A Weekend in Bonney Lake and Geocaching

It was Amy's birthday this weekend and I talked to Trish about how to celebrate it.  Her driving class made it more difficult because it was from 10-noon and we couldn't stay up extremely late.  I had planned on doing karaoke Friday night but it just didn't happen this time. 

Ben and I didn't get there until late because he fell asleep after work and I couldn't get a hold of him.  I was hungry, I had everything packed and I was bored.  We headed towards Bonney Lake and they left us some pizza to scarf down. We watched Amy open her birthday gifts then played with some Legos and then some dice and then went to bed shortly after.  It was a pretty chill evening.

We slept in the next morning while Amy was in class for drivers ed.  We started some French toast, and some eggs for breakfast while we waited for Amy to get back from class.  She was upset she didn't pass her test and would have to take it again. 

Trish wanted to get out of the house for a while so we called up Bonnie to see if we could come see them for a while in Auburn.  We took the long way around just to give her enough time to get settled back at home.  We grabbed 11 caches near Sumner, Lake Tapps and Auburn.  We even found some of the Auburn geotour from last year.  There wouldn't be enough time to finish it plus all the coins were now claimed. 

We started out near Lake Tapps and then headed down the hill into Sumner then back up to Lake Tapps again.  We stopped at Sunset Park and got a great view of Mount Rainier and grabbed Auburn 2015:  Sunset Park (GC64G6Y) .  It was hot so we made sure we had plenty of water with us.

We stopped at two more parks before making our way over to their grandma's house near the Muckleshoot Casino. It was getting hotter by the minute.  We get to her house and we all sat in the patio area and visited.  Bonnie gave Amy a birthday card and we caught everyone up on what we've been doing since the last time we saw her.  We stayed for about an hour before we all got hungry and decided to go down towards the Super Mall for some dinner.  Before that we picked up one more cache along the East Valley Hwy.  I let Trish and Amy look for Sumner's Sod Fields (GC10YBH). 

We picked up a few more in Sumner and then decided to go home because it was getting dark.  All together we got 11 for the day.  When we got home, we relaxed for a bit and then talked about where we wanted to go and float the next day.  It was suppose to be the hottest day this week and we wanted to enjoy it.  Trish suggested Deep Lake over by Enumclaw's Nolte State Park and I suggested just staying close and hanging out at Lake Tapps.  We came up with a plan of bringing sandwiches and chips with us so we could eat lunch while we were there.  All we had to do now was get everything together, blow up our inner tubes and enjoy the day.

The next morning we got up later than we wanted to.  We ate breakfast, I helped Trish make sandwiches and get some fruit and veggies together, Ben filled our inner tubes up with air in the garage and we started loading the truck.  We had decided to try Deep Lake at Nolte.  We drove all the way out there, stopping at the store really quick for a few more drinks and some chips for our sandwiches.  When we got to the state park entrance it was insane!  The parking inside was full and at least a half a mile on either side of the road were covered in vehicles.  We said no to that and continued up to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park to float in the Green River.  We said no to that as well.  We turned around and headed back towards Lake Tapps to Lake Tapps Park, owned by Pierce County.  That place was also packed to the brim!  Holy cow!  I think we got a late start this morning.  We should have come sooner.  We waited in the line and eventually got to the gate.  They were charging vehicles $3 to get in.

We drove around for 10 minutes until we found a spot.  We got our inner tubes out and prepared for some floating.  Ben got the GoPro ready and we got in.  It felt so nice just to relax and float for a while.

We were out there for about an hour or so before it was time to eat our lunch.  We sat on the tailgate and munched on our sandwiches.  We used the restroom and decided it was time to pack up everything and head home.  I actually saw someone I knew from work.  I talked to her for a bit before we loaded up the truck and headed towards home.  We stopped at Dairy Queen for some blizzards to finalize Amy's birthday weekend. 

Ben and I packed up our stuff and headed home.  We both had to work pretty early the next day.  We got home between 9 and 9:30.

Next Adventure:  Outdoor Expo at Millersylvania State Park