Grandpa's 80th Birthday

Grandpa was born in 1935 and today we celebrated is 80th birthday.  His real birthday was last Saturday but everyone had plans already.  He didn't care as long as we got together at some point.  This time we decided to have a healthy dinner of Salmon, salad, fruit, veggies and Grammie made a lasagna because she really didn't know how many people were going to come.  I really didn't either.

Turns out Doug's car is a piece of crap and has to get another one along with he and Jen being sick...no one has time to be sick.  Grandma couldn't come because she was at Angela's house watching dogs and for some reason she can't say no to her.  I hope next summer she can say no.  Grandma doesn't need to be driving up to Kent and staying by herself for over a week.  Anyway...

Grandpa came over and picked up the bbq.

We get there as soon as we could.  Mom and dad came home with only a half hour left before we had to be there.  We cut up veggies, fruit and thawed out the fish.  We threw a bunch of stuff into containers and then into the cooler along with stuff for dad.

They unloaded the bbq and we start the fish.  We put everything on the table and due to the Alder Lake fire, everything was in a haze of smoke.

We ate our food and battled bees.  They would not leave us alone!

Kevin told us about his jeep that he is letting Grandpa use for the time being.  We went on a few rides and even took Grammie out.

We had blackberry pie and sherbert ice cream and watched Grandpa open his cards and gifts.  Tracey brought home a harness that was given to her by one of her friends just to see if it fit Roscoe...he was too fat.  Haha!

We visited for a little while and then took the dishes and leftovers into the house.  We helped Grandpa put the bbq back into the truck and then Ben and I left.  We got ready for our next gathering...a game night at Lindsay's house for our August get together.  Grandpa arrived with the bbq so we helped him take it out and we put it back on the porch.

We headed over to Lindsay's and had some Starburst and Skittles and some chips and dip.  We played a few games, hung out and came home.

The smoke on the way to Lindsay's house.

Next Adventure:  A Recap of the Geocaching Road Trip Challenge

GCD, Ape Event and the Drive Home

Sometime between going to bed freezing and our alarm going off I got really really warm.  I heard Ray get up and say "it's time kids."  I immediately started packing stuff.  We had only 40 minutes to get everything down, in the Escape and eat.  They were taking the group photo sometime around 6:20 and 6:30 and this year I wanted to be in it.  Two years ago I missed it by minutes.  For some reason I knew I would be doing the hike again someday.

I was glad I dressed myself in my hiking clothes the night before, that saved us all some time in the morning.  I started with the blankets, pillows and then the sleeping pads.  Ben finished getting his socks and boots on and then helped me take down the tent and roll up the tarp we had under the tent.  It was still moist and had lots of tree debris on it but I will deal with it when we got home.  We got our hiking stuff ready and crammed in the backpack, walking sticks, GoPro, my camera and quickly ate cereal and a raspberry-filled doughnuts.  Ray, Brenda and Zuri were already at the trailhead waiting for the picture.  We would have to come back for our stuff after the picture.  Which might put us behind everyone.  We took the picture and then ran to the cars to grab our stuff.

We hustled up the trail.  I remember two years ago we took the road instead of this trail head.  I wonder why?  The only thing I could think of is that the trail was under construction because of weather damage.  I have not confirmed this yet.  This section of the trail was very steep.  I was out of breath trying to catch up with the group.  I ended up giving Ben the pack to carry.  With a half a mile behind us we finally caught up to the back of the pack and met up with Brenda and Zuri.

When we got to the top of the hill for the second tier of the trail she and Zuri opted to stay behind and wait for us because she said she would hold up the show on the way up.  We didn't care when we got up there and we tried to change her mind.  She still decided to stay and meet up with us when we got down.  We said okay, we will see you when we come down.

We hiked up and passed a few people and a few people passed us.  There were a lot of Germans on this hike.

Along the way I made friends with a gal (jvet) from Austin, Texas.  She was on the slower side but I didn't want to leave her behind.  She was by herself and I kinda felt bad.  Plus this hike is designed to meet cachers from different places, states and countries and I took full advantage of it (and obviously find GCD).  She shared where she grew up, why she ended up in Texas, some of her favorite things to do besides geocaching, tornadoes, hurricanes, some of the favorite geocaches in Texas etc.  She was fun to talk to.  Once we got to the switchbacks, I left her behind only because we needed to get to the top and back down so I could go to my shift at the Ape event.

