Tumwater Lunch Time Caching

It's been a while since I found any caches and I needed to change that.   I checked to see if there were any near the L&I building or the state records warehouse.  I was in luck.  There were two on either side of the warehouse within walking distance.  Yesss!

Since I was in a warehouse, there are no windows and you can't see the weather change outside so noon showed up and I was excited to get some warmth and sun!  I walked outside with the GPS, my phone and a pen and it was still overcast and cold.  Lame.

I walked over towards the baseball field first.  CLL (GC5CKDT) a cache that published over a year ago.  The caches around Thurston County have piled up while I worked at the hotel.  I had absolutely zero time to really go out and cache.  As I walked over there, I noticed that this "park" was a great place to park your car and sit during lunch time.  What a weird place to sit.  I wandered over to the hiding place, which was obvious, and grabbed it without anyone really paying attention to me.  I took it away from the sets of eyes and sat down on the pole and signed the log.  Putting it back was another story.  I had to really sell that I wasn't hiding back a container to the people that could be watching me.  I walked away like I wasn't even there and I hoped that the cache would remain hidden for the next cacher to find.

Then I walked over to the other one, it was near the state surplus store on the Tumwater Blvd side of the road.  I wasn't sure where it was going to be so I read some of the logs.  Since it was lunch time there were going to be a lot of people driving past me.  I actually saw it before I started looking for it.  Another Cache to Find! (GC53VH4) was tucked into a tree with fir cones hiding it from view.  A muggle wouldn't see it but a cacher sure would!

I walked back to the records center and with perfect timing too.  One of the warehouse workers walked through the front at the some time allowing me to get into the locked door without calling someone to let me in.  I went upstairs into the break room and ate my lunch with the remaining time I had for my lunch hour.

Next Adventure:  Picking up Two in Centralia

Lunar Eclipse

A lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon, happens when the moon passes directly behind the earth in its shadow.  This can only occur only when the sun, the moon and the earth are closely in alignment with the earth in the middle.  A lunar eclipse can occur only the night of a full moon.

Social media, the news and just over hearing people talk about it the entire week.  I usually ignore that there is an eclipse mostly because it's always cloudy and we can never see it.  This time it was going to be clear skies, so why not go and watch it?

We had to wait until it got dark enough.  I grabbed the camera and picked up mom and dad from the middle of their walk.  They hopped in and we drove to a spot where you could see the mountain and the moon.  The moon was so light colored it was hard to see and I grabbed the wrong lens.  Dang it!  Turns out everyone else also liked this spot; the road was lined with cars.  We stayed for about 20 minutes and decided we could not get the picture we wanted so we went home.

I dropped mom and dad off where I picked them up and went home.  I did a few things and then grabbed the correct lens and went out to the top of the driveway and then down towards to the end of the road.  It was the perfect time.  You could actually see the moon because it was bright enough.  I snapped a couple because I did not know how they would turn out.  I was shaky so I went and put my elbows on the hood of the Escape and took a few.  Those turned out perfect!

Next Adventure:  Tumwater Lunch Time Caching

Seattle Sounders Game from the Hawks Nest

Ben's mom found a great deal off of Groupon for an upcoming Sounders game on a Wednesday.  Instead of paying $80+ for two tickets and two scarves, she only paid about $60.  This was before I knew about my job so I told Ben it was a good day to go.  He took a few hours off that day so we could leave around 3:30, enough time to get to Seattle, eat and participate in the march.  That didn't happen.  I started my job, I had training that day until 5:00 and to top it off the effing Chinese president was in town screwing up traffic.

I had Ben meet me at the L&I building as soon as he could.  I made sure I had all of my stuff packed in the car and that I went to the bathroom one more time just in case we were stuck in traffic.  I had to remind him where to come get me and he showed up down the other road I've never been on.  I guess there are three ways to get into the parking lot.  Haha.

I grabbed the stuff I would need out of the Escape and hopped in his car with him.  I saw the bag on the floor...he had gotten us sandwiches from Maconi's, just down the road.  Plus it would be a lot cheaper eating along the way then inside Century Link.  We have discussions about what way we should go because the effing Chinese president was in town to basically take jobs away from us and take them overseas.  I said we should just stay on I-5, every road was going to be horrible stop and go traffic anyway.  I thought we were late enough to where they had unblocked I-5...I guess I was wrong.  We sat in traffic for about a half hour right by the Tacoma Dome.  I was mad.  We could have made it to our game before it started if we wouldn't have sat in effing Chinese president traffic!

