I set my alarm for 5:50 because Bev was going to be here around 6:30. Why did this darn thing have to start so early? Ugh. It was going to take us at least an hour to get there give or take. I got my clothes on and got ready. I made sure I brought some food with me because I wasn't quite hungry yet. Bev rolled up just after 6:30 and I gave her a hard time for being late.
We got on I-5 and headed north. The trip went somewhat quick because there were not that many people up driving around that early. We took the 405 and headed into Bellevue. There was a lot of construction but not a lot of people making our trip horrible. We got onto I-90 and we were making pretty good time.
I was heading down the last hill towards our exit (I was going with the flow of traffic down a hill) and I got pulled over in a speed trap. It was a woman cop and she was hidden pretty good. I didn't see her until I drove past her but knew she was after me when she got onto the freeway. The feeling of dread came over me. I didn't need a ticket today. I pulled over, she got out of her patrol car and I looked for everything she might want. She popped up next to the driver's side window really fast and scared Bev. I handed her my license and registration and she went back to her patrol car. A few minutes later she popped back over, scared Bev again and told me that this was a warning and to have a nice day. Wow, I got off with a warning from a woman cop! Usually, woman cops are more cutthroat.
We continued to follow Nuvi to the venue. We found a parking spot and make the walk over to the event area.
We found out we were there a tad bit early so we went and found three geocaches that were within walking distance along the Pickering Trail. We had about an hour to kill so we walked to the closest one nearby, Salmon Don't Run They Swim (GC3Y4KR). We found it with ease.
The next one, Water Under the Bridge (GC29RYH) was north of the barn along the trail. We saw groups of people walking the trail finding these just like we were. We knew the Geocoinfest was the main event today but there had been events, caches and challenges going on since Thursday. There were lab caches, a sasquatch challenge and a donut challenge. We decided not to do them due to lack of time and things really weren't labeled all that well. We found the cache quickly. It was a bison tube.
We just followed that back and we ran into Brad and his kids. We chatted about Cougar football and his new camper. I could not believe how much his two boys have grown since the last time I saw them.
We walked back into the event and signed the logbook, which was a giant cable spool. We wrote our names on stickers and stuck them wherever we wanted on the spool. We were a few of the first ones so there were plenty of spots available.
Bev and I tried our hands at some of Bounce Bounce's lab caches but lost interest after a while. We saw that it was nearing time to be let into the venue so we got in line. This is where the volunteers should have had us go into the other room first to get our swag bags, name tags etc. but they didn't. There wasn't any signage so we almost missed out on our stuff.
We went inside and stopped at the many booths that were inside. Some were fun to look at the swag and others we just weren't that interested in. We saw a lot of people we knew and visited for a while. I found out next year's Geocoinfest was going to be in Louisiana. I traded pathtags with one of the girls at the booth. She handed me her pathtag and a little swag bag with next year's information in it. Antoine and Nikki were at a booth nearby and he handed me a snack bag from his store. I guess his store decided to donate to Geocoinfest which was pretty cool. The next booth we spent some time at
was the WSGA booth. There, we were given a Geocoinfest tag (they were just giving them out because they had a defect) and both Bev and I bought an event coin.
This is really why we came...to see what a Geocoinfest was and the fact that it was near home so you almost had to come. I really want Geowoodstock to come back to the pacific northwest so I can attend one of those. I started geocaching two months after Geowoodstock was in Washington and I missed it. Since then it the closest it's been was California and I couldn't afford to go.
We both used the restroom before we decided we were good and to go home. That's when I saw the extra room off to the side where the name tags and swag bags were kept. I went over there and grabbed my stuff mostly now as a souvenir. Bev wandered over and grabbed her stuff as well. So lame that this wasn't labeled that well.
We said our goodbyes to the people we knew as we left. The venue was pretty cool and we got a few caches, a travelbug, a coin and some pathtags I traded with a few people.
We walked back to the Escape and we both decided to get some breakfast before we left Issaquah. I looked up some of the places on my phone and the 12th Avenue Café popped up as one of the favorites. It wasn't too far away from the venue. We went in and sat at the "bar" seats. We were promptly asked what we'd like to drink and I ordered an OJ. Bev said she would treat since I drove. She got a coffee. We both ordered the French toast but she got the larger size. I would say breakfast there was pretty good. I would go again if I ever found myself in Issaquah for breakfast.
We drove back to Lacey, Bev went home and I took a small nap before the Seahawks and Cardinals game. I logged my finds for the day watched the Seahawks barely beat the Cardinals 20-17 and did a couple loads of laundry as I also worked on my blog. It was a long but fun weekend.
Next Adventure: Dinner and the 14th Annual Oktoberfest in Puyallup
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