Bonney Lake for the Weekend

Friday, June 12 

We all decided to celebrate Amy and Jean's birthday at the same time this year so we set aside a weekend to hang out.  We kept asking Amy what she wanted for her birthday and she could never give us an answer.  Sometimes she is pretty lame.  We asked Trish how the weekend was going to be broken down and she said that we will hang out on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday we would meet up with Jean at the cemetery in Federal Way and then have a birthday party in the back yard.  I told her that sounded great and asked what we needed to bring with us.  She said some snacks, drinks and some beans and chips for when we have the BBQ.  I told her will do and we will see her over the weekend.

I asked Erika to make sure Calvin got fed.  She said she would do it for me and I thanked her.

At lunch time, I decided to take the recycle into Rainier since we weren't going to have time this weekend.  It didn't take very long.  I was home by 12:15ish.  I got the rest of my work done since there wasn't a whole lot to do today.  I did have to wait until Ben came home so we could head up to Bonney Lake and have dinner with Trish and Amy.  Ben rolled in around 5ish and we packed up our stuff into the Escape.  We got gas in Hawks Prairie before we left.  

We drove up and I wanted to find a couple of caches on the way there while we waited for Trish to get off of work.  We ended up only finding one because we ran out of time.  That one took us down one of the side roads off of 214th in Bonney Lake.  I had Ben navigate us to CD Stash (GC8NEXG) which was hidden on the backside of a tree next to the road.  He got out and found the bison tube hiding in the tree.  He brought it back to the Escape where we signed it and then he put it back.

We continued on down the road to his mom's house.  We pulled in and took our bags into the house.  Both Amy and Trish were there.  His mom had picked up a few pizza's from Papa Murphy's and they were cooking in the oven.  We got settled in and the pizza's were done by the time we had gotten comfortable.  We ate pizza and place some dice for a bit.  Once I lost, we cleaned up the dining room table and then got comfortable on the couch while we watched Iron Man 2.  Ben and I decided to watch all of the Marvel movies in order once we were done with the Star Wars movies in order.  It gave us something to do since we were on lock down for a while because of God Damn Covid.

Once the movie was over, we all got ready for bed, took a quick shower and passed out.  Today was a long day.

Saturday, June 13 

We all slept in until about 11:30, woah that's super late!  I blame it on how uncomfortable the downstairs bed is and the fact that it was super hot down there.  I walked up stairs and no one was up yet.  I spent sometime working on my blog and then a few minutes later I heard Trish get up.  She came out and said good morning and then proceeded to make herself some coffee.  I asked her if there was anything I could help her with and she said I could go down to the freezer and get the breakfast quiches.  

I went down and grabbed them.  She put them in the oven and then started the turkey sausages.  While our food was cooking we talked about various things as I continued getting caught up on my blog.  Ben and Amy finally emerged from their beds and joined the rest of the world.   The television played in the background as we ate our breakfast.  

Ed showed up around one to spend the day with us.  We ended up playing Phase 10 Twist, which was a spin off of the normal card game Phase 10.  I destroyed everyone and rubbed it in a bit.  Ed was pretty fired up.  He claims that I was "after" him when I played my skip card.  I only play my skip card randomly because I don't want to end up with it or I will play it on someone who is gloating or have already laid their cards down.  He gets super intense during games and I love to egg him on.  Especially, when he is losing or lost.  We played a round of Uno Attack right after.

Ben and I needed to go to the store to get a few things so we drove to the Fred Meyer to grab the stuff.  We called Trish to ask her what Amy wanted for her birthday because we don't like buying gift cards for people since it's impersonal.  She said something about black Adidas or Nike socks.  So we looked for those in her size and got her a card.  We bought Jean a sign to hang up in her house.  Ben also bought some chocolate liquor to try with his peanut butter whiskey he brought for the weekend.  