Around 6:30 we started moving again and somewhere around Auburn we saw the police motorcade not even a quarter of a mile in front of us.  There was no traffic and every on and off ramp were blocked by a Washington State Trooper.  It took us only a half hour to get from Tacoma to our parking spot a block from Century Link.  In a nut shell, we had a police escort all the way up I-5 into Seattle.  I changed my work clothes in to Sounders clothes about 15 minutes before we got out of the car.

We found the easiest and cheapest parking spot, grabbed all of our stuff we might need and hustled as fast as we could.  We knew we were going to be late but we were hoping it wasn't half time yet or we wouldn't be able to get our free scarves.

Here is some Marshawn Lynch street art we saw on the way to the field.

We walked/ran/jogged as fast as we could.  Meanwhile, Lance and his friend Shannon was texting me asking if we were there yet and I just found out Nick and Nickey were also there.  I tried to see where they were sitting and if they wanted to meet up at half time.  I needed to go to the bathroom as soon as we found a place to go.  We walked into the field house and found restrooms.  I got our tickets out and they were scanned.  We immediately rushed over to the North Plaza where our free scarves were being distributed.  I just knew we needed to get there before halftime.

We arrived out of breath but just in time.  There was only another 20 minutes left until half time.  They highlighted our tickets and handed us some white scarves with green lettering...interesting color combo.  I overheard some people talking about it later saying they gave these out because they were having a hard time selling them...which might have been true.  Either way I was pretty happy with a free scarf.

Then, we hustled to our seats.  I didn't realize they were going to be that high up in the Hawks Nest.  I felt like we were climbing a mountain!  Then again, my whole evening was rushed so I was pretty warm and frazzled anyways. It felt good to sit.  We watched the Sounders score 2 goals before the half and believe me, it was much different sitting there than the ECS section.  Ben felt left out as he saw the flags waving and the chants being yelled in on the other side of the field.  I got a hold of Nickey and we were going to meet them outside their section in the concourse.  Ben stood in line for beer, which we really didn't need but we felt like it anyway, while I looked for Nickey and Nick.  I hadn't seen her in almost two years.  It was fun to catch up with the little time we had.  They met Ben and he exchanged a few brief words while he watched the beginning of the second half on the TV.

...and we scored another goal!  We led the Whitecaps 3-0.

We said our goodbyes and we hiked back up to our seats.  We watched the second half without any distractions.  We did take a few GoPro pictures and they turned out pretty good.  The view was great from up there but we missed out on all the action in the lower section chanting with the ECS and the 253 supporters.

We did get a picture with the group after the game. (Will post as soon as I get a copy.)

Ben knew some of the people so we stayed for a few minutes chatting.  I did remember a couple of the people but it was so long ago the last time I saw them.

I wanted to stop by the team store and look.  I finally found a Sounders beanie hat that I liked so I got one of those, the cold weather season is creeping up quickly and can never have too many hats, and I bought 3 Super Bowl XLVIII Champions Seahawk flags because they were $3 each!  A screaming deal!  They were probably originally $30 each at one point.  I paid for my treasures and we walked back to his car.

He dropped me off at my car inside the L&I parking lot and then we drove our separate ways towards our homes.  I got home after midnight.  I was going to be tired the next day.  I sure had fun with Ben!

Next Adventure: Lunar Eclipse

A Better New Opportunity with the State

I lost my job last May so most of May and June I frantically updated my resume and cover letter, applied for unemployment and started looking for some jobs through the state.  I was sure I would get the one at the supply warehouse but turned out my application sucked.  I called the gal who did most of the hiring through staffing solutions and asked her how my application could be "beefed" up without putting unnecessary information in it.  She gave me some pointers and some key words to add to it to stand out from the others.  I also talked to Laura, a gal that my dad knew that worked in L&I.  I gave her a call one day and she said to email her my resume because there is always someone who goes through them to have them come in for an interview.  It could be anywhere from a few weeks to about 3 months.  I was patient and waited.

In the meantime the next challenge now was to find a job to apply for that I actually qualified for.  I filled out almost 60 of them from May to August.  I was turned down from all of them.  I felt like it was getting pretty hopeless.  Until I got a phone call from Laura saying that they went through my resume and wanted me to come in for an interview for a senior secretary position.  This might be the "foot in the door" that I needed.

I went in for the initial interview at the end of July.  I talked to Laura and Gina.  They asked me a few questions about my past work experiences and the skills and applications I learned from those jobs.  They really liked my Linfield and Yelm Dental experiences.  They thanked me for coming in and they would call me later on during the week.