The view, like two years ago, was absolutely breath taking.  There is just something about being on top of the world in the pacific northwest in the summer that's addicting; it makes you wanna explore more and more!  I just wish we had the time every weekend to go but Ben's schedule right now does not allow us to.

We hiked higher and higher and the tree line finally disappeared.  We were now less than 500 feet from GCD, the last remaining geocache with a three digit code.  I took them on the shortcut and around to Geocache (GCD).  Of course there were a hoard of people around it.  I picked up the container just to see what was inside.  I did notice that the container changed from when I found it for the first time.  We waited patiently in line for Ben and Ray to sign the log.  I got a picture and a video of Ben and I took a few pictures of Ray on his phone for him.

We made our way to Living on the Edge (GC31H5Q) and I let Ben find the cache mostly because I couldn't remember where it was!  Haha!  We enjoyed the view from up here for a while, took some GoPro pictures and decided to go meet back up with Ray, he decided to stay put because of his balance...he didn't trust it walking out to this ridge.

We started our walk back, picking up caches as we descended down the cascade foothills.  We followed Ray because he had time to put a query on his GPS, ours on the other hand didn't get a query put on it so our GPS was just for show, lol.  Whoops.  There were so many people around it really didn't matter.  We grabbed I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up...(GC1W7KE), 56 Miles and 4 Days (GC2F9DV), the new one to honor ECM41 who died last year on his way up to GCD, ECM41 Remembered (GC5E9EW) and lastly Mt. Margaret Trailhead (GC1GMZN).  I've gotten all these caches except for ECM41's memorial cache, which was left out with an electric candle burning next to it.

Getting down took us less than an hour, it probably would have been quicker if we wouldn't have gotten stuck behind a line of people walking slow.  When we did get down to where we left Brenda she and Zuri weren't there.  Did she go back down to the car?  We continued on towards the cars.  I was so done with walking and really needed to get down to the event for my shift.  It was already 10:30.  When we did get to the cars I expected Brenda to be there.  She wasn't.  Uh oh, where did she go?  Ray and Ben followed up behind and I said, "she's not here!"  Ray immediately went into freak out mode.  I didn't blame him.  Where could she have gone?

We had three scenarios.  She saw someone she knew and they took her down to the event.  But then she had the keys so how would Ray get the car down and her phone is still in the car, she would have taken her phone with her and possibly called.  Or, she walked up to GCD with another group of people and she is on her way down or she is wandering around the forest with Zuri.  Ben and I grabbed a sandwich because once we got to the event we would not have enough time.  We sat there and waited about 20 minutes.  We asked a lady who stayed inside the car while her group went up and she said she hasn't seen a lady or a dog.  We finished our food and told Ray we would drive up the road to see if she was around, we ran over something  as we left.  I assumed it was a rock or a stick.  We rounded the corner and saw her a two other cachers immediately.  I rolled down the window and yelled out. "there you are!  We were looking for you and Ray is so worried!"  She said "these two guys found me and asked if I wanted to walk up with them because they walked the same speed as I did".  I asked how on earth did we not run into you on the way down?  She said probably because she walked towards Margaret (GC4KY24) after GCD and we walked to the other one and finished before she walked down.  That was the only possibility.  We turned around and met Ray and Brenda before we headed down to the event.  I got out really quick just to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.  Ray said I left my walking stick and our GoPro attached to the monopod behind.  The monopod is what we ran over.  I was so glad it wasn't the GoPro, that would have sucked!  We told them we would see them down at the event.  We drove off.

We arrived at the Going Ape Event (GC5F58Q) just as the clock reached 11.  I had an hour to kill before my shift as ape handler with JCar.  We got to park in the main lot which was nice, we changed our clothes because it was warmer than it was on the mountain, I put on my WSGA shirt until I got my volunteer shirt, I got my name tag and walked on over to the tents.  Ben stood in the huge line to go potty.  I told him to meet me over at the tents when he was done.  They found my bright yellow volunteer shirt and I talked to a few people, Lynette, Karin, Jim, Annette, Chris, Abby, and other cachers who were wandering about doing what they were suppose to be doing.

