Adventure Labs, Geocaching, World's Largest Fork, Victor 23 and Papa Pete's in Southwest Washington

A few weeks ago, I was watching a D.B Cooper series on Netflix called D.B. Cooper: Where Are You?! (2022) and while watching it, I saw there was a D.B. Cooper themed brewery in Vancouver.  I needed to go to this brewery!

It was also my 12th geocaching anniversary, so I needed to do some caching on the way down as well.  I was on a quest to hit 13,000 soon, so as many as I could get would help.  I asked Mom and Bev if they were interested in going with me.  I gave them until Friday to let me know.  I told them some of the places we'd be geocaching and the brewery we were going to go to afterwards.  Because it was mostly a brewery; we really weren't interested in the food they were serving so I told them we could go to Papa Pete's in Ridgefield on the way home.

Over the next few days, I looked at the caches and Adventure Labs I wanted to do and which towns we were going to stop and do them at. I wrote them down and sent Bev a picture of which ones I had planned on doing.  She really didn't care as long as she got to go instead of wasting a nice day at home.  They both told me on Friday that they wanted to go.  I told them that I would be in Rainier about 9:30-10 a.m. and they said they would be ready. 

That morning I got up around 8:45, got ready and packed up the Escape with whatever I thought we needed.  I grabbed my notebook, pens, backpack, water and threw some extra drinks into a cooler with ice since it was supposed to be hot.  Ben also got up around the same time because he was invited by Josh to do a "poker run" in Centralia with a bike gang.  The purpose was to raise money for a fallen comrade who was a part of that motorcycle gang.  You didn't have to be a part of the gang to participate.  I told him to be safe and send pictures.

I headed into Rainier and picked up Mom first, then Bev.  We had to stop by Grandma's house along the way to drop off a quilt so she could finish it.  After, we headed towards Tenino and then to I-5.  We had to follow three trailers all the way to the freeway which delayed us. We finally got onto I-5 and got away from the trailers as quickly as possible.  The traffic on the freeway was slow in some places...congestion where the freeway goes from three lanes to two mostly because people don't know how to merge properly.

We were getting close to Longview, and I asked everyone if we wanted to stop here and do some Adventure Labs.  They all said sure.  I told them one of them involved the squirrel bridges.  That enticed Mom to want to go even more.  I said the last time I came down to this section of Longview was with Bob and Bev was like almost 10 years ago.  I asked Bev if she remembered, and she said vaguely.  I asked her, you don't remember the squirrel bridges or the sidewalk chalk arrow pointing in front of the sewer grate that said, "this way to Narnia?"  She said, maybe? 

We got off at the first Longview exit, the one we don't take too often, just north of town, because there were some caches along that road we didn't have yet. It was hard to come up with caches we both didn't have because Bob and Bev pretty much got them all over the past 10 years or so. Our first one was called Stockport Cemetery (GC8PR1T).  We parked in the little parking lot, Bev and I got out to walk down to go look, while Mom stayed in the Escape and watched us.

It should have been an easy grab, but we managed to make it harder than it needed to be.  The hint got us to the correct spot, but it was hidden in one of those stupid brushy shrubs.  You really had to be in the right spot and angle to see it.  I looked with my eyes and my hands and finally was at the correct angle to see it.  I signed our names and put it back.  We walked back up the small hill and got back into the Escape for our next stop. 

We set the GPS towards Lake Sacajawea for the three Adventure Labs around the giant skinny lake.  We weaved in and out of the weird one-way roads through town and stopped at a couple of places for the Squirrel Bridge Tour of Longview.  Mom was really excited about the bridges, and I didn't blame her because they were adorable.  We did stop near the small park where the wooden squirrel statue and a train engine was.  It was fun to see that stuff again and pick up the necessary waypoints we needed.

We finished that Adventure Lab and collectively decided to do the other two, Walking Tour of Lake Sacajawea and Creatures of Longview, both had five waypoints each for a total of ten.  I looked to see if they overlapped, and they did.  So, we were going to do both of them simultaneously, which sucks.  I wish the app allowed us to do multiples at the same time. I had to pay attention so I could tell Bev which one we were doing when we arrived at the waypoint we needed to answer.  There were only two among both of them that gave us a hard time.  One was at the basketball court and the other was at the Redwood trees, both around the lake.  The basketball one, the geofence was not at the coordinates and the Redwood trees, the answer was not easy to get.  We tried probably 30 different combinations until we got it.  We were probably there for 10 minutes trying to get the app to accept the answer.

