I love that every year my birthday sits near Veteran's Day, and I try to take advantage of the long weekend by making it into a four-day weekend. The only bad thing is that the weather every year is unpredictable in the Pacific Northwest. That makes it hard to plan things outside. This year we were lucky because we had some awesome sunny weather so we could do something outside.
Every year I try to assemble family and friends to accompany me at Buffalo Wild Wings at some point during the long weekend. It is usually Friday or Saturday. This year it would be Saturday afternoon to avoid large crowds. There was also a geocaching event held at one of the local parks hosted by the SuperKnotts also on Saturday afternoon. There was plenty of fun things to do.
I did contact Celeste to see if she had any openings this weekend to get my haircut. She didn't so I had to do it another time.
Friday, November 11th
We all had the day off due to the Veteran's Day holiday. We all slept in a little bit and woke up around 9:30. I put together some grapes, yogurt and half a blueberry bagel and Ben ate some cereal while watching whatever was on TV that morning when I turned it on. Afterwards, we got ready to go do our errands.
Ben drove and our first stop was Costco. Ben said he would get me a Kitchen Aid for my birthday this year and that I got to pick it out. I made sure to bring our dividends coupon with us. I pick out one of the red ones because it looked nice. I honestly didn't care what color it was. It was now going to be easier to make cookies, cakes and other things that need to be mixed. We got in line, paid and headed to our next destination, the recycle.
We dumped that off quickly, got onto I-5 and headed into Tacoma. Ben needed to go to Hustler to get some items for Josh's birthday party the next weekend. Last February Josh held a pretty pink princess party for Ben and Ben is having a penis party for Josh. So, we needed to get a penis cake mold and some other lovely accessories to go with it. It was weird being in that store and seeing all the different kinds of sex paraphernalia. It was out of control. Ben paid for his items, and we left. He needed to use the restroom, so we drove to the Bass Pro Shop just up the street.
I've never been inside the Bass Pro Shop, so I wandered around while Ben used the restroom. I found some fish plushies to mess with while I waited. He came out and we walked around for a little bit looking at all the stuff. It was like going to Cabela's. I looked at my phone to see if there were any cool geocaches nearby. I asked Ben if we could find some caches and he said sure.
I chose a cache called Unicorn Sandwich (GC8G3JA) because of its name and it had a bunch of favorite points. I navigated Ben to the cache, we found a place to pull over, parked and walked up the short hill to some median dividers. We checked the obvious spots and came up with nothing. I thought, well...if it has this many favorite points it's gotta be a cool tricky one. There was only one other place to look, and we were right. The logbook was literally sandwiched in between the device we found. We got our names on it, put it back and went to our next location.
I directed Ben to Old Town Tacoma so we could do the Adventure Lab. We found a place to park on the street and started the first waypoint. We got our answer and walked down the street to the second one. We answered that one and Ben decided he wanted some coffee. We walked into Anthem Coffee, and he ordered a coffee, and I got a hot chocolate. We sat down and enjoyed the warmth of our hot beverages. It was a chilly sunny day.
We walked further down the street to pick up the last two waypoints to finish up the Adventure Lab. On the way back down the other side of the street we went into the bike shop to see if Ben could find a bike rack for his mom for the upcoming birthdays and holidays. They didn't have what he was looking for, but another store had it. Ben ended up ordering it and was going to pick it up at the Olympia store sometime in the next few days. He did purchase a bike pump for her while we were there.
We walked back to the Edge, and I found one more place to stop at on our way back to I-5. It was called Jefferson Park and it had two caches to find. We parked on the side of the road and walked to the first one, Not So Smart (GC7NQK7) which was a nano at the sign. It was an easy find. We got our names on it, put it back and walked over to the to the other one, Jefferson Park (GC7NV54). We had no idea what we were looking for and the dog on the other side of the fence barked the entire time we were there. It was quite annoying. Ben and I looked everywhere, and we couldn't find anything. We decided to call it quits, take the DNF and head back towards home. I hate DNF's! (I found out it was archived three months after our visit.)