Noon finally hit and I found Jcar in his ape outfit.  Chris handed me the Sharpies and Jcar handed me the water bottle and the sandwich board to put over the top of him for it to rest on his shoulders.  He was going to get hot really soon.  The cachers would come in waves.  We would get a lot of people wanting to sign the log and then there wouldn't be anyone.  Most of them were the people that went into the tunnel first thing and then came out to sign the log and get snacks.  There were many people taking pictures and asking what the code word was to the lab caches.  There was one on the sandwich board the ape was wearing.

Ben did some wandering around and finally came back to where I was.  We had about a half hour left on our shift.  He took some pictures, signed the log and just kept us company while we waited the final minutes until we were done.  Quite a few people came that last half hour including several HQ Lackeys. Ambrosia brought a few stuffed animals to pose with the ape and to sign the log (see picture above).  MissJen gave me one of her trackables and I told her thank you.  She smiled, logged her name and took a picture with the ape.

After our time was up, we put the log book and all the Sharpies and left them on the welcome table, said my goodbyes and off Ben and I went towards the tunnel.  We did the labcaches along the way including naming the no-named ape.  This was his first time here so he did the state park cache right outside the tunnel, he did the earthcache inside the tunnel and we walked halfway to the labcache and the Bloody Fingers, Dirty Diapers (GCJMDK) inside the tunnel.  I told Ben we would do the rest another day with bikes and with less people around.  He agreed.

On our way out and back to the parking lot, I saw Grumpy_Geocat and immediately turned around.  I was suppose to meet him and his owner, Melanie, who I met on Instagram, at the TriCities Geocoin event but I left Saturday night and our path's did not cross.  I got lucky this time and actually got to meet her and her friends in person.  It was pretty cool.

We used the restroom one more time and got in the Escape and left Hyak.  Ben picked up one more cache, I was Framed (GC58YVQ)  and we merged onto I-90 towards home.  I wanted to stop at Olallie State Park to grab the WaStatePks100 cache (GC4B5YG).  Since this series is now 3 years old and a lot of the stamps are missing or the stamp and the cache so it's always a gamble when you stop for one you don't have yet.  We were going to grab this one on the way home from the day trip I took with mom when this geotour launched but we read that the stamp was missing and decided not to stop.  It worked out for us stopping this time around.

We found a place to park and followed the GPS on well manicured trails towered by giant trees overlooking downed logs being nursed on by new trees and brush.  It was a beautiful park and I want to come back another time to explore more.  Ben hugged one of the biggest trees along the trail.  We had an interesting time looking for the container but we prevailed.  We also found out that Mc3Cats just recently replaced it but it was a butthole to open though.  We signed the log and put it back where we found it.  I wanted to hang out down by the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River.  I took a few pictures before we decided to leave...we were getting hungry.

We got back onto I-90 and talked about what way we would like to go home.  We called his mom asking if we could come visit and have dinner with her.  She said sure!  He suggested that we find some sort of a sporting goods store so he could replace his golf gloves that were disintegrating.  I told him okay.  We ended up skipping the Hwy 18 Auburn exit just because there was a huge back up and no one had time for that.  We continued west and decided to get off on the 405 and head towards the mall.  Ben said there should be a golf place there.  Sure enough we stopped at the Puetz Golf Superstore and we browsed the gloves for a while before he found a pair he wanted.  Then we looked at bags, and putters, drivers and then used a few of them to practice hitting balls.  I used the restroom, paid for his stuff and then left...they closed at 6 anyways.

We got onto 167 and headed towards Bonney Lake.  We got there just after 7 and his mom was making hamburgers and brats. Brad was over to we shared our weekend with him.  I showered before dinner just to get all the sweat and filth off of me from the previous two days.  We ate food, visited, watched TV and ate ice cream.  We decided to come home instead of staying the night and getting up early the next day and he had station the next day which meant a long day as it was.  We got home around midnight and I helped him unload his stuff and put it in his car. We brought my stuff inside and then we said goodnight.  I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as I knew he made it back to the station in one piece.

My swag I acquired over the weekend.  Thanks to those who shared!