After we were done, we discovered that one of the Adventure Labs had a bonus cache to grab. We assembled the coordinates and found out where we had to go.  I put it into the Nuvi and followed the directions to the middle of Longview. Mom said she's stay in the Escape, so Bev and I got out.  It was getting hot, so we had to hurry.  We got to ground zero and started looking. It should have been easy to get so I checked the logs to see if people were having a hard time.  They were.  The container was missing so I told Bev that the cache owner was letting people log it.  For my log, I just cut and pasted what the previous cachers did for their log.

We got back into the Escape, got back onto I-5 and headed south to Woodland.  I wanted to do the new virtual cache, Cedar Creek Grist Mill (GC9P58Z).  Mom and I had visited once before back in 2018 but now there is a cache here, so we came here again.  Bev has never been here before, so she said it was kinda nice to visit a place she's never been.  We found a place to park, wandered around, found the virtual cache answer, got a few pictures and went inside the mill to see what was going on.  

They were making mini pancakes out of the four they ground that morning.  I wasn't hungry so I didn't take a free sample.  We wandered out a little bit more and then called it good and got back in the Escape to head back towards Woodland. 

Along the way back, Mom asked if we could stop by the Dairy Queen for ice cream and I said, along with everyone else?  It's a hot day and everyone in Woodland is going to be there. I did it anyway.  We got in the drive thru line and regretted it.  It was not going anywhere anytime soon.  I got tired of sitting there wasting our day so I got out of line, and we went inside hoping that would go quicker.  It was also a great opportunity to use the restroom as well.  I told Mom I wanted an Oreo Blizzard; she got a hot fudge sundae and Bev got a chocolate dilly bar.  We didn't have to wait too long for our frozen treats.

We hopped back into the Escape and drove to the first waypoint of the Woodland Adventure Lab:  The Art of Downtown Woodland.  We drove across the freeway and saw how busy Horseshoe Lake was.  When it's over 90 degrees you go swimming at Horseshoe Lake instead of ice cream at Dairy Queen or maybe both?  We barely found a place to park since most of the waypoints to the Adventure Lab were clustered together and we were going to walk to them.  Bev's phone was dying so she was worried that it was going to die before we did all the waypoints since you need your phone to do them.

I also noticed chocolate on my front passenger seat and Bev's shorts.  She must have lost a piece of her dilly bar and it fell on the seat and melted.  We cleaned that up as quickly as possible before it made a larger mess.  I told Bev that I just couldn't bring her anywhere.  Haha!

We spent the next 15 minutes walking around the tiny downtown of Woodland.  We had to answer questions about the several murals sprinkled around town.  There was no bonus cache for this one.

Mom and Bev were getting hot, so I walked over to the other side of the park to grab Pine Cones #2 (GC9E5MM) and I really wasn't sure what I was looking for.  I knew it might look like a pinecone but in what form?  The coords took me to a large bushy tree thing.  I thought it might be a pinecone that had a bison tube shoved into it, hanging from one of the branches.  So, I start looking and find nothing.  I expanded my search area and was surprised to see the medium sized container dressed to look like a pinecone out in the open underneath a small bush.  I was very shocked to see it was still there.  This cache may go missing at some point.  I signed our names and put it back right where I found it.  I walked back to the Escape.  It was nearing 100 degrees.

We looked at the caching app and saw there were two more just south of here on a road that paralleled I-5.  I asked everyone if we wanted to go get those really fast.  They said sure.  98674 - Woodland (GC6NMZD) was a very quick park and grab.  Both Bev and Mom stayed in the Escape while I signed our names.  I hustled back, hopped in and drove to our next one, Pine Cones #6 (GC9PC1C).

This cache was down by one of the Lewis River boat launches called the Pekin Ferry.  We pulled up to a parking spot and noticed a bunch of people taking advantage of the river on a really hot day.  I saw the cache was going to be in the woods right off of a well-used trail.  I decided to walk along the dike because it looked quicker and easier.  I approached the area it was in and noticed it wasn't too brushy, I could at least look.  I was out there for about 10-15 minutes looking.  I really didn't want to DNF it, so I took a few more readings and finally found the darned thing.  It blended in well with its surroundings and looked just like the pinecone container I found at Horseshoe Lake. 

I signed our names, took the trackable and walked the dike back to the Escape.  Mom and Bev were definitely enjoying the A/C.

I set the Nuvi to the last cache of the day, one I've been wanting to get since I saw it on the map about a week and a half ago, Stick a Fork in It! - World's Largest Fork (GC9P4VT).  We got back onto I-5 and headed south towards east Portland via 205.  I noticed the temperature outside on my dash.  It was reading 102 degrees.  Yikes!