I got called in on Thursday for another interview and to fill out a background check.  I got to meet Melanie and Linda and they basically asked me what I did at Linfield and Yelm Dental and had a couple other things to say about the job I interviewed for.  I thanked them and walked back out to the parking lot.  There, I talked to Trish and my grandmother.  I thought it went well and it sounded promising.

So I waited.  I emailed Laura after a few days because I didn't hear back yet.  She said the job went to the other person who interviewed because she had more skills with family to leave stuff.  I said okay, was there anything I could have done differently?  She said, you had a great interview she just had that one up on you.  I said, good to know I guess.  She then added, there is another job we would like to you do, it's also a project job and would end, however it's got to be created and approved.  She asked if I was interested.  I said sure!  Anything to get my foot in the door with the state.  Melanie emailed me a few days later and gave me more of the details.  I was stoked!

The whole month of August and a few weeks of September, the job was created, approved and I got my call finally, after being patient for a very long time, on September 15th.  They wanted me to start the next day but I had to have a login for several programs I would be working with on the computer and my own ID number.  It would start on Monday, September 21st.  This could be the break I was finally waiting for.  Now, I could follow through with the rest of my plans.

September 21st:  My First Day

I left my house around 7 in a frenzy because my alarm didn't go off and I was thankful for dad stopping by my room this morning to ask if I was still going to work.  I was very lucky.  I got to work around 7:45 and went in and checked in at the lobby as a guest.  Linda came down and got me and we walked upstairs into the customer service area.  I was greeted by Melanie and she gave me some paperwork to fill out as we visited.  She gave me the tour of the building, library and the cafeteria. While I did that I met Joe, the guy I was going to work on the project with.  Turns out he is Nick's dad, a guy I basically grew up with and went to school together.  I am not sure he remembered who I was.  I have seen and been around him in the past briefly. Small world. At 9:30 I met with my payroll and benefits lady, Tao and we did that for about a half hour.  Melanie was in a meeting so I hung out with Linda while we waited for the meeting to get over. I went into her office and filled out more paperwork until lunch time.

I was sent to lunch for about an hour and I met up with Lindsay, who was trying to get a hold of me but my phone doesn't get very good service inside the building so I called her as soon as I could and we decided to meet at Meconis, the sub place down the road.  She works in the other L&I building.  We got our sandwiches and sat outside and chatted until we both had to go.

I got back to the building and waited for Melanie to arrive.  Joe intercepted me and we both drove over to the warehouse so he could show me what I would be doing.  I learned the reason why this was needing to get done before the beginning of next year, they would be destroyed.  My job was to update them,  by separating the non retired and retired, give them a new content sheet and add a new code to the box because some get destroyed in 25 and the others in 60 years.  I will be doing years 1996 thru 2011.  He was very informative and precise.  He made the job look easy and all I needed to do is to put it into practice.  We did that until 4 and I stayed a half hour later and worked on my own box.  I drove back over to the building and met with Melanie about getting set up for my log in and email.  We ran out of time so we would work on it the next day.  Laura took me downstairs and helped me get my parking pass.

I had a great first day and I learned a lot.  I hope with some hard work I could find myself in a permanent position there some day.

Next Adventure: Seattle Sounders Game in the Hawks Nest

Doing the Puyallup

Since we had so much fun last year we decided to do it again this year!

I wasn't sure if we would have enough time or the opportunity to go this year.  I heard mom talking to Doug one day about all of us meeting up at the fair.  Now we actually had to plan it out and find a day and a time that worked for everyone. I talked to Jen a few times and we settled on Sunday so Ben could go.  Now we wait until Sunday.

In the meantime, I invited grandma, Trish and Amy if they wanted to go with us and told them roughly when we were going to leave the house and be at the fair.  Grandma met us at our house, Trish and Amy met us at the fair and Jen and Doug met us at the fair as well.

We made dad some food that morning to bring with us since he could not eat the fair food because it's so bad for you anyways.  Ben called in sick and made it over after shift and made us all pancakes for breakfast before we went.  Grandma showed up just before it was time to go.  Everyone got their stuff together and off to Puyallup we went.  We drove out towards Spanaway and took Hwy 7 to 512.  Ben took us the back way after stopping at the bank.  We parked in the red parking lot and walked to the gate.