Next Adventure:  Grandpa's 80th Birthday

The Last Geocaching Block Party #GBP2015

The alarm went off at 8.  I wanted to be on the road by 9 just so we could get a parking spot I didn't have to pay for.  The past five years I've been parking in the small alley near the Fremont Troll and I've been lucky every time.  The attendance this year was suppose to be the biggest we've ever had with it being the "last" Block Party (GC5G4X5) and all.

We left about 9:15 after packing all of our stuff into the Escape and saying thanks to Jen and Doug for letting us stay.  Traffic wasn't that bad and it only took us 15 minutes to get to Fremont and park in the alley near the troll.  We made sure we had everything with us and yes, I know we should have made a sandwich to take with us.  I had a grumpy Ben around lunch time.

We got down to the event and already saw a ton of people walking around.  I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't see a lot of people I knew just from the size of the crowd.

 I saw WatchDOGSMike first at the WSGA tent.  He had a copy of FTF Magazine he found for me with my milestone inside of it.  I told him I would trade one of my pathtags for the copy.  He insisted it was free but he accepted my offer since he didn't have one of mine yet.  He had to go get it from his car, in the meantime, we wandered around vendor row looking at everything.  We made our way towards Bev, who was waiting in line for block party swag at the tent.  We chatted for a bit and then went back over to Mike.  He handed me my copy and I thanked him.

Ben mentioned if this is really the last block party we should go stand in line and get a shirt.  I told him sure, let's go.  We didn't have to wait too long but got to talk to a bunch of people also waiting in line.  I must have that face that screams I know stuff ask me.  At least a dozen people asked me questions about the block party.  Then I told them I was a local and their face lit up with joy.  Then they asked me more questions, lol.  We got our swag, Kenny gave me some money to get all of them shirts.  We went back up to the plaza, signed our name on the giant blow up 15, took a few pictures and found our group among the sea of people.

We waited almost 20 minutes to take the group photo.  This year they had a drone, similar to the TriCities Geocoin challenge picture.  I assumed they had to wait for the drone to get ready.

After the group picture, me, Ben, Brenda, Ray, Bev, Kenny, Shari and Lars all did the geocaching adventure lab caches together.  There were a few caches that were either new or ones we've been ignoring for several years that we had time to do as well.  We started with the furthest one east and worked our way west and then back around to the event.

We did a couple of fun lab caches.  One was we had to look through goggles while the other one is blowing into the end of a straw.  It was hooked up in such a way that the code pops up with the air inside the device.  It was pretty cool.  Kenny and Shari did this one for our group.

We walked west along the Burke-Gilman Trail and had very unhappy inconvenienced bikers who were warned about the heavy traffic on the trail due to the event.  Bev even exchanged some words with one of the bikers who was being very impatient. We saw the shrubs that were carved into dinosaurs, the rocket where we picked up This is Ground Control to Major Tom (GC5CXJV) which was placed after the block party last year.  It was nice to actually get a few caches in Fremont instead of just lab caches.

We circled our way back and made our way up towards the troll.  There were some stationary bikes you had to get on a pedal as fast as you could to find the code word.  We just waited until we saw the word and then Ben took some GoPro shots with him and the troll.  Of course it isn't lab cache fun without stopping by the Fremont Library, where we dug through a treasure chest to find a ball with Signal and a word on it.  We were there for a while until I found the ball we were looking for.

Brenda had made some cookies for the trip and shared some with Ben.  He was in cookie heaven.  We walked down towards Evo and Brooks, on the eastern side of Fremont.  When we got there and saw the line of cachers waiting for their turn to get the code.  It was a skeleton and lots of pirate booty and fake diamonds.   This set-up was to honor The Goonies 30th anniversary.  Which in fact the other day the owner of The Goonies house closed it down to fans, cachers and tourists because they was just done with all the people showing up to the house.

Then we decided to go get Been There, Done That, Got 50 T-Shirts Challenge (GC4QYWN) since Kenny suggested we do it.  You could only log it if you have 50 souvenirs on your profile.  I had over 70.  Of course we went to the posted coords because no one figured out the coords.  Upon further investigation we figured them out and walked the long way to the cache.  While walking to the cache, since it's Fremont there is bound to be weird murals along the way right?