We merged onto I-84 and followed Nuvi's directions to the Fairwood neighborhood. We found a place to park and walked over to where the fork was.  It was located at a food truck complex.  It was so hot outside that some of the food trucks were closed down.  We got our photo of us with the fork and answered the question.  

Mom said if we weren't going to pizza later, she would have tried some of the food here.  We walked back to Escape and got back onto I-84.  We missed the exit for 205 so we had to drive all the way to Portland to merge onto I-5.  Yes, we got stuck in a little bit of traffic.  

I had the Nuvi set to the address of Victor 23 in Vancouver.  We got off of I-5 and followed the directions to St. John's Blvd.  

The brewery was in a smaller building than I expected.  We found a place to park along the street and went inside.  They did not have very good A/C unless it was nonexistent.  We looked at the choices and I went with Flight 305 and Mom had a cider.  

Bev just had water and then got too hot and went out to the Escape with the A/C.  The beer was pretty good, so I bought one to take home to Ben to try, a sticker and a pint glass.  Mom bought a shirt for her traveling quilt.  We paid, went back out to the Escape and put Ben's beer in the cooler. 

We left, got back onto I-5 and I had Mom call in our pizza.  We were finally able to eat inside.  I was so excited.  The last time we came to the Ridgefield Papa Pete's, we had to eat it outside. We got off the exit, parked and went inside.  We found a table, washed our hands and our pizza was done.  That pizza always hits the spot.  It is so good!  

We were so upset the Centralia location closed.  Mom took the leftovers home and Bev took another pizza home for her and Bob.

We got back onto I-5 north and headed home.  Mom needed to stop at the Centralia Walmart for a few things.  I ended up buying some soda.  On the way back out to the Escape, Mom crossed paths with one of the Ledesma's, who was home for a funeral, she stopped a chatted with him for a few minutes.  We got into Rainier, picked up the quilt from Grandma's house, dropped off Bev at her house and drove to Mom and Dad's house.  I dropped off Mom and filled up the water jugs I brought with me. 

I drove into Tumwater to make sure Alicia's dogs were okay since she was out of town for the weekend, and I was in charge of her dogs.  I headed home shortly after.  I showered, logged the caches, filled out my blog for a little bit while eating popcorn and then went to bed.  It was sure hot today and I love it!  I have been caching for 12 years and was almost to 13,000 caches.  I was hoping to hit it sometime in September or October.  I needed to find a really cool cache to hit my milestone at.  We will see when we get there.

Next Adventure:  Trish's Backyard BBQ and her DECK

20th High School Reunion and Relay for Life

As I mentioned in the previous post, 

On Easter Sunday, Brandon texted me about having a 20th high school reunion this summer.  I wasn't too thrilled in having another one because the one in 2012 failed miserably.  I had paired up with Allison and Tara and they basically under minded me into doing an event they wanted to do rather than the one I planned for.  So, mine got cancelled, theirs was underwhelming and like five of us met up at Farelli's in Lacey.  I told myself I would never do it again but somehow, I got talked into doing it again.

I decided to do a low-key, come as you are, park gathering at Rainier Vista.  I chose Rainier Vista because it's near my house and it will make planning and setting up easy and we all graduated from Rainier High School so Rainier Vista seemed appropriate.  I created a Facebook post and an event for July 23rd because that is when I was available to host it.

This is what I wrote:

Class of 2002 20th Reunion (please spread the word if you are in contact with someone who graduated or was in our class at some point and to those who do not use social media and you are in contact with them.)

Date: July 23rd
Time:  11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (drop in, hang out)

Rainier Vista Park
5475 45th Ave SE
Lacey, Wa 98503

There is also an entrance to the park off of Ruddell Road.

There is plenty of parking, restrooms, a playground, paved walking paths, ball fields, a skate park, volleyball, basketball, tennis courts and lots of space to hang out in camp chairs reminiscing about the good 'ol days. 

Brandon and I were brainstorming about what to do for our 20th reunion; yes...it's been 20 years.  I can't believe it either.  With social media at the end of our fingertips, it is really easy to know what everyone is doing and see their pictures and so on.  Reunions have kinda been pushed aside over the last decade or so.  I know there was some talk on Facebook about a possible Vegas trip, which is fine, go ahead, plan and do that, but we all know that for some people it's not quick in the budget right now or some other "adulting" has come up recently or it's just really not their scene.  It's all good.  This is why we've decided to hold a low-key, come as you are event in Thurston County since most of us still are within 50 miles or so of Olympia/Lacey.

