Doug's Hello Kitty Birthday Bash

Covid started in the middle of March last year and we were able to have one last birthday party out as a group.  That was Grandma Karen's 79th birthday party at Izzy's.  Covid caused Izzy's to go out of business and now the property is for sale.  I've been trying to find a way to make people's birthday parties more fun because we haven't been able to eat at restaurants as a group.  

Last fall, Erika had this great idea to have a Hello Kitty themed birthday party for Doug.  I usually ask people what kind of birthday party they want such as the theme and food but Erika took it upon herself to make that choice for Doug.  Haha.  We spent the next couple months trying to find Hello Kitty decorations.  I thought it would be easy because Hello Kitty is popular but not as popular as I originally thought.  It was hard finding decorations.  Erika managed to find some paper plates with Hello Kitty on it and that was about it for a while.  I checked Walmart, various Dollar Tree's, Hobby Lobby and couldn't find anything.  I was getting frustrated.

A few weeks before we were going to have his birthday, I remembered there was a Party City in Olympia so after work one day I drove out there to find a birthday gift and to see if the party store had some Hello Kitty decorations.  I went to TJ Maxx to see if they had anything good to get Doug as a gift.  Lately, I've been finding some really good things there.  I browsed for a while and came across some discounted Seahawks sweatshirts, Combine Authentic ones.  Since these are last season, they are heavily discounted so I got one for Doug and decided to get one for myself since they were $16 each.  How can you not for that price?

I drove over to Party City and found the Hello Kitty section, yes...they have a Hello Kitty section, along with other themed cartoon, holiday and occasion sections.  I didn't really want to spend a whole lot which is why I was hoping Walmart or the dollar store would have something like that.  I found some wall decorations and some plastic table cloths.  I checked the balloons to see if they had any but they had a large one and didn't want to spend $12 on a ridiculously large Hello Kitty balloon.  I paid for my items and headed home.  I have some colored balloons we could use at home as an accent.  We were all set for Doug's Hello Kitty themed birthday party.

The weekend of Doug's birthday approached and he decided he didn't want a birthday party this year because of the fear of Covid and Jenn didn't want to do anything.  She originally wanted to host his party and make food but wishful thinking and we should have known better.  We canceled his party for that weekend and then Mom got mad so we threw together one for the end of the month.  We already had the decorations so all we needed to do is to figure out a menu and invite everyone.

Mom told me we should have pork chops, mashed potatoes/gravy and green beans.  I decided to make cupcakes for dessert, since I had a box of Funfetti and some icing in the panty and made them on Saturday just so they could be done.  I went to the store the Friday before and bought everything.  Surprisingly, everything was relatively cheap for feeding about nine people.  We called everyone and told them the new plan for Sunday night.  I moved all the tables and chairs into the dining room, decorated and made the food.  Ben helped me out a lot getting everything ready to go before 6:00 p.m.

All the food was done just about on time when everyone arrived.  We ate food, chatted and was complimented on the way I made the fresh green beans.  Ever since we've had the free Hello Fresh meals that we got through Josh and Heather and one of the meals included fresh green beans roasted in the oven.  We've never gone back.  

Just about all the food was eaten which was good because I didn't really want a lot of leftovers.  We cleared our plates and ate cupcakes while Doug opened his gifts.  He appreciated his party and liked his gifts.  

Because it was Sunday night, we cut it short so people could get home and get ready for the new work week.  Everyone thanked me for the food, decorations and being able to throw this together basically at the last minute.  Everyone went home and Ben and I cleaned up, put the chairs and tables away, got showers in and got ready for our work week.

Happy 35th Birthday Doug!

Next Adventure:  Pacific Northwest Snowmaggedon

A Mini Winter Adventure: Wenatchee to Lacey

On our last morning away from home, we set the alarm for 9:15 because breakfast ended at 9:30 on the weekdays and since it was Monday morning, we had to go down to the desk and pick it up before then.  Especially if we wanted a free breakfast.  I had Ben go downstairs and pick up the food because I was lazy.  It was the same food except that they didn't put it in a handy paper bag to carry it in.  So Ben had to balance everything all the way back to our room.  If I would have known that I would have went with him.

We laid in bed until about 10 and then started getting ready to go.  I sat down to eat my random breakfast and had to remind Ben to get out of bed because we had to check out by 11.  He got up and started getting ready. He ate his food and then we got all of our stuff organized and packed up.  We took it down to the Edge and took one last sweep of the room to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.  We took the keys down to the lobby, told them thanks and headed out.