We tried to find out how far out Doug and Jen were and if Trish and Amy were already there.  None of them were even close...still about a half hour out.  Ben paid for everyone to get in.  Everyone parted ways and went and saw the things we wanted to see.  We tried to get a hold of Josh and Sam but struck out both times we tried to meet up with them. We wandered around the FFA area to try and find Sammy's pig and to say hi but she wasn't there.  Eventually we found Trish and Amy and decided to go on a ride while everyone else tried to assemble as a group.  We went on this ride that was four to a cage.  We were locked in and the thing took us up and spun us around and turned us upside down.  Ben was sitting next to me giggling like a little girl with glee; I laughed the entire time.

We walked over to the FFA area again to see if Sammy was there and this time she was.  I introduced Amy and Trish to Mike and Christina since they were there.  We chatted for a bit and then mom called and told us it was time for lunch.  Trish and Ben decided to stay at the hypnotist show while the rest of us walked over to the food area.  We found burgers and fries while dad ate his food that mom prepared that morning.  We all chatted and asked how everyone was.

Ben and Trish met us after we were done eating.  We all walked over to the cows, chickens, ducks and rabbit barn.  There were lots of turkeys and geese but no ducks and four chickens.  I was very disappointed.  I wanted to get pictures and videos of us going down the giant slide so we all walked over that way.  I was so excited to get videos and pictures of us racing.  We waited in line and then they closed it.  I was angry!  Why were they closing it?  We walked away and Trish and Amy went to the Star Trek exhibit and we stood in line for the scrambler because that was the only thing Jen was willing to go on with her fear of heights.  Ben didn't want to go on it but I convinced him.  We didn't get to go on the same ride with Doug and Jen so we laughed at them as they went round and round.

After the scrambler, we used the restroom and walked back over to the slide because they opened it back up.  Doug, Ben and I grabbed a pad and walked up the stairs with all the little kids.  We were helped set our pad on the slide and we got on.  I heard a "GO!" So I went.  I got down to the end and accused of cheating.  I didn't cheat; I went when I heard go.  Haha!  Ben was bent out of shape about losing.  Doug and I went across the finish line just about at the same time.  

From there we all went and did separate things.  Ben and I stood in line for the wooden roller coaster (I've never been on it), Doug and Jen got food and mom and dad walked through the hobby building.  Mom told me to call when we were done with the roller coaster.  The line was huge but we seemed to go through it quickly.  We got the GoPro ready to wear as we stood in line.  When it was our turn we asked if we could sit in the front and they let us. I wore the camera and we were off.  We screamed the entire time to make the video more authentic.  We had a great time.  Afterwards, we stood in line for the other roller coaster, this one had an upside down loop.

The line was big but not as big as the wooden roller coaster.  This line also went pretty fast.  We may have waited for maybe a half hour at most.  Then there was a situation once we go to the front of the line.  Apparently, a girl was not tall enough to ride the ride and the carney woman taking tickets told her she couldn't ride the ride so she went and got her mom to yell at the carney woman.  We didn't actually hear what the woman said but she was angry her daughter could not ride the ride.  The carney woman told her it is a safety issue and her manager even got involved.  The man told her the same thing, it is a safety issue, and that they have rules in place to keep fair goers safe.  The woman did not like that answer and yelled at the two carney workers, F YOU and flipped them off right in front of everyone.  It made her look absolutely stupid and ignorant.  We finally had our turn and we managed to sit in the front again.  Ben wore the GoPro this time.  We had fun, screamed and carried on.

We called mom and no one answered.  Then we called Doug and got a hold of him, he and Jen were eating some food.  A little while later, I got a hold of mom and her and Trish were waiting in line for scones.  Ben was finally hungry so we took him to the BBQ place.  I was kinda hungry since we've done a lot of walking today.  I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and he ordered the meal, which came with corn, beans and coleslaw.  It hit the spot.

Then mom called me asking where we were and I told her we were on our way.  They were over by the Chevy trucks display near one of the gates.  On the way back we stopped to get a fair souvenir since we did not win one when we tried our luck at the games.  I bought a square-shaped goat.  Trish and Amy had already left.  We found them sitting on the bench in front of the hobby building waiting for everyone.  Dad had finally had enough and was tired.  We needed to get him home.  Meanwhile, the Seahawks had started their game with the Packers.  We waited for Doug and Jen to finally make their way towards us too.  I ate a scone and grandma and mom went and got a free Chevy T-shirt from the vendors.  Finally Doug and Jen arrived and they showed us their monkey they won at the games.  Then Jen wanted a bigger one so she got her monkey souvenir and Doug joked that his monkey wasn't good enough.  We took a few pictures of everyone before we left the fair.

We parted ways and headed home.  We listened to the Seahawks game on the radio and heard some great stuff.  We got home and they fell apart in the fourth quarter.  We were disappointed.  Ben stayed for a little bit as I got ready for my first day of work.  We hope to make it to the fair next year!