I understand that some of you may still be a little weary of Covid and being around a bunch of people might make you twitchy and therefore you might not come.  That is your choice, and we respect that.  If you do come and want to wear your mask, that is also up to you, and we also respect that.  I will have some hand sanitizer and some anti-bacterial wipes with me.  We also know that not everyone will be able to make it because of other plans or they work weekends.  I apologize in advance; this is just when I can do it and be there to make it happen. 

With that being said, this will be family friendly, and you can bring your dog if you'd like.  I live near the park so I will be able to grab a space because I think it is first come, first served.  I have a couple tables and will be bringing a few camp chairs.  You are responsible for your own chairs, so bring them.  Also, I will be providing water, ice and I have a couple of coolers to keep them cool.  This is a bring your own drinks (pop, water, iced tea...etc.) event. There is no alcohol allowed in the park.  I might bring some snacky foods like Chex Mix, veggies, fruit or some sort of chips but if you want actual food, bring your own food and turn it into a fun picnic with your family, friends or dog.  It you want to bring something to share with everyone, that is totally up to you.

I gave my contact info and hoped people could make it.

Then Allison got on there, created and posted a secondary "reunion" at Puerto Vallarta the Friday night before my event.  I was irritated because this is the kind of passive aggressive childish things adults do now apparently when they don't get what they want.

After my massage and chiropractic appointment that Tuesday, I went to Costco to get some water, Walmart for some snacks and the Dollar Tree for bowls, napkins and serving utensils.  I tried to keep the orange and black school colors motif. 

The day of,

I got up around 8:30 because Mom called me to tell me she was on her way to Saturday sew.  Not sure why she had to call me to tell me that, but she got me up earlier than I wanted to.  I asked her if she was interested in going to Relay for Life at North Thurston and walk a couple laps later and she said she was.  We would talk about it more after my event and her sewing gathering.  

I ate breakfast, got in a shower, put clothes on and made sure Doug was up to help me like he promised he would.  I ran over to Walmart really quick to grab some bags of ice and Alicia texted me about dropping off money for watching her dogs the week before.  I had her meet me at the park since that's where we were going after putting the table and pop up in the back of the truck.  She said she would meet me there in a few minutes. 

I put the water and ice into the coolers and put those in the truck.  I grabbed all the bags of stuff I had packed up the night before and put them into the Escape.  I was even clever enough to bring our high school yearbooks to thumb through if anyone was interested. Doug helped me load the back of the truck.  Doug drove the truck and I drove the Escape over to the park.

We found the spot I had scouted out the day before and he helped me unload everything and even helped me put up the pop up.  He went home and told me to let him know when to bring the truck over again.  Alicia showed up and she helped me finish up the decorations and setting up while we chatted.  She paid me before leaving.

Nick Molenda and Nic Wolfe were my first two guests.  We chatted for a good half hour about how much of a disaster the event Allison put together the previous night was.  Both of them were pretty disappointed they went but I got my answer...I was glad I didn't go.

Lacey showed up a little while later, so we all chatted with each other about our jobs, where life has taken us and sky diving.  Brandon, Victoria and their dog, Sammy soon followed.  I haven't seen Brandon in years, and I didn't realize how much Victoria loved to talk and I only met her for the first time at their wedding back in October 2016.  A little while later, Lindsay and Justin came with their baby Wes.  Between these groups of people, there were many conversations going on at once and I made the rounds.

Rebecca and her husband Chris came with their rescue dog Rolio.  This was the first time any of us met Chris.  They got married just before Covid and plan on having a reception later on.  I haven't seen Rebecca in person since Lindsay's wedding in July 2018, so it was very good to catch up with her and meet her husband.

Terry Burnham, a classmate, who started at Rainier and stayed for a good portion of school and then graduated in Tenino.  We still consider him a Rainier kid even though he didn't graduate with us.  It's been more than 20 years since I've seen him in person.  He lives in Tenino with his wife and teenage kids, has a pretty good job, property and drives a huge ass truck.  It was fun catching up with him as well even though you could clearly see this wasn't his crowd of people. 

About an hour before it was time to clean up, Rusty Rossmaier came and stayed for a little while after work before going to his wife's parents house for dinner in Eatonville.  It was good to see what he's been doing as well.  We chatted for a bit about his go cart racing, his job and his married life. We briefly talked about how his sister; Ravae was up to.

I thanked everyone for coming and got a group picture of us before people left.  We weren't able to get Rusty in it unfortunately.  

I was super disappointed in the rest of the class.  I was aware that some people live far away, and they couldn't make it but like 60% of us live within miles of Olympia, they could have come for a little bit or drove by to say hi.  I guess my biggest disappointment was that if they couldn't make it or didn't want to go to let me know on the will attend.  It takes like two seconds, and I know these people are on their phone and Facebook because I can see their posts!

