talked to Ben for a few minutes before he had to get ready for work.  I got out and looked.  The only spot it could have been and it was missing.  I didn't want to log a DNF so I replaced it.  All of my cache maintenance stuff was in the back of my car so I got a container out and put some black electric tape on it.  I signed it and put the logbook in a baggie.  I hid it as best as I could.  I was probably stolen in March.  I made a note that I replaced it for the cache owner in my log.

I put the coords in for the next one.  That one was down the road a little ways near the spiral walk way over I-5.  Again, there used to be a cache here a few years back.  I parked in the exact same spot.  I followed my arrow to the location and found nothing.  Does this guy not replace his caches?  I didn't want to leave empty handed again so I made another replacement cache for Trackable Heaven (GC5AR9D).  It was suppose to be hidden in the ivy so I tried to hide it as best as I could.  I believe the neighborhood kids had something for its disappearance.

I got onto Linderson Way, it paralleled I-5.  I saw where Wheels on the Bus Go...(GC5F9RD) was suppose to be and found a place to park.  I got out and tried looking for it.  Logically I would look on the bus stop, the glass had been shattered by I think a battery that was on the ground nearby, but the coords took me to a tree in a grassy area.  After ten min of searching I called Bev for some hints.  She said Bob found it and it was a while ago.  She couldn't remember.  I couldn't find anything so I left becasue I didn't have a replacement for this cache.  Maybe the cache owner will replace it?

Apples Anyone? (GC5F8G2) was the next one down Linderson near the hotel.  I parked at the hotel and walked to ground zero.  The hint was confusing and the coords were 30 feet off so I looked at the fire hydrant first and when I didn't find anything there I checked the obvious apple tree and found a red pill bottle.

The last cache was on the other side of I-5 so I drove down towards Isreal Road and crossed over, went through several roundabouts and headed to the back side of a doctor's office.  As soon as I got close to it my GPS died and I thought I had more batteries in my bag...nope.  I got onto my phone and to the geocaching website and read the hint.  I checked two places and found it right away.  It was at the other side of the spiral walk way over I-5.  Medication (GC5C0FQ) was hidden between a rock and a hard place.

It was getting to be that time so I decided to head home.  Before actually going home I stopped and did some cache maintenance on my Triangle II (GC2RP33).  Someone had crushed the lid with the rock so it was letting in a lot of moisture making the contents inside very moldy and mushy.  I took the stuff out of the old cache that wasn't molding or wet and put it in the new one.  I put it back and added more rocks to hide it better.  Off I went towards home.  It was a good day.

Next Adventure:  Seattle Sounders (S2) Game

Easter Fun!

This is a two-parter.


April 4

Celeste chose the date for this month's game night.  We usually pair it with Easter if Easter happens to fall near the date we end up choosing.  Since Celeste chose to be the egg filler and hider she also chose to host the event at her house this year.  Lindsay and I had a great idea for the food this time around.  One evening she came over to drop off my charger I left at her house the last game night and we got to talking about the next game night and food.  We really liked the idea of making mini pizzas and putting our own ingredients on them.  Megan made the two kinds of pizza dough, regular and gluten free, I brought olives and pepperoni, Lindsay and Justin brought some sausage, onions, and more pepperoni, Celeste and Lance provided the sauces, cheese, cupcakes and cookies and Nicole brought some roasted garlic and some games.

I was the first to arrive.  I actually thought I was late.  Everyone else arrived shortly after.  Since it was Megan's birthday her and Matt went out to dinner and might stop by later on.  We started with a game Wits and Wagers and then we got hungry so we started our pizzas.  There were a lot of toppings to choose from.  We had fun making our mini pizzas.

 We ate our pizza while we played another round of Wits and Wagers.  After, Celeste went and hid the eggs so we could go find them.  Last year Nicole was in charge of the eggs and she hid them.  We had airplane shots and adult paraphernalia inside the eggs and well as candy.  This year Celeste did the same thing except no airplane shots, instead we had glow in the dark condoms and tingly lip balm.  Lots of light sabre jokes were added to the conversation.  There was the golden egg, inside that one was "love dice."  Nicole was the lucky finder.

Lance had to get ready for work so we played some King's Crown.  Justin whooped all of us and he's never played the game before.  We all stayed until about midnight and had to go home.  A few of us had to work the next day unfortunately.

April 5 (Easter Sunday)

Our family Easter gathering was canceled this year because all of us were sick and my aunt and uncle who were hosting it didn't want sick people in their house.  We were suppose to go over there around 4ish and we were also celebrating birthdays.  I worked so I had to kinda learn not to make holidays important because I would be missing a lot of them while I was at the hotel.  Don't get me wrong they are important but I had to try not to make them a big deal or I would stress myself out being mad because I couldn't go to them...especially if they were on weekends.  It's hard to put that stuff aside.  Holidays with family is very important to me.

I worked and got done around 4.  Ben invited me over to his aunt's house for dinner.  I told him I would try to get there as soon as I could.  I arrived just after 5 and they were all already done eating but they saved me some food.  We chatted about a few things and watched the little kids play hide and go seek for a bit.  By that time, everyone was ready to go home and do their own thing.  We said bye to everyone and thanked them for the invite and the food.  Ben and I decided to go find an Easter cache nearby.

The closest cache took us to the local Walgreens, How Good Are You? (GC4WJKG)  We used his app because my query didn't go out that far.  He read off the hint and we assumed it was on the first bench.  I knew we were looking for a nano but it was on the other bench when we finally found it.  It was hidden pretty well.  You couldn't see it but only feel it.  We logged our names and took some time for a picture.  Then we put it back as we found it.

Then we headed over to his mom's house to hang out.  I got home around midnight.  Good times.

Happy Easter everyone!

Next Adventure:  Errands and Tumwater Caching