Our plan for today was to enjoy the nice day, pick up a few caches for the Towns and Cities Challenge because we were here and why not?  Oh and eventually head back home before it got too late.  We got onto Hwy 28 and headed east to a small town called Rock Island.  I had a couple caches written down for this area to find.

The first one was at the west end of town and it was called Look Out Susi! (GC2KF3X) and it was of course a guard rail.  Ben stayed in the Edge while I hopped out, made the find, signed our names and put it back the way I found it. 

I directed Ben to the next one, CLOSE 2 HOME (GC1J5TF) through the little farming community.  We arrived at a water or grain tower found a parking spot and got out.  I knew it was going to be somewhere on the structure but where?  The coords were taking us all the way around a couple times.  I just put my phone away and just started feeling for it.  We did eventually find the magnetic container.  We signed our names and put it back.  

We got back onto Hwy 28 and headed west back towards Wenatchee. 

I saw a string of caches nearby at the Kirby Billingsley Hydro Park and figured that it was a nice day to take a walk.  There were six caches to grab along the paved walking trail next to the Columbia River.  The park was pretty nice.  We found a place to park the Edge, grabbed a pen, our masks (just in case we needed them) and headed down the trail.  

The first one we encountered was called RiverSide (GC6938) and it was an oldie from June 2002 and a lady who was walking by asked us if we lost something because of the way we were searching through the rocks.  We told her that we were good and we were just geocaching.  She nodded and continued on her walk.  It was nice to come across some of these older caches and glad the cache owner(s) are keeping them alive.

Further up the trail was Beaver Bridge (GC8H3RP) and it took us an embarrassing 10 minutes to find it.  We just made it more complicated than it needed to be but that's what you get for over thinking things unfortunately.  

I took several photos along the way because the setting was perfect, blue sunny skies, the river, snow capped hills and the swooshy trees.  It was THE perfect winter afternoon.  I wish we had more of these winter type days over on the west side.  We get some but not as many as I would like.  

The next one was called Flying Home for Christmas (GC5J1BZ) and Ben found that one hanging from the large tree.  It took us a few minutes to pinpoint which tree since there were about three of them and the coords jumped around a little bit.  We signed it and put it back.  

Just up the trail was one that I only qualified for, it was a challenge puzzle cache and you had to have found a certain number of a certain type of cache, this one, 5,000 Traditional Caches Found Challenge (GC5J1BE) I definitely qualified for.  At the time of qualifying, finding and logging this cache, I had 10, 947 traditional caches.  

There were two more along this trail so we decided since we've walked all this way just to get them.  We grabbed NASCAR (GC5K149) and Slab (GC5K5XC) before turning around and walking back to the parking lot.

I stopped at the porta potty (since the public restrooms were closed because of Covid) to pee.  We got back on the trail and along the way, a group of people said out loud, wow, it's a great day for a walk, the weather seems like it's April or something.  We agreed with them.  It was a beautiful day for a walk along the river.  Once we got back to the Edge, a lady was walking her two dogs and she also said something about how nice it was to be outside this afternoon.  We acknowledged what she said and told her to have a nice day.  We walked about a total of two miles.  It was good for us because of all the junk we ate this weekend and we knew we'd be in the car for a while as we drove back home.  It was nice to get a walk in before we left town.

We got back onto Hwy 28 towards Wenatchee.  We put in the address for the Goodwill in town and stopped by there just to see if they had anything worthwhile.  This time they didn't and we were disappointed.  We finished driving through town and told Ben just to follow Hwy 2 at the junction.  We drove through Cashmere and Dryden to the junction for US 97 over Blewett Pass.

The drive was nice.  There wasn't much traffic, pretty snowy scenery and we listened to 80's and 90's music as we drove.  We got onto I-90 west and that portion of the drive was equally nice.  I loved there wasn't a whole lot of traffic.  We stopped at North Bend to get gas, pee and see if there were any maple bars left in the bakery.  There were two left and I took them both.  Muhahaha!

We got off I-90 at Hwy 18 and experienced traffic near Tiger Summit.  I will never understand traffic as long as I live.  There was no reason for it once we got through it.  So stupid.  I checked the WSDOT app to see what kind of horror was ahead of us once we got onto 167.  It was bad so we found some roads to go around it.  Ben knew roads since he grew up in this area.  It saved us a little bit of time.  We got onto 512 and then onto I-5, where there was a little bit of traffic.  