Rebecca and Brandon helped me clean up and I called Doug to head over with the truck.  He showed up around 4:45 and we loaded all the stuff up in the back of the truck and I thanked everyone for helping me.  Everyone went home. Doug and I headed home as soon as the clock struck 5 p.m. because that's what time I told everyone I would be there until.  Doug helped me unload the truck and the Escape, I folded clothes and waited for Mom to be done at Costco.

We hopped in the Escape and drove to the Dollar Tree to get some wrapping paper (for the baby shower I was going to go to the next day) and then went to North Thurston to spend some time at Relay for Life.  We haven't been since 2019 when it was held at Komachin Middle School.  2019 seemed like ages ago now when life was kind of normal.

We walked a couple laps, chatted with Jonathan and Kristy for a bit and ended up walking three miles while gathering lap beads.  We will have to be more organized next year so we can spend more time and walk more miles.  Maybe even join a group?

We got hungry and it was way past our dinner time.  Mom called Doug to see if he wanted to meet us at Hops and Drops for food.  He actually agreed and he met us there. Mom had fish and chips, I had a chicken sandwich and Doug had a burger while we chatted about the day and other random things.  Afterwards, I had to get gas and Mom went home.  I folded clothes, did the night chores, got another shower and went to bed.  Today was a very long day.  

Next Adventure:  Adventure Labs, Geocaching, World's Largest Fork, Victor 23 and Papa Pete's in Southwest Washington

Ward Lake Paddle Caching

This short paddling excursion was planned pretty much at the last minute.  Some back story.  Earlier this spring, Brandon texted me asking if we had anything planned for our 20th high school reunion.  Based off of how the last one went; I wasn't too excited about having another one.  Unfortunately, I gave in, and we started planning one.  I posted all the information to the Facebook group page I created back in 2010 and hoped people would respond so I knew how many people to expect. It sat there for about two months before Allison took it upon herself to complicate it by adding an additional event the night before our official one at the park. She was undermining me because she didn't want to do what we had planned.  I was irritated and felt disrespected.

I was, for a second, interested in going because I saw Rebecca was going to go with her husband and I wanted Ben to meet her.  Ben had a 24-hour shift during our real reunion and wasn't going to be able to meet Rebecca.  She and Brandon were my only two friends Ben hasn't met yet.  It wasn't for Allison or her event, it was for Rebecca.  Last minute she and her husband backed out because she had to work late so that turned into a kayak paddle for Ben and me.  Ben and Rebecca would just have to meet sometime later on.

The weather finally cooperated over the past few days, and we were able to have summer weather finally.  This year the warm weather took forever to get here.  It was a nice evening and I asked Ben if he wanted to go to Ward Lake to do a couple geocaches.  He said sure.  There were two caches I've had my eye on for a few years now that I wanted to get but sadly, they go missing a lot. I saw that the dock one was finally back with some maintenance by paddyaddy in September 2001.  I did make sure I had my cache replacements just in case.

I haven't been to Ward Lake since the late 1990's when I was in Middle School and played for the Dynamite, a competitive fastpitch team out of Lacey and Olympia.  We used to hold practice at the Emry's property, which is now a dog park, off of the Yelm Highway.  One day Tova asked a few of us to go sit on innertubes and swim on the lake.  I spend a nice summer afternoon with Lacey, Tabitha, Lea, Tova and Ashley.  I told Ben this story once we got to the lake. 

Ben got home, changed his clothes and helped me throw the kayaks into the red truck, grabbed the Discover Pass and headed down Yelm Highway.  I really wasn't sure where the public boat launch was, so I had to look that up really quick and saw it was off of the Boulevard roundabout down 42nd.  I missed the road, so we had to turn around. We got onto the correct road and followed that until we saw public boat launch signs.  We knew we were going the right way once we saw the dirt parking lot.

We drove down the hill and noticed there were two people floating on their inner tubes near the boat launch.  I pulled up beside the boat launch and Ben and I got the kayaks and paddles out.  We changed our shoes, put the important things we needed into the cubby hole, and I took the truck up the hill and parked it, making sure the Discover Pass was visible.  I walked down and met Ben with the kayaks.

We put the kayaks into the water (the water was surprisingly warm) and shoved off towards Eeyore's GC Scrabble Challenge - a Paddling Cache (GC4RCFT).  I had spent some time making sure I qualified for it before I went for it.  I wasn't sure if Ben did but was going to make sure he signed it so when he did qualify, he'd be able to log it.  It was such a nice warm evening to kayak and we both enjoyed our time out on the water.