Next Adventure:  A Better New Opportunity with the State

Placing my Rainier100 Cache and Caching in Elbe

I received my container for the second set of the Rainier100 cache series yesterday and then started working on the cache page.  This has been my first complicated cache page to create because it contained links, HTML code and embedding a photo and a background image.  I fumbled my way through it and I think I did a pretty good job.  A lot of trial and error.

Today, I asked grandma if she wanted to go for a ride out towards Eatonville and the Pack Forest.  She said sure.  I wanted to do it today before it started raining.  The forecast said it will be rainy most of the week and I really didn't want to be inside of a forest in the pouring rain.

I picked her up and we headed towards Yelm, she had some money to deposit before we drove out to the Pack Forest. I found it ironic I was assigned the Pack Forest because it is ran by UW and I am a WSU Cougar and my caching name reflects my college pride, cougarcach24.  I have never actually been inside the Pack Forest but have driven past it many times to and from Yakima.

We followed the road to the main office so I could pick up a trail map.  I had no idea where to hide the cache.  Once again, it was a trial and error experience.  We drove down to the less extensive trails (ones that would be open year around and less muddy) and parked the Escape.  We chose one that led us east and just followed it until we found a good spot.  I kinda wanted cachers to actually get out of the cars and walk to the cache location.  It's about .15 away from the parking coords.  I placed it inside of a tree spire and put a piece of bark-like tree over it to hide it from muggles.  I hoped that area would keep the container dry.  I took my readings and wrote down everything so I could add it to the cache page I was almost done building.

I was pretty happy with the location I chose and grandma and I walked back to the Escape.  I figured since we were already out this far we need to go get the Rainier100:  Elbe Hills Forest Viewpoint (GC5V7TR).  I should have gotten it on my way to Yakima back in June but I didn't have a lot of time.  We get there about 15 minutes later and of course the day that the gate is closed and we have to walk to the cache.  Lame.  Oh well, it gave us the exercise.

Alder Lake was so dry this year actual grass and plants were starting to grow on the lake bed.  I've never seen it this dry before.  The view from here was nice.  You could even see the smoke smoldering from the area that burned a few weeks ago across the lake.  We got up to the kiosk and saw the really worn geotrail from the road down to a rotted stump.  The cache was hidden on the top of the stump away from the views of muggles.

We sat there for a bit as I went through the cache and signed the logbook.  I put it back and we started our walk down the hill.  We walked past a lady and her dog as they were going up the hill.  We said hi to her.  I picked up a few cans and before you knew it we were back at the Escape again.

I took grandma to the rest area just a quarter of a mile from the trail so she could go potty before our 45 minute drive back home.  We talked about a various assortment of topics on the trip back.  I dropped her off and then I went home to eat some burrito leftovers from the night before.

Next Adventure:  Doing the Puyallup

Southeast Mt. St. Helens and Lower Lewis River Falls

Ben and I wanted to take a few days and enjoy Labor Day together because we haven't since we've been dating.  I thought it would be fun to camp out somewhere we both haven't been.  I started doing the research and he asked for the Sunday off so we could have two days.  I found this really cool haunted pub tour in Portland, so with that and finding a place to camp out at would fill in the two days perfectly.  I've noticed these really cool locations on Instagram and some of them were very local.  The Lower Lewis River Falls really enticed me to go visit.  I even found out they had campgrounds but making a reservation was difficult for some reason.  We just decided to wing it.  Then Ben told me a few days before our adventure that the casino was not going to honor his day off because it wasn't 10 days in advance.  Lame.  Very very lame.  So we decided on a day trip instead.

I got our query together and laid out my clothes.  It was suppose to be nice today so I wore light clothing but pants because I knew we would be wandering through the trees and brush.  The next morning I got up around 8:15, got dressed, grabbed everything we would need and ate some Raisin Bran.  I left my house around 8:50 to be in Rochester by 9:30.

He had just gotten off shift at Grand Mound and he took a shower and was not ready to go when I said to be ready by.  How dare he?  I gave him a bad time and he gave me a bad time for giving him a bad time.  We eventually left around 10.  We lost a half hour of driving time.  We got onto I-5 and headed south towards Woodland.

Just before the Hwy 12 exit, a wrench fell out of a truck two vehicles ahead of me, the person in front of me avoided it, it bounced really high off the road and fell just before it could hit my windshield, it bounced and hit the bottom of the Escape, came out the back, bounced and almost hit the car behind me.  I was so so grateful that it didn't hit my windshield.  We would have been injured severely.