We headed home in the hopes that the weather would hold up so we could have BBQ burgers that we had planned for dinner.  I was actually really excited for the burgers but when we got home Trish had already started chili instead.  She said that she didn't think the weather would hold up so she went with plan b for dinner.  I was so disappointed because I was super stoked for burgers.  Oh well.  We will eat the beans and chips with lunch tomorrow.

We ate, cleaned up the table and then played another round of Phase 10 Twist, a round of contract rummy and dice.  We all won a lot and Ed didn't.  It was awesome.  He went home around 11 and then we got ready for bed.  Tomorrow was going to be a bit more busier than today.

Sunday, June 14

I woke up around 9:30 because I couldn't lay in the bed anymore and took a quick shower.  Ben was still asleep but had an alarm set for 9:45ish.  I got dressed and went upstairs.  I offered to make breakfast so I started looking for the makings for pancakes in the pantry.  I mixed up everything, grabbed the pans and started cooking the pancakes and bacon.  I had bought grapes from Costco not too long ago so I brought those with us as well.  Meanwhile, Trish got up about halfway through my pancake adventure and started in with the cupcakes for the party later today.  I told her to relax and drink her coffee while she was waiting for the cupcakes to get done. 

Breakfast was done, Ben was up and moving around and we had to yell at Amy to get out of her room to come to eat breakfast.  Everyone dug in and it was delicious.  

After breakfast, we all got ready to go and meet Jean and Ed at the cemetery in Federal Way.  We piled into the Tuscan after I called shotgun.  We stopped by the Safeway to grab some flowers and then headed to Gethsemane Cemetery just south of Federal Way off of Pacific Highway.  I checked to see if there was a cache nearby and there was but it was missing according to the logs.  Dang it.

We pulled in and followed the road to where Jean and Ed were parked (yeah, they beat us there) near Ben's grandparents head stone.  Trish explained that she and Amy try to come at least once a year to visit them and to leave flowers at their site and the guy next to them.  They felt bad that no one comes to visit the guy next to their grave so each time they leave a flower or two for him.

Jean kept her distance because she had been sick and still recovering from her surgery last winter (since God Damn Covid was still on the rampage) she didn't want to take any chances.  We didn't blame her.  We stood there for a few minutes and then I decided, since I visit my grandmother every week or so, to have Ben, Amy, Jean and Trish to share a story or a memory of their mother, father or grandparents to everyone.  Both Ed and I have never met them but have seen pictures and have heard stories about them every now and them.

For the next 45 minutes to an hour we spent listening to stories and favorite memories they shared of their loved ones.  They were nice to hear and it sucks that we lose people way before their time.  I thanked them for sharing their stories.  I just didn't want us to stand there and not have their life shared with us.

We all planned on driving back to Bonney Lake so we all piled in the cars and drove back to the house.  We played a round of dice and taught Jean how to play because she had never played this particular dice game before. We started getting the food together for the chicken BBQ.  Trish had made potato salad the night before. Ben set up the pop up tent with the screen sides so we could sit out there and eat our food. I cooked the beans and Ben got the BBQ going so he could cook the chicken.  He wore Trish's new Seahawk apron and hat that Amy bought her for Mother's Day.  He looked so fancy as he cooked the chicken.

As we reached the final cook on the chicken, Trish and I brought out the plates, silverware, napkins and the potato salad, beans and chips.  We placed our gifts on the small table along with the fancy cupcakes.  Ben said the food was done so we dished up and ate.  We visited some more as we ate.

We had a mini birthday party after we were done eating.  We sang happy birthday to Amy and Jean and then they opened their gifts.  Jean really liked her sign.  She said she knew exactly where to hang it in her house.  We ate the cupcakes Trish made and they were pretty tasty.  We cleaned up, put everything away and I suggested that we take a group photo.  Everyone agreed and we found a place over by the lilac tree in the back yard.  We take a few.

We went inside and played some Uno Attack and then it was almost time to head home.  Jean thought the same thing.  She had to drive back to Seattle.  We gathered up all of our stuff, thanked everyone for coming, gave out hugs and got in the Escape and headed out.  