The cache was located at the most southern point of the lake, there were lily pads everywhere and bugs.  Luckily, they weren't mosquitoes or Ben would have been eaten alive.  Ben stayed away from the bugs anyway while I explored the only possible place it could have been.  I didn't see it after checking a few places more than once so with some of the extra containers, logbooks and baggies I brought, I took a few moments to get a cache together for Ohjoy.  I knew she wouldn't mind me replacing it for her.

I tied it off where I thought it was supposed to be, took a photo and met up with Ben on the other side of the lily pads and bugs.  He asked me where the other cache was, and I pointed in the general direction of where Abandoned Dock (GC4RDNR) was.  Along the way there, we passed by two people in a fishing boat.  We tried to stay away from them, so we didn't mess with their fishing groove.

We approached the old rickety dock and really wasn't sure what side the cache would be on.  The directions on the cache page weren't really clear.  I had to read it like five times, and I still didn't know what side of the dock it was on.  I assumed it went missing again and had a replacement cache on hand.  I signed our names on the log and found a good place to put it.  I secured it with zip ties and tucked it back away from the edge.  I still wanted to check the other part of the dock that you could get to with a kayak.  Before we left for good, I went to the to the front of the dock to check.  Sure enough, we looked very poorly the first time and there it was.  I signed our names and took a picture with the Jack's Link trackable I received for the latest geocaching promotion.

I paddled around to where we replaced the cache, took it back, shoved it into the bag and called it good for the day.  We paddled back to the boat launch because we were getting hungry.  I asked Ben what we wanted for dinner and since it was a nice day, we decided to grill burgers on the BBQ when we got home.

We got back to the boat launch, pulled the kayaks ashore and Ben waited with them while I grabbed the truck and brought it down.  We threw them in the back of the truck, along with the oars, and tied my red fabric to the back of them because they hung out the back of the tailgate. We drove home, unloaded the kayaks, Ben rinsed them off, we took them into the back yard to dry.  We got stuff ready for dinner and ate while we watched some random TV.

I spent some time getting the reunion stuff ready after dinner.  It's a lot of work to put together an event by yourself.  I was really hoping that at least 10 or so people show up.  I really didn't want to do one after the disaster of the 10-year reunion in 2012 but here we are.  I was also curious on how Allison's "class reunion" was going.  I was very anxious to hear how bad it was tomorrow from those who actually went.

Next Adventure:  20th High School Reunion and Relay for Life

Paddle Caching on Lake St. Clair with Mom

I wanted to use our kayaks more this year than we did last year so I asked Mom if she was interested in paddling a section of Lake St. Clair.  She said she was always interested in kayaking but never had the time or the equipment to go.  Ben was working so I asked her if she wanted to go with me since I had nothing going on that day.  She said yes but was kinda nervous because she has never been in a kayak before.  I told her it was pretty easy, and she will get the hang of it once she is in it. 

Our summer was taking its sweet time showing up, so it was another bland overcast summer afternoon for our hottest month of the year.  I told her to meet up at my house and we will throw the kayaks into the red truck, so we didn't have to work hard strapping them to the Escape.  It's difficult when you're short.  I had to figure out the Discover Pass situation since we didn't have one for the truck.  I figured out something and threw it on the dash.  

Mom showed up just as I finished putting the kayaks into the truck.  I tied a red piece of fabric to the end of each of them since they stuck out the back.  I grabbed my backpack (full of replacement containers, logbooks and baggies, just in case), and headed down Yelm Highway. I had a section of the lake I wanted to do since I had a handful of caches left until I blacked out the lake.

I spent the night before going over Ohjoy's paddle caches to see if I qualified for them all.  I think I finally did so I added the cache to my list of ones to grab for a total of four.

We arrived at the boat launch and there were quite a few people fishing but enough parking spots to park the truck once we unloaded the kayaks. I had Mom hang out with the kayaks and paddles while I went to park the truck. We scooted them into the lake, and I helped Mom into the pink kayak while I got into Ben's orange one.  Once we were in, I helped her adjust her paddles, so they weren't awkward when she propelled herself forward with them. 

We paddled north on the lake for our first cache, Eeyore's Postal Code Challenge - a Paddling Cache (GC3TGMW).  It had been replaced in June by a couple of Ohjoy's friends who were out doing maintenance for her, so I knew it was going to be there.  We approached the mossy Maple tree, and I could see it hanging from the limb in front of me.  Mom paddled around while I got out the pen to sign our names.  I signed Mom's even though she might not qualify to log it yet. 