We circled around and made our way back to the block party.  We figured out the anagram to the t-shirts hanging on the clothes line along with a few other people wondering what the word was.

We took a break to relieve ourselves.  It was just in time.  Then we grabbed the final to Fremont (GC3FQDQ) a Wherigo off the Burke-Gilman Trail and then finished our two lab caches.  One was under the building inside the parking garage.  There, we took a UV flashlight went into a dark room and looked for the code on the ceiling.  The final one was across the Lake Union canal, we were looking a building with a geological gem on it.  Ray spotted it quickly and we moved on to turn in our words and get our prize for finishing.

I chose a trackable travel tag and Ben decided upon a grocery bag.  We went upstairs to Blue Moon Burgers, ordered burgers and chicken tenders with Bev, Kenny and Shari for some much needed food.  I logged my lab caches while we waited.  When we were done we walked back downstairs to the goofy photo booth and took a group picture.

I haven't done the brewery tour so we decided to do it this year.  Kenny, Shari and Bev did it last year and they were telling us how much fun it was.  We got to one of the breweries and they told us that the first brewery, Fremont Brewery had the small tasting shot cups.  We said okay and we drove to that one.  They said they didn't have anymore so we had to go purchase some at the block party.  I wasn't aware we had to purchase the glasses.  Bev, Kenny and Shari had some so we just used the three of them and shared.  It was annoying they didn't have anymore and no one told us that the stipulations had changed.  Lame lame lame lame.  We went to Fremont Brewery, The Outlander Pub, Hale's Ales (where we saw Lynette from the Fugefinders and we chatted for a few minutes), Bad Jimmy's, The Peddler and Hillard's Beer (that one was closed for a private event).

Kenny, Shari and Bev took us back to the Escape when we were done.  We left as soon as we could towards the trail head at Mount Margaret.  It took us a while to get out of Seattle and a little while to merge onto I-90 towards Mercer Island and Bellevue.  Once we got past Bellevue the traffic magically disappeared.  I texted Ray telling him we were on our way but needed to make one stop at at store for some ice and a couple other things.  We got gas on our way out of Issaquah and back onto I-90 east.

We got to the Hyak exit and took a left onto a road that paralleled I-90.  It was paved for the first few miles then turned into a washboard infested dirt road.  We got to the parking area around 7:30ish and met up with Brenda and Ray who chose to spend the night in their hamster mobile.  They saved a place for us to set up our tent.  We spent about a half hour getting our tent and bedding ready.  We enjoyed a PBJ sandwich and some popcorn while we chatted with Brenda and Ray for about an hour before retiring around 10 to get some sleep.

We crawled into our spots in the tent and tried to stay warm.  I had quite a few layers of clothes on and I was still chilly.  Snoqualmie Pass got down to 49 degrees and we were not used to that type of cold.  A few weeks ago Mowich, in Mount Rainier National Park, wasn't even that cold at night.  I feel like I got some sleep because we had to get up at 5:45 the next morning to take the tent down, put our stuff away and eat some food before the hike started at 6:30.

Next Adventure:  GCD, Ape Event and the Drive Home

Geocaching Road Trip, Thunderstorm, Mountlake Terrace and the Seahawks Game

I tried to have everything packed up the night before so it wasn't as insane in the morning when we were trying to leave.  Mom had Friday off and they had plans to take dad to his first doctor's appointment since his operation back in early July.  I had Ben come over before 10 a.m.  I wanted to leave around 11 to try and avoid traffic and to pick up two geocaches to finish the geocaching road trip challenge. 

Mom told me I had to go to the recycle before we left.  Ben got here and took a shower while I packed the rest of the stuff we might need into the Escape and helped mom go through the cupboards  He got ready and then we went to the recycle to dump off all the stuff we acquired over the course of a week including boxes from the office.  We dumped them off and hurried back so we could finish getting ready before it started raining.

We got the rest of the stuff in the car and we decided to grab lunch along the way.  Our only stop of our trip was going to be in Federal Way for a couple of caches and food.

We drove towards Yelm and onto Reservation Road towards the Mounts Road on ramp to I-5.  A little part of me wondered why I didn't go the other way through Spanaway and Puyallup.  Oh well, we committed.  Traffic went alright up until the interchange of Hwy 16 in Tacoma.  Stop and go until almost Fife. Ugh traffic!  Such as waste of time!

