I had a free weekend and wanted to go out and do something. Ben was on shift, Mom was at Saturday sew and surprisingly, it was a decent weekend in the Pacific Northwest for late February. I asked Bev a few days prior if she wanted to go on an adventure to Parkland to pick up some caches. She said that would be fun and she was happy to get out of the house for a little bit. We chatted about which caches we were going to get, what time I would pick her up and where we would start. Both she and I made a list of caches we needed since hers differed slightly than mine did.
I got up, got ready and headed out to Rainier to pick up Bev around 10 a.m. She was ready to go, and Bob told us to have fun. We both hopped into the Escape and drove out to Parkland. We chatted about random things along the way. I wanted to start at PLU and get the Adventure Lab done first. We found a place to park along the street and walked to our first location.
It was chilly while we walked around campus gathering the answers to the five waypoints. I've been to PLU twice before, once for a yearbook thing in high school and a few years ago I went to the ICSEW conference with work. The Adventure Lab took us to some sculptures, the clock tower and some really cool buildings. It ended up being a nice walk around campus. We went back to the Escape, checked the next closest cache we both didn't have.
After Game Party (GC8H170) was right up the street outside of Farelli's Pizza. We parked along the side of the street and got out. We walked to the coordinates and had a heck of a time zeroing in on it. I checked just about everywhere and then had an idea. That is where the nano cache was, up high on the crosswalk signal. I had to jump up to get it. We opened it up and saw that the logbook was full. We squeezed our names on there, rolled it back up, got the lid on it and jumped back up to put it back.
We got back onto Hwy 7 and headed south to the Starbucks. We pulled in, parked and got out to find Third One From North (GC9ZRET). It was a fake sprinkler head. It was a quick grab once the muggles went in to get their coffee. Bev made the find.
We moved onto the next one, Bad Golfer (GCABG50). We drove down Brookdale Road to Mayfield Park. We found a place to park alongside the potholed dirt road, got out and made our way to the posted coordinates. According to the past logs, it looked like people had trouble spotting this one because it blended in well. I told Bev it was probably going to be up in the branches of the Douglas Firs, and it was going to be hard to spot. There was a guy, his daughter and a dog playing fetch while we looked for it. We looked and looked and looked. We were pretty close into throwing in the towel when Bev got a good view of it. You really had to be in the right spot to see it.
We got back onto Brookdale Road for Fighter (GCAB9JH). It was at a really busy intersection but luckily, there was a small gravel lot nearby so we could park safely. This cache had several DNF's so I told Bev that we might not have a good chance, but we were sure going to try. There was a ton of trash in the area and the coordinates were terrible. I really had no idea where to look. I managed to make my way around to the fire hydrant and I moved some garbage around with a stick. I actually thought the cache was garbage when I poked it with a stick. I could not believe I found the cache. I told Bev, we signed the log, and I got a picture of it just in case the cache owner needed proof.
We got back to the Escape and looked on the map to see where the next one was. It was in the cemetery off of 138th. Spirit Quest: Trinity Lutheran Cemetery (GC9PRGE) was almost on the backside of the cemetery. We found a place to park and went in through the gate and followed the road to the cache. There were some people there visiting their loved ones. We made our way to the coordinates, and we made the grab. On the way back, I unfortunately, stepped in some dog poop. I hate it when pet owners don't clean up after their dogs!! I tried my best to get it all off the bottom of my shoes before getting back into the Escape. Ughhh!
Our next stop was at Lucky's, a hamburger joint, off of Hwy 7, to grab Get Lucky (GCABQVC). The place was busy, so we had a hard time finding a parking spot. We parked off to the side where the mud puddles were. I got out and used the mud puddles to rinse the rest of the dog poop off my shoes. We started looking for the cache and had a really hard time zeroing in on it with the coords. The coords took us to the corner of the fence each time. We didn't see anything, so we moved out our search radius. Once we did that, we found the red bison tube hanging behind Lucky's bus.