I pointed to Mom where we were going next.  We paddled southeast on the edge of the most eastern part of the lake. We saw ducks, geese and lily pads with flowers blooming on the top of them.  There were some people on paddle boards and others cruising the lake in their pontoon boats and kayaks.

Paddle Dee Dee, Paddle Dee Dum (GC8C5J4) was a little further south of where I've been before to grab caches in the past.  I've kind of ignored this part of the lake for a while.  Mostly, because I didn't have a great vessel to get me there and we just didn't have the time to go get them.  Over the past couple summers we've had some time to come out here.  This was also an easy grab from my kayak and was glad it was there and had not gone missing like some of the others have in this lake.

Mom asked me where to next.  I pointed over by where the large tree was sticking into the water about a quarter of a mile from where we were.  We started paddling.  There were a couple people fishing nearby as we passed them.

Hernando's Hideaway 2.0 (GC8YXX4) was a bit harder to find than the others.  I actually got out of my kayak becasue I thought it was going to be on land.  I was wrong.  I got back in the kayak (of course I got scratched by a sticker bush) and saw it was hiding amongst the Ceder tree limbs. I signed our names on it and we moved on to our last one.

I had solved this puzzle cache, Procrastination II - True Confessions (GC7ZRY9) last summer.  I went as far as to make my own pieces of the puzzle so I could rearrange them to figure out the coordinates.  For some reason, I was doing something wrong, and I could not figure it out.  Ohjoy knew that I was looking for her caches out on the various lakes in Thurston County and stopped by one day to drop off replacement parts for them just in case they weren't there when we went to look for them.  She also gave me a hint on how to solve this puzzle.  She said that I had one of the pieces going the wrong way and adjusted it for me.  I thanked her and she thanked me for checking up on her paddle caches. Ben and I went out last summer and fixed a couple of them but didn't get to this cache for some reason.  

Mom and I paddled to ground zero and started looking.  This one was higher up on the Cedar tree, so I actually had to maneuver my kayak just right, grab onto something and try to balance standing in the kayak to grab this one...it was wobbly.  I almost fell in but adjusted accordingly.  I got our names on it and then stood back up to screw the bottom back onto the lid.  

We paddled to the other boat launch because Mom didn't want to overdo her first time out.  I told her that I would get the truck and drive it across the street so we could load the kayaks up.  She said that was fine.

I grabbed the red truck and backed it down the steep boat launch.  There were some people in the lake swimming with floaties.  I thought they were crazy because it wasn't that warm outside to be swimming.  We got the kayaks into the back of the truck, got the red cloth tied to the ends, unscrewed the paddles and headed back towards my house. I asked Mom if she had fun with her first time kayaking and she wanted to get her own kayak, plus she was glad she didn't fall in!

I told her once we get more organized with everything, we could do more kayaking next summer.  Let's just hope summer doesn't take forever to start in 2023.  This summer seemed so short and disappointing. 

Next Adventure:  Ward Lake Paddle Caching

Leavenworth Trip: Leavenworth to Lacey

The alarm went off around 8:30 and we eventually got up around 9.  We are not early morning go getters unless we have a schedule or have to be somewhere. We are definitely lazy in the mornings.  We got dressed, packed up our clothes, gathered all of our belongings we brought in the kitchen and living room, unloaded the dishwasher, took pictures of the inside of the chalet so we can show people where we stayed, put the furniture back (we had to move the couch around), finished up the check off list and finally, wrote in the guest book.

We made one final sweep of the place, loaded our stuff into the Edge and took a couple pictures outside before we left.  Ben wanted to have breakfast in Leavenworth at a place called Louie's.  We got into town and had a heck of a time finding a parking spot.  We did manage to find one and had to pay $3.50.  We then walked to Louie's from there.

Since Leavenworth is a popular place on the weekend, especially in the summertime, yes, we had to wait in a short line for about five minutes or so.  It was quick because there were only two of us and most of the people who were in line with us had like four or more people.  The host seated us outside, which was nice since it was going to be a beautiful day and was already starting to get warm.  She took our drink order and then came back for our meal.  We both got chocolate milk and for breakfast, I got the 2, 2, 2 (blueberry pancakes, sunny side up eggs and bacon) and he got the Denver omelet.  It was delish.

We paid, walked around town a little bit more and went into a store to get some saltwater taffy because my Dad likes it.  We walked back to the Edge and decided we were done with Leavenworth for now.  I'm sure we will be back again sometime soon. 

I had solved Tesla (GC920KB) the night before because we knew we'd be picking it up while we left town, so we had the coords and I told Ben where we had to go to get the cache, he parked near Dan's Food Market while I got out and grabbed it from under the lamp skirt.  There were a lot of people, so I had to be really sneaky.  I got our names on it and put it back just as sneaky. 

