Monday, February 21

President's Day: Geocaching, An Adventure Lab and Some Thrift Shopping

I had a day off and I was determined to do something outside with it.  Sadly, Ben had Friday off and not President's Day off.  This year I actually enjoyed this long weekend because the company we get our reviews from at work also had this day off so that meant we were not going to have a double Tuesday.  I hate double Tuesdays!  I wanted to go get a couple caches and do another Adventure Lab in downtown Olympia.  I had my sights set on Percival Landing - History & Art on the Waterfront.

I slept in until about 9:30-10:00, ate some breakfast and put some clothes on.  Doug was going to spend his day wasting it away in his bed doing nothing.  I was getting pretty tired of it.  I grabbed stuff I would need and made sure my umbrella was in the Escape.  Before I left, it was dry but cold and I was hoping the rain would hold off until I was done.  

It didn't take me long to get down there since there weren't that many people driving around at that time.  I drove down to the Farmer's Market parking lot and found a place to park.  I was all bundled up, had my gloves, my hat and brought the umbrella with me just in case.  The clouds coming in from the west looked ominous.  I opened the app and looked to see where I started on my quick adventure.  I started at the anchor and had to find out how much it weighed.  I also saw that I needed All Along the Watchtower (GCF8CYX).  For some reason I remember coming here and looking for it, but it was missing at the time.  I let it go for a while and ended up finding it along with doing the boardwalk Adventure Lab.  I walked right up to it, signed my name got a picture and put it back.  I knew there were people watching me through the windows at Anthony's.

I spent a few minutes checking out a new piece of art near the watchtower.  I wasn't sure how long it'd been here since I haven't been out this way in a while.  It was a Rotary Club art piece.  I thought it was a cool piece and the sun was in the right place to get a nicely lit photo.


I moved on down the boardwalk towards 4th Avenue.  I felt like it was getting colder.  I was really hoping the rain would hold off at least another half hour.  I walked past several people walking their dogs and most of those dogs were wearing sweaters. My second stop was at the mural at the Olympia Seafood Company.  I had to find out the name of the boat.  The third stop to my short walk was near the shelter.  There was a panel that talked about the Mosquito Fleet that talked about tugboats and tow barges in the Puget Sound.  I got the captain's name I needed.  The fourth stop took me to a wooden Orca whale statue, and I had to get a name off of the list in front of the carving.  The last stop was near the kissing statues.  It was a mosaic map of the Puget Sound, I had to find out which capital letter was shown on the map. 




 The rain was still holding off so I debated whether or not I should start the other Adventure Lab on the list.  Historic Downtown Olympia was the next one that was nearby.  The first stop was near the fountain at the backside of a building belonging to the Chinese community.  I had to answer a question about our former governor, Gary Locke.  I actually got to meet him when I was a kid when my Dad took me to bring your daughter to work day back in the 1990's.

I was on my way to the second leg of the adventure when it started raining so I got the umbrella out and started back to the Escape.  Ben had messaged me, so I wrote him back.  I told him that I came down to downtown Oly to do one of the Adventure Labs and that I was walking back to the parking lot because it started raining.  He said that it had hailed at the base.  I hope it doesn't hail on me.  I hopped back in the Escape and decided what I was going to do from there.  

I drove up the hill to where Pacific intersected Martin Way and turned to get onto South Bay Road.  I wanted to avenge a DNF that's been sitting there since the beginning of 2021.  Ben and I came out there to get our souvenir for the new year and struck out because it was missing.  I stopped by again in July with Bev and again, it was missing.  This time, I finally found Zombie Skate (GC5W9HD).  I literally walked right up to it.  I think I would have found it the first time we were here because it was super easy, and I know I've checked this place twice.  I signed my name and Ben's and put it back.  There were a lot of people in line waiting for Skateland to open.

I drove into Lacey and went to the Dollar Tree, Value Village, Fred Meyers and the Lacey Goodwill on the way back to my house.  I was trying to find a SpongeBob toy for my trackable that I was waiting for in the mail.  I was one of a couple thousand geocachers who were rewarded with a trackable to promote SpongeBob's Kamp Koral cartoon on Paramount+.  I was not able to find one which was weird because SpongeBob is all over the place when you don't need it but when you do, you can't find anything.  

I went home and for the rest of the evening I worked on dinner.  It was the last full week of international meals that we've been trying all month long.  We had been getting tired of the same food over and over again and I had this idea to try.  So far, it's been pretty educational, and the food has been good.  That night, I worked on a Scottish red lentil and barley soup and made some Scottish oatmeal rolls.  I've never made soup like this before and have never had lentils or rutabaga.  Also, I've never made homemade bread without the bread machine before either.  I was pretty amazed with my cooking skills.  We watched the latest Marvel movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.  We liked it and definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Marvel movies. 

I have hit my 12,400 geocache milestone.

Next Adventure:  Two's Day: 2/22/22

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