I drive into Rainier and unloaded the recycle on the way to their house. Mom was ready with her backpack and camera. She was excited to take pictures of the old docks and cement structures where we were going to go. We went through Yelm and onto Reservation Road towards Mounts. Traffic was backed up almost to the railroad tracks. I have never seen Mounts Road backed up that far. I was upset because I didn't want this to take all day.
We finally got to I-5 and it inched slow all the way through DuPont and up to Lakewood. After Lakewood it finally thinned out. No wonder I don't come north...the traffic sucks! And it's getting worse almost to the point where I never want to drive on I-5 especially north. I took the wrong exit and we had to back track a bit plus the road we wanted was closed and we had to take a detour through downtown Tacoma. Ugh! How could this day get worse?
We finally got down to the road we wanted and the place was swamped with people! This must be where city people go to enjoy a nice day. Everyone in Tacoma was here. It took me probably 15 minutes to find a parking spot. I hid all of my stealables and made sure I locked the door three times...it's Tacoma.
We crossed the street and walked north. There were a lot of people here! OMG! I haven't been down this way since at least 2011 when I came down here for a few caches. I can't believe it's been that long. Mom came here to mostly take pictures but I came down here to get a few of the caches along this stretch of trail. There were two within a quarter of a mile of each other. I let mom lead the way.
We stopped by the Tacoma Firefighters Memorial and admired the statues, plaques and dates there. I noticed that there was a chunk of the World Trade Center from 9/11 placed there. I have been to several different pieces of the buildings around Washington that makes this piece number four for me. I would really like to go to New York some day and see the museum and memorial.
We stopped along the way because she liked this shot of an old dock, that has since rotted away, with Mount Rainier in the background. She spend a good chunk of time here trying to get the right shot. I people and seagull watched. She took a few dozen pictures and then I got my selfie stick out to take some shots of her and I.
That was our turn around point so we now started walking south towards Dickman Mill Park. On the way back through we stopped to find Narwhals Narwhals (GC5RE3J) was tucked inside the rock wall on the water side just a few feet from the bench along the walkway. What made the cache hard was trying to find it without all the muggles watching me find it. I had to wait for people to walk by before I could grab it. I wasn't sure what I was looking for but when I saw it I knew it was the cache.
I signed our names and had to wait for muggles to walk by before I could put it back. We continued on. The next cache was roughly a quarter of a mile away. I read some of the logs on **I'll Be Boulder** (GC5EN7X) and it sounded like it was hidden in the rock wall. Ugh, that could be anywhere. We got closer and found the likely location of it. I tried to zero in on it before I started looking in the rocks. I looked down and noticed a guy and girl looking at their phones with gloves on. I asked mom if they might be doing the same thing. Sure enough they were. I introduced myself and they introduced theirs. They said they've found some of my caches before. For the life of me I can't remember their name but I remembered where they were from, Lake Tapps. We looked for the cache together. After about 10 minutes, I found the darn rusty Altoid can. He was like, "where was it!" I showed him and he couldn't believe he missed that spot. I signed my name and mom's and gave them a pen to sign theirs. I got a quick picture and told them it was nice meeting them. They said the same thing back.
We moved on to the other side of the shore near Dickman Mill Park. I had already done the earthcache back in 2011. The nine-acre Dickman Mill Park site occupies a significant place in Tacoma's history as a lumber-producing center. The Dickman Lumber Mill operated continuously from the 1890's until 1974. It was the last in a long tradition of lumber mills on Tacoma's ""Old Town"" waterfront to close down. Following a fire in 1979, the remnants of the mill slowly deteriorated. Metro Parks acquired the site in the early 1990s. Through the efforts and funding of the IAC, Washington State Departments of Ecology and Natural Resources, City of Tacoma, private donors and Metro Parks, the site was purchased, rehabilitated, and developed as a new public park. Located on Ruston Way along the Commencement Bay waterfront, Dickman Mill Park opened in July 2001.
There is still a lot of cement structures, old dock posts and some really cool places for wildlife to flourish. Mom and I did some exploring for a bit.
We decided to call it a day since it was almost dinner time and we both had to get home to get ready for the work week. We walked back to the Escape and drove through Tacoma which reminded me about wanting to go to the Washington State History Museum. I will make that happen soon! We were a little hungry after walking around so we both agreed to get some fish and chips from Ivar's off of South Tacoma Way. We ate our dinner outside since the wind felt good.
Traffic was pretty minimal on the way home. I took mom back to Rainier and then headed home. I got my shower in and got all of my stuff ready for the upcoming work week. I am glad I washed clothes the day before. We will have to go back to that area soon and explore Point Defiance.
Next Adventure: Geocaching in Fort Steilacoom Park
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