We checked the map again and saw there was one over in Gonyea Park, near Tammy's house. My brother also used to play baseball on these fields as a kid, so I've been to this park a few times over the years. Grammie used to call it gonorrhea park. We found a place to park and got out. We noticed a guy and his son were hitting balls at the field closest to us. We almost got hit by a foul ball. It took us a while to find Hey Batter, Batter (GCA6ZKP). We almost gave up, but we did eventually find the nano after some hardcore searching of the bleachers.
Not too far away from the park, we stopped at a Bridge Too Far (GC737D1). I got out and found it myself because Bob and Bev found it years beforehand. It was a quick grab across from where I parked the Escape.
The next one, 1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (GCACTTK) was at the intersection of Tule Lake Road and Spanaway Loop. We parked at Washington High School and walked over since that was the safest place we could have parked the Escape. It took a little bit to get over there because we had to wait for the crosswalk to change. This cache was favorite point worthy because of the fish artwork and the faceplate cache that blended in nicely with the surroundings. I could see how newbies could miss this one.
We backtracked a bit for the next one, mostly just because it was easier grabbing it on the way back through, GRC (GCACTA9), was another park and grab. It was a 3D printed tube the cache owner had hidden inside of a guardrail. It actually took me a few minutes to find because they hid it in an obscure spot along the guardrail. I got our names on it and put it back how I found it.
We continued down Tule to Parkland Prairie (GC3NCT6). It was a small nature preserve with a tiny parking lot. This was another one Bob and Bev previously found. She sat in the Escape while I went out and grabbed it. I got to see a lady walking her cat on a harness.
We got back onto Hwy 7 and drove south to Sprinker. They were remodeling the play fields, so the parking lots were torn up and there were gates everywhere. Luckily, the parking lot to where we were going to enter the forest was available. We've both been here in the past to grab caches but now a lot of them have been archived, making room for new ones to be placed. We made our way to Geo Gnome (GCA0X7V). It was a little over a half a mile which was not too bad. Sadly, any park you go to in this area has garbage tossed around. We made the find and walked back to the Escape. There were other caches in the area, but we didn't have a lot of time to get the others, so we saved them for another time.
Afterwards, we ended up at Spanaway Lake Park, just on the other side of Military Road, so Bev could use the restroom. We thought about grabbing the cache in the park but decided not to because of the walk. We also saved this one for another time.
We did have time for a couple more before heading home, so we chose to go to Enchanted Island on Spanaway Lake. I've been out this way one other time, many years ago. We followed the GPS to the island. Bev told me that her grandma lived near Enchanted Island and pointed out where the house approximately was on the opposite shoreline. She said she had a great time hanging out there as a kid. Once we got onto the island, we found a place to park, Bev stayed in the Escape while I got out and attempted to look for Enchanted Island (GCA1FQP). The coords were awful. They bounced all over the place. I finally looked at some spoiler photos after wandering around and coming up with nothing. I finally got to the correct bush and found the black bison tube hanging off one of the branches.
I asked Bev if we should get one more and she said yes. We looked at the map and saw one over by the old Kmart complex. We got onto Hwy 7 and continued south. Cache Cloud (GCAK9Q2) was on the highway side of Happy Nails and Spa. We found the cache very quickly and got our names on it. Bev found 17 caches and I found 19 for the day. It was a great haul.
We got back onto Hwy 507 and stopped in Roy to move my cache to the city park. I figured it would be safer at the park than in town. Bev and I picked up the cache from a few weeks back and drove to the city park. I had no idea there was a park out there. I ended up hiding it under the footbridge so no one could see it and it was covered up from the weather. I took some coordinates so I could update the cache page when I got home.
We drove into Rainier the back way and took Bev home. I hung out for about an hour chatting about stuff and visiting. I headed back into Lacey shortly after. I got home, fed the kitties, changed my shoes and went grocery shopping since we were out of food. I went to Costco first, then Walmart and finally Winco and to home. I unloaded the car, made some food in the air fryer, watched the Kraken lose, logged the caches, talked to Ben and Mom, did some laundry, got some reading done and then went to bed. It was a long day.
Next Adventure: Seattle Kraken vs. Pittsburgh Penguins
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