We got onto the freeway and Amy was texting us about the necklace Trish wanted for her birthday. We decided to just call her since it was easier. We talked to Amy and the jeweler at Fred Meyers. We decided on a chain that fit the description and had Amy purchase it. Ben told her that he would pay her the other half when we saw her next weekend. Meanwhile, Doug was helping Dad move the sleeping couch over to Erika and Zac's house.
I told Ben I had to make two more stops so we got off at Slater Kinney and stopped by Office Depot so I could pick up some more ink for when I start the Christmas letter and cards here in a few weeks. We went over to Fred Meyers to pick up some dinner items. I decided steak and potatoes sounded good, so we got the supplies for that and then went home.
Around dinner time, Ben got the steaks prepared to be cooked and I got the potatoes ready in the foil and put them in the oven for an hour. I logged the caches we found earlier this afternoon, worked on my blog, Ben cooked the steaks just in time for the potatoes to get done, we also added salad to our meal. We ate, watched random TV, blogged some more. I got in a shower; we filled out the wedding venue rental agreement and sent back to the lady and I continued blogging some more before bedtime.
Saturday, November 12th
I slept in again because I could, and it was wonderful. I made Ben get out of bed and help me make breakfast. We chose to make French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon and used my syrup I brought back from Vermont. We turned on some random college football for a while as we ate.
We got ready and Ben decided he had to poop right before we left to go to the event, WSGA-SW Meet and Greet (GCA1C75) at Kettle Park at 12:30. I didn't like being late to events because then all the parking is gone...this tiny park had limited parking available. We finally got going and arrived at the park just in time. I really thought we were going to be late. We parked and walked over to the covered area to chat with Brian and Vickie (SuperKnotts). We signed the logbook, dropped off the trackables I brought back with me from Maine, talked to Bob, Bev, Gabe and his new flavor of the week. I shared some of my stories with the other cachers who attended.
It wasn't a very long event, lasted about a half hour or so, and we stuck around for the raffle after a group of cachers came back from the new cache just up the street. Both Ben and I won something from the raffle, which is always nice.
We thanked Brian and Vickie for hosting an event near our stomping grounds and told them to grab our letterbox TB hotel at our house. We said our goodbyes and headed down the street to pick up Welcome to the Neighborhood (GCA1Z4Q). It was a short walk and, on the way there, Ben called Buffalo Wild Wings to make sure they knew we were going to have a part of about 10. They said it would be no problem but there probably was going to be a problem once we got there. There always is...especially since Covid.
We got to GZ and made the quick find near the stop sign. We signed our names, got a picture and put it back for the next set of cachers, who were walking towards us. Ben and I walked back to his Edge in the parking lot. We got onto Yelm Highway, and he asked where to next? We need to go to the Historical Tumwater Park so I could fix my WSGA cache for the third time since it published last month.
We parked as close as we could, and I went and changed its location and the size of the cache. It has been compromised so many times already. I got a new set of coords and walked back to the Edge. I had realized I forgot the cake plates and napkins at home so I had Ben go to the Dollar Tree in Tumwater so I could get some before heading to West Olympia.
We got the napkins and plates and were able to waste enough time before heading to Buffalo Wild Wings around 2:30. We told everyone we would be there early to make sure we had a table by 3:00. Just as we thought would happen, no one shared the information that a large group of people were coming so there was a slight problem. It was soon figured out and we were put out in the patio area like we've always been. Our waitress was kind and patient.
Over the next hour everyone arrived, we ordered drinks, food, visited and carried on. A few college football games were being played on the TVs on the wall. I ordered my standard meal - honey BBQ traditional wings, fries, carrots, celery and ranch dip. I always try to order more wings than I can eat so we have leftovers we can take home with us for the next day. Mom brought a cake to share with everyone including candles. Everyone sang to me, and we divvied up cake to those who wanted some.
Trish got me a large wooden cutting board, Ed got me a WSU shot glass, Bev got me a WSU teddy bear, Erika and Zac got me a cat backpack, Grandma Karen got me a penguin/snowman table decoration for Christmas, I got a Buffalo Wild Wings gift card from Mom and Dad, Lindsay and Justin got me some Costco cashews and cauliflower pizza and Doug got me a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader calendar because he thinks he's hilarious. I thanked everyone for coming and helped our waitress clean up our tables and area a little bit.