We got to Woodland before noon and stopped at the Safeway for some food and to top off on gas.  We went inside to get food first.  We grabbed sandwiches, drinks, chips, snackies and of course we each got a doughnut.  I can not resist the Safeway maple bars. We loaded the car and got gas before heading east on the 503 towards Cougar.  I plugged in coordinates to the first cache.

Since it was a holiday weekend we did get stuck behind some slow people.  At one point we went around a corner I saw a dead animal.  It was someone's chicken and it had recently been ran over.  I felt bad for the people who had lost their chicken.  We continued on to the cache we put into the GPS.

We arrived at the turn out off of the highway and found a good place to park to go get C.C. Bigfoot Hide-A-Cache (GC2CA7) an oldie from December 2001!  I told Ben we had to find this one because it was one of the old caches still left.  He was like, okay.  Of course we went the hard way.  I guess there was a parking lot area and a less hardcore walk to the cache, we entered from the highway and walked up a hill and into what I think is a swamp most of the time but because it was so dry this summer there wasn't a swamp and then a short walk to the area where the cache was hidden.  Ben didn't think I had the correct coords.  He kept asking, "are you sure this is where it is?  It looks like no one has been here in a while".  I told him I promise it's here.  He watched me from down below I just couldn't pinpoint where it was based on the hint.  The GPS bounced all over the place.  I tried several spots near the bluff and even fell down once because of the stupid ground-growing sticker bushes.  I made my way back over to the area I thought it was and sure enough there was the dog food bag and the cache container was inside of it.  Probably to protect it from the snow in the winter months.  I signed our names and took a picture.  Then my stomach dropped...where is the GPS!?  It could be anywhere.  There were so many ferns, brush and sticker bushes.  I told Ben to come up and help me find it.  He climbed up and we started looking.  We were not going to stop until we found it.  I retraced my steps about three different times.  Then I grabbed a stick to help me sort through the brush.  About 45 min into looking I finally found it!  What a relief!!  We walked back to the Escape.

We plugged in the next set of coordinates to the next cache, Lahar Viewpoint (GC3Q2XY), an earthcache on the southeast side of Mt. St. Helens.  I do not remember coming here as a kid but I am sure we did as a family.  We followed the really rough FR 83 out to a place called Lahar/Lava Canyon recreation area.  We got out of the trees into a really open area and found out where the earthcache site was.  We parked the Escape near the bridge and tried to get a view of the mountain before the clouds engulfed it.  It was too late.  I was told that the weather would be nice this weekend.  The clouds had just covered the whole mountain as we got down in the old lahar bed.  Lame. I wanted Ben to see the view.  We started answering the questions and just enjoying the area.  We looked at the volcanic rocks and we got the GoPro out and took a few pictures.

And then it started raining.  I was so disappointed in the weather.  I had so many fun short hikes to do and we can't do them now.  We got back into the Escape and headed back towards the junction of FR 83 and FR 90.  We stopped near a small creek with a bridge behind it to take some pictures.  We left as soon as the rain got out of control.

We stopped for BIGFOOT LIVES!!! (GC1T3ZJ) and we made some bigfoot jokes while we looked for it in the POURING down rain.

We ran back to the Escape and stopped one more time at the Cougar Snow Park (GC1T0X0) and I had Ben stay in the vehicle because it was pouring down rain and there was something going on in the road with a bunch of service workers so I really didn't want to stay around for too long.  I found the cache quickly, it was missing the container and was just a plastic baggie with a log book inside.  I jotted down our names, put it back and walked back without anyone really wondering what I was doing.

We got to the junction and turned left onto FR 90 and made our way towards the Lewis River along the Swift Reservoir.  The road was very windy.  We ate our sandwiches and chips along the way for lunch and listened to Aerosmith.  Dude looks like a lady!!

I wanted to stop and do the small hike up to Eagle Cliff but we didn't have enough time and we were not prepared for the rain.  We would have gotten soaked and been very unhappy.  We bypassed it for another day and followed the road out to Lower Lewis River Falls.  This road was also very windy.  Luckily we didn't have to follow anyone or it would have been an even longer day.  One section of the road was being worked on so it was a very awful potholey dirt road.  You could actually high center your vehicle on one part of it.  The road then went back to pavement and we were less than a mile or so away from the day use area.

We pulled in and found a place to park.  I finally used my forest pass that I bought three years ago.  I finally put a date on it.  We got all the stuff we would need and made our way to the falls.  It was awesome!  I am glad we came to this spot.  I wish we could camp.  We will have to keep this place in mind for future trips.  There is also a middle falls and an upper falls but we didn't have time to do those.