We got onto the Chumstick Highway and drove north to Plain.  Neither Ben nor I have been to Plain before.  We stopped and grabbed Washington Native Plants A-Z: J is for Juniper (GC77NZQ), Washington Native Plants A-Z:  O is for Oxeye Daisy (GC77P0E).  They were both park and grabs hidden in guardrails.   We reached the switchbacks and grabbed Washington Native Plants A-Z: D is for Douglas Fir (GC77NZF) and Washington Native Plants A-Z:  P is for Ponderosa (GC77P0Z) at the next switchback.  Most of them were easy park and grabs and the others required a little bit more looking to find them.

We drove down the hill and into Plain.  It was definitely a small town.  A couple of small stores and the rest is houses with some farmland and a few housing developments.  We drove to the furthest one north of town, Bear Paw (GC22399) was a snowmobile rental, horse rides and a zipline place.  Ben and I decided that we would have to come here when we were in Leavenworth again.  I told Ben that the last time I ziplined was in Ecuador.  We found the cache, signed our names and headed to the next one. 

Pea See See (GC86DQW) was on the corner of Beaver Valley Road and Chapel Drive with a view of the PCC Church.  Ben parked on the side of the road, I got out, grabbed it, signed our names and put it back. 

Next, we got back on the main road and turned into the hardware store for Plain Old Gang Saw (GC37VF6).  Of course, there were people standing outside of the store chatting.  I had Ben pull up in front of the old machine, we got out and started looking.  We knew it would be a magnetic cache but where did the cache owner put it?  Luckily, we found it quickly so we could sign it, put it back and leave without a lot of questionable stares by the small-town folk. 

Plain 25 (GC7NAR7) was on the same side road that the hardware store was on.  We turned down it and probably weirded out a guy who was walking his dog when we pulled alongside the speed limit sign.  I got out really quick, made the find, signed our names and put it back.  We were there less thatn two minutes.  

The next two, were south of town.  The first one was Hazel Nut (GC838QD) and we were both tricked into looking for this one for way too long.  I really thought the small trees on the side of the road were Hazel Nut trees.  We were almost about to give up when after reading some of the logs, Ben had an idea that turned out to be a smiley rather than a sad face.  The "nut" they were talking about was on the back of the stop sign.  We both felt super derpy and embarrassed after that one.  The last one in town was Plain Ranches (GC7XTPX) and I should have looked to see it had a few DNF's before we went looking for it.  However, sometimes you do find it when others couldn't.  We gave it a try and decided it was really gone.

We left town and got back on the Chumstick Hwy south back towards Leavenworth.  We made a left turn onto North Road which paralleled Hwy 2.  We followed that road into Peshastin where I wanted to get a cache at.  The one with the most favorite points was 1-11-11 (GC2MA52) and it was a magnetic key holder stuck to the side of a newspaper dispenser in front of the post office. Another quick park and grab. 

We got onto Hwy 2 and headed east to the junction of US 97 but stopped at the park and ride to grab Washington Native Plants A-Z:  Y is for Yarrow (GC77P1M).  It was a water bottle stuffed in the guardrail.  I got our names on it and put it back before someone saw us.

We merged onto US 97 and drove south towards I-90 and Cle Elum.  I wanted to make a stop along US 97, so we stopped at The Rock for the geocache Rock It (GC7WBYH) and some milkshakes.  Over the past couple years, I've always wanted to stop to see what was here.  It was a fun little area to stop, use the restroom, eat and drink.  My strawberry milkshake sure hit the spot. 

We stopped in Cle Elum to do the Adventure Lab, Historic Cle Elum, which took us to five historic downtown buildings to gather the code words.  Ben drove while I got out and grabbed the word.  We both entered it into our phones until we were done.  This particular Adventure Lab didn't have a bonus cache afterwards.  

We got on I-90 and the traffic was terrible throughout the Easton area all the way to the edge of the eastern part of the mountain pass.  There was absolutely no reason for it.

We got home around 6:15, unpacked, put stuff away, Trish stopped by on her way home from the ocean (she was visiting her friend Laura), and we chatted for a little bit, showed her the ring and then she went home, we ate the rest of the leftovers from BBQ and watched Old School, vacuumed and showered.  Ben got ready for the work week, and I had another day off to recoup and unwind.  It was a fun, memorable trip, and we came home as an engaged couple.  Took us 9 years to do it but we did it!

Next Adventure:  Paddle Caching on Lake St. Clair with Mom