Ben and I went home, and I made him wrap my Kitchen Aid so I could open it on my actual birthday. We put Wade and Oliver into the cat backpack to see how they would react to it. Wade actually liked it, but Oliver wasn't a big fan.
The rest of the night I worked on my blog and Ben played his video games with Josh. It was nice to sit and chill.
Sunday, November 13th
I am now 39 years old. It sounds old but it doesn't feel old...some days I do feel old though. I don't even look that old to be honest.
I decided to sleep in again today instead of getting up early to watch a disappointing football game. Yes, the Seahawks were in Germany playing against the Buccaneers. Of course, the refs were going to find a way for Tom Brady to win and they made it happen. It was very winnable for us but when the odds are against us. Ben made pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage and again, we used the Vermont maple syrup. We watched the morning game and monitored our Fantasy football scores. I took Wade for walk to the mailboxes in his cat backpack.
We started laundry and I decided since it was my birthday, I wanted to at least enjoy a rare non-rainy November 13th sunny day. We went to the Dollar Tree to get a couple containers and headed over to Millersylvania State Park because someone had said my original container was broken and letting water in. We stopped at three newer caches in the southern part of Tumwater first.
Our first one we stopped at was Right-Handed (GC9ZFRH) which was down a road off of Littlerock Road I've never been down. We parked the Escape near a driveway, and we got out really quick to make the grab. I got our names on it, got a picture and put it back. We drove to the next one The Bends (GC9ZH3M), which wasn't that far away.
Once we got near the cache, there was plenty of room to pull over, get out and look for it. At first, we were looking in the wrong spot, but we did eventually find it hanging in the tree. I opened it up and everything inside was wet. Gross. We signed the logbook the best we could, got a picture, and put it back.
We got back to Littlerock Road and stopped by the South Union Grange to pick up our last one, South Union Historic Cache (GC9ZT5W) of the day. I felt weird stopping there. We found it, signed our names and put it back. We tried not to be there that long just in case someone came out to yell at us. (This cache was archived on 11/23/22 because the cache owner didn't get permission to place it.)
We got to Millersylvania State Park, pulled out the Discover Pass and made our way to the parking lot near the cache. This cache has been active for almost 10 years. The container has taken a beating, so I swapped it out with the container I bought earlier that day.
We stopped by Josh's house to pick up a frozen turkey, hung out with him and Lilly for a little bit and then went home. We stopped by the store really quick to pick up some milk and a couple things for nachos. Sadly, they were not victory nachos but birthday ones instead. We watched Sunday Night Football as we ate. Then we had a mini birthday party with chocolate cake, vanilla ice cream and my present Ben had me pick out on Friday. He thought about taking it to Buffalo Wild Wings with us on Saturday, but it was too big, so we just left it at home and decided to open it on my birthday instead. I made sure to be surprised when I opened it. Haha.
Monday, November 14th
I took this day off from work and I am glad I did. I heard that Comagine did work on Friday and today was a double Monday. I hate double days! Ben and Doug went to work, and I slept in. I had my normal weekday breakfast and then got ready for the day.
I drove into Rainier to drop off the turkey we got the day before from Josh so I could deliver it to Grandma Karen. I stayed for a little bit and visited. I went to Mom and Dad's house to see if Dad could check out our leaf blower and he said it probably needs a new spark plug. It started working bad in August. I filled the water jugs with Rainier water and then Dad and I drove over to Grammie and Grandpa's house to unload the funeral stuff out of the Escape.
Then I drove over to Bob and Bev's house to hang out for a couple hours to chat. I drove into Yelm to get gas and to fix my Yelm trail cache. I headed home after that because it started getting dark. We had leftovers for dinner and watched Monday Night Football. The Miami Dolphin's 1972 record was still intact after the undefeated Eagles lost to the Commanders. I worked on my blog, got cleaned up and really didn't want to go to work after my four-day weekend. They are just never long enough.
Here's to my last year of my 30's!
Next Adventure: Four-Day Thanksgiving Weekend
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