I bet this place is awesome during late spring and early summer.  I kinda want to go swimming in it some day.  We spend a good chunk of our time wandering around the top of the falls.  I have never been to a river where the bed was almost perfect bedrock.  It was awesome!  We saw some really cool formations that have been carved into it from water erosion.

We took some pictures from the waterfall and Ben took a bunch of GoPro videos and photos.  Look for the video in a future post.

We walked back up to the trail and looked at the fall from the various viewpoints.  There were quite a few people around but it wasn't swarmed.  The rain let up a bit but was still falling lightly.

To end our visit, we found a place further down the trail to see the falls from the river bed level.  Of course we took the hard way down and the easy way up.  Haha.

We walked back up to the parking lot and went and looked for the cache before we left. Lower Falls on the Lewis River Cache (GCP6AR) was down a small trail off the road that lead into the recreation area.  We knew where it was before we even looked at the hint.  Ben ran over and pulled it out from its hiding spot.  We signed the log, looked at the trinkets inside, took the TB's and put it back where we found it.  We covered it up better too.

We left the Lewis River area and made our way back towards Eagle Cliff  and took a right to our last cache of the day.  It was an earthcache called Recipe for a Mudflow (GC1F7WY).  It was at a very iconic rock from the Pine Creek mudflow and we had to answer a few questions on the informational board and it was literally a recipe for a mudflow, we thought it was very creative.

We got back into the Escape and made our way to the 503 towards Woodland.  It took us about an hour and it rained off and on.  Like I said, I was very disappointed in the weather but I am glad I got to spend the day with Ben.  We got stuck behind a douche going 20 below the speed limit and no one would pass him and made our trip back longer than it needed to be.  We got to I-5 and drove the 30 miles to Longview.

To top of our day we were going to try this brewery I found online, Ashtown.  It was a small brewery created and owned by two cousins, they were preparing to celebrate their two year anniversary of the brewery opening up.  I had their Red Tape Razz Wheat and Ben had two of their stouts.  They were pretty strong and made him a bit silly on the way home. 

We ate the rest of our food and talked to Ben's mom.  When we got to the station we hung out a bit and then I had to go home because I really needed a shower.  I got home just before 11 and unpacked the Escape.

Next Adventure: Placing my Rainier100 Cache and Caching in Elbe

Geocaching Road Trip Challenge (June 19-September 2) (#geocaching15)

Geocaching was celebrating its 15th birthday and this summer our challenge was called the Geocaching Road Trip and it encouraged us to grab our buddies, get in the car and drive around to see the wonderful places the earth has to offer.  Unfortunately, all of mine were local.  I didn't get to take any far away trips this time.  Our incentive was to earn badges or souvenirs (depending on who you ask) to add to our collection.  More and more cache challenges have been used based off of how many you've collected.  Instead of grabbing all of them in one day, Groundspeak spread them out over a course of about four months.  It started on June 19 and ended on September 2.  There were five mini adventures to earn souvenirs for and when you finished those you unlocked a sixth souvenir to complete your road trip.

WaStPks100:  Wenatchee Confluence (GC4BE6E)

Fun with Favorites, June 19 (we actually found this on June 21):  The first one that was launched challenged us to find a cache (didn't matter what kind of cache) that had ten favorite points or more.

Ben and I were in Wenatchee/Chelan for a wedding while this one came out so I was going to hit two birds with one stone.  I got my 60th WaStPks100 cache and we got our first road trip souvenir.  We parked in the lot and walked the round trip mile to and from the cache. I have heard other cachers talk about this one so I knew what to look for. I also knew it was one of Mr. Gadget's famous bird house caches. We were excited to figure the puzzle out. As we walked down the trail a guy on a bike had his medium sized dog in his back pack the dog even had on sunglasses. That plus the cache was worth the walk down here.  We found the cache easily but took some time to figure out out to open the container carefully (I knew someone had forcefully ruined the previous one days before we arrived) signed our names, stamped our passport (the stamp is getting worn out) and took a few pictures.

Memories of Zenkitty (GC2BN5C)

Meet your Road Trip Crew, July 3 (we actually found this one on July 22):  The second challenge we were to attend an event to meet other cachers.  It didn't matter what type of event it was as long as you were out socializing and meeting new people.