Before we got to Lacey, I asked Ben what we wanted to do for dinner.  Both of us didn't feel like making anything so we decided to finally try Popeye's since there was one in the Hawks Prairie area.  Neither of us have been here before but we've seen the hundreds of commercials about their chicken sandwich.  We bought two chicken sandwiches, fries and drinks and drove home.  We ate our food, unpacked the Edge and our kitties were glad we were finally home.  We spent sometime cleaning the house, washed laundry and watched a little bit of TV.  We went to bed at a decent time so we could start the new short work week.

It was nice to finally get out of the house and travel somewhere even if it was somewhat localish.  We got to relearn how to snowboard again, play in the snow, see some cool places and pick up 48 new caches.

Next Adventure:  Doug's Hello Kitty Birthday Bash

A Mini Winter Adventure: Exploring Wenatchee, Waterville and Chelan (US 97 Loop)

The alarm went off at 9:30 so we could go downstairs and get our free breakfast before 10 a.m.  Because of Covid, we had to go to the front desk and tell the clerk what room we were in and what food we wanted so she could hand it to us.  She gave us two paper bags filled with mini muffins, a banana, a chewy bar, water and we were given a scramble bowl (one of those Jimmy Dean frozen breakfast meals) so we could pop it in the microwave and eat it, coffee (if we wanted it) and a handful of napkins, packets of ketchup, etc.  Surprisingly, this wasn't the lamest breakfast I've ever had at a hotel before. 

I heated up our bowls in the microwave.  I ate mine on the bed while I watched the Penguins battle it out with the Capitals (Pen's won in OT 5-4) and Ben ate his at the desk while he played on his phone.  We finished up eating, cleaned up and got ready to go around 11.  We brought our snacks and drinks with us and went to go fill up with gas at the nearby Fred Meyer.  Neither of us has gotten gas at a Fred Meyer before and the phone number we use for rewards actually had gas points on it for twenty cents off.  Afterwards, we found the cache, Making Errands Fun #6 (GC7Q7CQ) and yes, it was a lamp skirt cache.

I plugged the second geocache, Turtle Rock (GC249K3) into my phone and off we went.  We followed the Hwy 28 in East Wenatchee until we got Hwy 2/US 97 and went north towards Orondo, on the east side of the Columbia River.  As we approached the cache, I had Ben slow down because it was going to be on the left side of the road...luckily there was a pull out to park at.  Turtle Rock was just north of Lincoln Rock State Park, which was on the other side of the river, and a few years ago is when Ben, Trish, Amy and I drove around when we were on vacation.  This cache hasn't been found in over six months and the cache owner just moved it to a different location because the previous spot was compromised.  We found it next to a small hill mixed with rocks.

The next one, Highway 2/97 (GC1KMBK) was unfortunately a DNF.  We got out and kinda looked but the previous logs weren't all that promising.  We moved on.  AGC (GC4VGDJ) was a guardrail cache on Ben's side of the road.  I had him get out and find it since it was right there.  He reached into the guardrail, pulled out the cache and he said there were tons of spiders inside.

We checked our app again and the next one up ahead was called Just Stick Around (GC1MM6M) which was another guardrail with a view of the river.  I loved how this road wasn't that busy today, it was dry, cold and sunny.  A perfect winter day.

At the junction at Orondo, we turned onto Hwy 2 and drove up the hill towards Waterville.  Neither of us have been to this small town.  We needed it for the Towns and Cities Challenge.  We were going to get it a few years ago but we ran out of time.  Along the way, we picked up Lewis Yanko (GC3PXBB) which took us to a pull out near some old trees where a water fountain used to be.  From the cache page:  "The drive up Pine Canyon to Waterville in the 1950's and 60's was a long, hot drive in the summer.  Often cars would make it halfway up before overheating and needed to pullover to let their cars cool off.  In 1955, Louis F. Yanko planted three trees and put in a drinking fountain from a spring close by.  The drinking fountain is no longer usable but it is a nice place to pull over and take in the view.  There is only two of the three original trees still living on the side of the road and they are looking pretty old.  There is a small monument with a plaque explaining all about his tribute".

We made the quick grab, took a couple pictures and took in the view of what Pine Canyon had to offer.  Our cell phones were acting wonky through here but I had the caches loaded on the screen so we weren't going to have any problems.  We stopped a few more times at the top of the canyon to see the snow and to take some pictures.