We finally got to Federal Way and off at the Hwy 18 exit.  I am so glad they changed this junction it is much safer than it used to be.  We drove less than a mile to the West Hylebos Wetland Park.  We got to the parking lot and a van full of people were getting out and was in our way.  I didn't realize they were cachers until they whipped our their camera and took a picture of my trackable.  We exchanged light conversation and Ben and I headed out to the earthcache, For the Love of Peat (GC5E5QY).  I wanted to get it before it rained.  I knew I left this one for a good occasion.

We arrived at the spot, answered the questions, took our photo and left.  On the way back we stopped for the traditional in the picnic area, One of My Favorite Parks (GC5XVCA) and we looked for it on the wrong side of the tree at first, when we walked to the other side, Ben found it instantly.  

It started sprinkling so we jogged the rest of the trail until we got back to the parking lot.  Ben needed a picture in front of the cabin.  We got back to the Escape and I plugged in the coordinates to the next cache we needed.  The the sky opened up and all hell broke loose.

The puzzle cache, Tacky 1: Map Quiz Revenge (GC1XBZW) was solved the night before we left.  I figured if we were stopping in Federal Way I should see if there were any near the earthcache we could go get.  On the way there it thundered, there was lightening and lots and lots of rain!  Crap, we're gonna get soaked.  I was wearing flip flops and shorts.  We found a lot next to the cache and parked.  I grabbed my jacket, zipped it up and ran out with Ben.  He found the tree it was hanging in.  We hid under the tree, signed the log and put it back.  I ran back and hopped in the car.  Ben said he had trouble hanging it back on the tree.

I was now officially done with the geocaching road trip challenge for the summer.  Ben still had a couple to get before he was finished.  

Now came the hard part...finding something to eat with all the traffic and rain around us.  I pulled into a complex and saw the Taco Del Mar sign and asked Ben if he wanted a burrito for lunch.  He said sure, we haven't been there in a while.  We both ordered mondo burritos and Ben got a side of chips and cheese.  They hit the spot.  Ben was no longer tempted to eat my arm.

We got into the wrong lane and had to do some creative driving to get back to the main drag to get us back on the freeway.  The rain had become heavy.  Once we got back on and traveled a little ways, there were actual ponds on I-5 and if a car hit one just right, you got a free car wash.  We had a car slosh us and I couldn't see for a few seconds.  Yikes!  Traffic surprisingly wasn't too bad until we got past Burien.  It was slow very slow.

We got into Seattle and inched our way through downtown.  I could not wait to be in Mountlake Terrace.  I just wanted off I-5 and wanted out of the down pour.  We tried calling Jen along the way because she did not give us the address of the apartment complex or the name of it, she didn't answer.  Luckily Doug called us and he gave us the necessary information to get us there.  We got to the complex around 3 and meandered our way through the apartments trying to find the K building.  We finally found it and then called Jen.  She had just gotten up from a nap and showed us where we could park.  It was still pouring down rain.

We went upstairs and she gave us the grand tour of the place.  Because Doug's car wasn't working she had to go pick him up from work.  She gave us the WiFi password and we had a heck of a time trying to get it to work.  Later we found out the internet was turned off due to the thunderstorms by her roommate Ian.  While she was getting Doug, Ben fell asleep and I took an hour to go to Fred Meyer down the road to pick up some food and beer for the Seahawk game.

I got back just before Doug and Jen walked through the door.  They brought home beer and chicken from Ezell's.  I've never had chicken from there and it was tasty.  Between the four of us we had plenty of food for the game.  I heard that the GIFF (Geocaching International Film Festival) event for tonight was canceled due to the weather.  Around 6:30 I started the pizza.  An hour into the game Doug pretty much checked out and fell asleep on the couch for the remainder of the evening.  Jen hung out with us and watched the game.  Seahawks ended up losing by 2 to the Broncos.  Disappointing, but it was just a pre-season game.  We played with her cat piano and watched Pitch Perfect 2.  We turned the couch into a sleeping area and fell asleep around 2.  We had to get some sleep to get up for our long day in Fremont.

Next Adventure:  The Last Geocaching Block Party #GBP2015