Bev and I wanted to go to an event that was held at the Lacey Train Station to celebrate Zenkitty, a Thurston Co. geocacher, who passed away in April.  I met Jim (Zenkitty), at an event in Centralia May 2012.  Before I met him I thought the Zenkitty handle I saw on several logbooks was a woman!  Boy was I wrong!  Haha.  He was a very sweet guy who knew how to entertain people.  About 25 people came to Ohjoy's event, we had snacks, reminisced about Jim and how he touched our geocaching lives.  It was an awesome event and I was glad I got to attend.

Lake Lawrence Lollygagging (GC4RDKC)

Let's Get Extreme, July 17 (we actually found this one on August 4):  The third souvenir we had to earn was finding either a D5, T5 or a D5/T5 cache.  You could take a strenuous hike, climb a mountain, find a cache that needed special equipment such as a boat or scuba gear, the possibilities were endless.  Most of the caches around my area were boat caches.

Little over two years ago, Ohjoy and her posse got into their kayaks and started placing caches on lakes.  Bev called me around lunch time and asked what I was doing.  I told her getting dad some lunch and that I would be done with all of my stuff in about an hour.  She said okay and if I wanted to go out to Lawrence Lake to go get our T5 cache.  I said sure and I would meet her after I was done.  She cleaned out Bob's boat while I was getting dad's food and mile walk out of the way.  When I got there, we crammed the boat and the oars into the Escape and off to the lake we went!  It was a nice day, roughly around 80ish degrees.  We got to the public boat launch, walked the boat down to the water, made sure we had everything, phone, walkie talkie, plastic bag to put everything in, an extra cache just in case this one was missing...again, and the GPS. Bev stayed on shore while I paddled the 0.15 to the cache.  It was hard paddling there because of the breeze and the two jet skis that flew past me.

I got closer to the shore and pinpointed the tree that I suspected the cache to be attached to.  Because of our dry summer, the shoreline was a lot lower than when it was hidden.  Thus, I had to get out of the boat to retrieve it.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time paddling myself to shore because of the thick Horsetail Rush plants along the shoreline.  I had to set the oars aside and pull myself to shore with my hands in the lake.   Once onto shore, I noticed this giant bees nest that someone had lopped the top off of it, rendering it abandoned, thank goodness...no one has time for bees. I found the cache tied to the end of a Douglas Fir branch.  I radioed Bev telling her I found it and I will be on my way back in a few minutes.  It took less time getting back to the boat launch because I was going with the current the wind was making on the surface.  She grabbed the boat as I made it to shore and I definitely got wet on my way back.  I had to wipe off the items that got sand all over them.  We dumped out the boat, which had roughly a cup of water inside, shook it off a bit and stuffed it back into the Escape.  We drove back to her house, I dropped her off, put my raft into the Escape and drove home.

For the Love of Peat (GC5E5QY)

High Five for the Earth, July 31 (we actually found this one August 14):  We could either get an earthcache or attend a CITO to achieve this souvenir.  We chose an earthcache because we were not able to attend any of the CITO's in the area.  I am so glad I saved this earthcache.  The next closest one to grab was either Flaming Geyser or Mount Rainier National Park and this one was on the way to Seattle for the block party.  I've been to the West Hylebos Wetlands before...many years ago before this earthcache was here, so I was familiar with the area. We pulled in and noticed a van of people getting out. I knew we would see cachers here being BP weekend and all. We tried to get here earlier to avoid Seahawk, Hempfest and concert traffic and the thunder storm that was rolling in. We had to get this earthcache before it down poured. We got the necessary information, the pic and the cache at the picnic area before we started feeling the drops coming down. We ran the rest of the way to the Escape to avoid getting drenched.  Once inside the Escape the sky let loose and it poured.

Tacky 1: Map Quiz Revenge (GC1XBZW) 

Put on your Thinking Cap, August 14 (we found this one on the correct day!):  This challenge we had to solve a puzzle cache.  I have a huge list of caches I've solved but they were in places we weren't going to go for a while so I looked near the earthcache for one and there was one I could solve.  

I was trying to maximize our time by getting two in one area so we didn't have to do any extra driving.  I love geography so this one wasn't hard to solve. We grabbed the earthcache and ran back to the car as the sky opened up and poured down rain. We parked the car and out to this one in the rain, thunder and lightening.  I had to get my jacket out of the back mostly for the hood, I was also wearing shorts and flip flops.  We found the container, signed it as quick as we could, put it back and we were absolutely soaked when we got back to the Escape but it was worth it.

 
The Road Trip Hero souvenir was earned after completing my puzzle cache. 

Next Adventure:  Southeast Mt. St. Helens and Lower Lewis River Falls