We got above the canyon on the the vast, farming flat lands of Central Washington and onto an area with a lot of crunchy snow.  You could tell this area received a bunch of snow days ago and it froze making it very crunchy and icy in areas.  The road, however, was dry and clear.  They take very good care of the roads over here vs. the western part of the state.  We tried looking for a cache called US 2+P NW (GC2FQP8) but we could not get to it because of the hard snow that had been plowed up against the sign that the cache was hidden inside.  Bummer. 

We drove into town and the snow was everywhere.  Piles of snow everywhere.  There had to have been at least 8-10 inches of snow on the ground in various places.  There was one I had my eye on for the last three years.  It was a letterbox called The Blue Rooster of Happiness (GC1RB8Y) and it was on the south side of the building.  The building/business was owned by a pair of cachers with the cache handle, team pazooter.  It was a really cool bird house letterbox.  I had Ben lead the way by opening the lock, signing the log and I got a few pictures.  

We were pretty limited to where we could go in town because of the snow, so we tried for one more cache called Platform 9 3/4 (GC8C0CX) and we could not find it after looking for about a half hour.  It was pretty tricky apparently.

We drove back down to the 97/2 junction at the bottom of the canyon.  Mom called me to let me know that the Penguins beat the Capitals in OT.  I told her that I watched the first two periods this morning while eating breakfast.  She asked us what we were doing today and I told her we just visited a town called Waterville and now heading up 97 towards Chelan.  She told me to have fun.

There was a little cemetery off the west side of the road and there was a cache there called Rest in Peace (GC23T89).  Ben drove right up to it.  It was hidden in the bushes next to the flag pole.  Ben stayed in the Edge while I went out to grab it and sign it.  Easy peasy.

Howe's Landing (GC176RX) was another guardrail cache.  Booo!  But I can see why there are so many along this road.  The road is wide open with a lot of pull outs, guardrails, great views of the river and hills (some snow covered) and tons of sage brush that speckled the sides of the highway.  I got out, made the find, signed our names and put it back.  For some reason the caching app on my phone wouldn't load and I was getting frustrated.  Luckily, Ben's was working so we went off of his. 

We stopped at a closed building to find a cache called Weird Rocks (GC17T6M).  We looked at all the possibilities the container would be but we couldn't find anything.  We did enjoy the large tire nearby.

The next one was up the road a bit to an incorporated area called Stayman.  I checked up on the cache and it looks like we will be climbing up the side of a rocky cliff next to the road.  Yay!  Something a little different than guardrails and easy side of the road caches.  Stayman Flats View (GC272QF) was about a 600 feet scramble up a hill next to Hwy 97.  It took us a couple minutes to get up there without slipping on any errant rocks or loose soil.  We found the lone tree it was sitting up against, opened it, signed our names, took a few pictures and put it back.  We took in some of the views of the valley.  We then made our way back down the cliff without biffing it.

Under the Sea (GC24XHG) was on the passenger side of the highway down a dirt road.  We found a place to park the Edge, we got out and started looking for it in the sage brush.  The cache was broken, not hidden very well and missing the lid.  We put it in a safe-ish location and let the cache owner know in our logs.

We continued north on 97 and stopped at a cache called Mmm, Pie (GC6H6VY) and it was at a quaint little restaurant.  It was closed due to Covid (probably reduced hours) and I was sad because I wanted to try their pie that they advertised.  The cache was accessible event though the resturant was closed.  It was in a bird house to keep it hidden from muggles.  We played on the tractor and used the porta potty before we left.  Next time we're here I am going to try their pie.

We crossed over the Columbia River at Beebe Bridge and headed up the hill to the Columbia Overlook scenic view.  There were three geocaches to do in that area.  We parked in the dirt lot and read the information on the earthcache, The Case for Ice (GC744DX).  The signage near the large rock had a few of the answers that we needed.  We answered questions about the bedrock and how the glacial ice changed and shaped the landscape as it looks today. 

We wrote down the answers and then walked up the rocky hill to grab Columbia Overlook Redux (GC6TWK1).  We knew it was going to be hidden in a pile of rocks but which pile of rocks.  We got within 10 feet of the cache and saw the suspicious pile of rocks.  The view from the hiding spot was awesome.  It was windy and pretty chilly but totally worth being outside on this sunny day. 

We walked back down to the Edge and found Lame #4 (Columbia Overlook Parking) (GC5P4YN) and it was a hide-a-key in the guardrail near the road. 

We got back in the Edge and told Ben if he hadn't already, to get a hold of the Thomas's since they live in Manson now, to see if they wanted to meet up for dinner or something.  A few minutes later, we found out they were in Hawaii taking care of elderly parents.

I have never been to the Chelan Walmart but there was a cache there and we needed some more drinks so we headed that way.  We parked and then went inside and grabbed some Gatorade, vitamin waters and some tiny cans of Pepsi.  We had enough snacks still in our bag sitting in the back seat.  We paid and went back out to the Edge and drove to Ice Cream Run (GC7T8H0) from the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave.  The container was hidden in a lamp skirt and I had a heck of a time trying to get the lid off the container.  According to the previous logs, everyone else has had a tough time getting the lid off the cache.  We made a note of it in our log.

The next one was in a cemetery just south of the Walmart so we went there first.  Riverview (GC3DGJJ) was a quick grab in a small cemetery.  It was right at the entrance so we didn't have to go into the cemetery.  We jotted our names down, got a photo and moved on to the other cemetery in town, but to the north of Walmart.

This cemetery was much larger than the other one and we had to park and walk through the gate to get this one.  Where Angels Lie (GC4GGHE) was hidden at a structure on the road side of the cemetery.  You could hear dogs from the neighbors house barking at us the entire time we were here.  

We got back onto the main highway through town and Ben and I had a conversation of what we wanted for dinner while we were in Chelan.  The last time we were here was when we came for Josh and Sam's wedding back in 2015...so it's been a while.  I suggested the pizza place we ate at when we were here with his mom and sister before Josh and Sam's wedding.  He said that was a great idea and found the name of the place.  Ben called the Company Creek Pizza and placed a to go order for dinner.  We ordered a meat lover's pizza and they told us it would take about 20 minutes.  

While we waited, Ben and I drove to Chelan River Trail - Lake Chelan Hydro (GC2MYW7) where we parked at a trail head and walked the short distance to the cache.  Two high school aged boys were standing there looking up at the sky.  We weren't sure if they were looking at the moon or the airplane.  Ben and I found the cache at the dam viewpoint on the sign.  We signed our names and put it back.  We walked past the boys again and Ben said something about the airplane releasing chem trails.  Not sure what was actually said because I was behind them and wasn't really listening.  I asked Ben as we walked back to the Edge. 

We figured that we wasted enough time so we drove back to the pizza place, parked, went in, paid and drove our pizza over across the street to Don Morse Memorial Park.  We ate, enjoyed the view of the lake, mountains and snow while we listened to the Sunday Night Football game on the radio.  We were hoping that New Orleans would beat Tampa Bay.

I read that Chelan was going to host a winter feast while we were in the area and told Ben about it just before we left for our trip.  It was too bad we weren't going to be in Chelan on Saturday night because there were fireworks we could watch above the lake.  Instead, we were there on Sunday night and though we should check out the winter feast anyway.  We parked the Edge in the downtown area and walked along the sidewalks looking at the ice sculptures. We did that for about 40-45 minutes.  It was pretty cool.

We still needed a couple more caches to get an even 20 for the day.  I looked at the app on my phone (I finally got it to work) and saw there were a couple we could get.  The first one was at the waterpark on the south side of the lake called Fun with a View (GC8A6G2).  I wasn't sure if we would be able to get into the parking lot because the place was closed due to the season and because of Covid.  We were able to drive into there.  It was getting dark so I grabbed a flashlight and we both started looking for it.  It was a pill bottle not in a spot I would hide it in.  We did put it back a little better than we found it so people wouldn't see it.

We drove to the next one just up the road at Lakeside Park.  We tried finding 1957 What a Year! (GC63MJ6) and I knew we were looking for a fake bolt on the black fence but unfortunately it was missing when we were there.  Another DNF.  Lame. 

As we left down, we pulled over and grabbed At First Sight (GC5XZZZ) the last one we needed for an even 20 on the day.  It was an ammo can hidden behind large sage brush.  Yay! 

We took US 97 south back to Wenatchee and to our hotel.  There, we got cleaned up, relaxed a bit while we watched the rest of the NO and TB game, which was very disappointing.  I got onto the computer and started logging caches and writing up my blog skeleton.  We ate some snacks and played 10,000 and learned how to play backgammon.  

We got tired and ended up going to bed around 1 a.m.

Next Adventure:  A Mini Winter Adventure:  Wenatchee to Lacey