I asked Ben if we could find two caches up on Myer Road.  He said sure.  I had him navigate me to the first one, Church of Nazarene Historic Marker (GC833DW).  We parked near where the coords took us and we got out.  No one was in the parking lot, which was nice, so we had free range without anyone questioning us why we were there.  I read the hint and I was not finding anything that matched that description.  We tried the other tree in the parking lot.  Nothing.  We read some of the logs and the cacher before us said it wasn't at the hint location and gave us and said that the cache owner should change the hit or update the location.  We walked over to the church historic marker and immediately found it behind the marker.  Hmm.  We both made sure to make a note of that in our log.  We signed our names and put it back exactly where we found it.  We knew other cachers were going to have trouble looking for it.

Our second one Myer Road #2 (GC69FFB) was a little further up the road.  When we got the spot I pulled over and saw the cache before we even walked across the road to grab it.  It was a reflector on the guardrail.  Basically, a park and grab.  

We drove back down Myer Road and back onto Hwy 410 where we got onto 167, then 512 and then finally onto I-5.  There wasn't any traffic or road construction so going home was a breeze.  We got home around nine, got cleaned up and started getting ready for our work week.  Calvin was pretty happy to see us and I was happy to see him.  We snuggled most of the night.

Next Adventure:  A Short Trip to Bonney Lake

Rocky Brook Falls, Dosewallips State Park and Some Errands

I few weeks ago I noticed a photo on Facebook of a waterfall and I had to know where it was.  I found out Rocky Brook Falls was just north of Brinnon past Dosewallips State Park.  That was an easy drive and not too far away from home.  I asked mom if she was interested in going but we had to find a good day to go that isn't rainy.  She said why not this weekend?  I said sure, we could go on Sunday.  I found the address and made sure I put it in the Nuvi before we went.

I had mom meet me up at my house and we would drive her Expedition to the falls and then wherever else we wanted to do afterwards.  She drove up around noon and then made me drive.  We drove out to Hwy 101/Hwy 8 interchange and continued up through Shelton.  The weather was decent but it did rain a little bit as we got closer to the Hood Canal area.  It was warm outside so I really didn't care.  I knew it was going to go away according to the radar on my weather app.

Along the way we talked about a bunch of things, work, God Damn Covid and the stuff surrounding it, trying to plan more day trips and the places we wanted to go this summer and wishing we could go somewhere besides local stuff.  We drove through Hoodsport and Mom mentioned that we needed to go do Staircase at Lake Cushman eventually this year.  It's been on our do to list for a couple years now.

We drove past Lilliwaup and Hamma Hamma.  There wasn't that much traffic on this road which is nice.  It sucks to get stuck behind someone going really slow throughout these windy roads.  We were making pretty good time.  Once we got to Brinnon, I made sure to pay attention to which road we have to turn down.  We followed Nuvi's directions and made our way to the spot.  We weren't sure how popular this place was going to be either.  We went around the last corner and we saw the vehicles parked near the wide spot in the road.  We found a place to park, grabbed the camera and walked down the short trail to the falls.

Along the way we took pictures of the Rocky Brook River.  Everything was so green!  There were about a dozen people near the falls when we got there and a couple groups of people leaving to go back to the parking lot.  

You could hear the falls as you got closer.  Once it was in view I was in awe.  This waterfall was so close!  Mom and I spent some time taking pictures and just enjoying the view.  I wish I would have brought my water shoes so I could climb my way to the other side of the bank for an even better view.  I did slip a few times and my tennis shoes got a little wet.  

I had to help mom up on the rocks for some of the views.  We also had to take pictures around some girls who looked like they were in high school.  They were trying to take selfies of ever single angle.  We thought they would move and leave but they stayed there...in the way...of everyone trying to take pictures.  They were oblivious.  

We stayed for about a half hour and then I asked mom if she wanted to go to Dosewallips State Park for a while and she said sure.  We drove to the water side of the state park first because I knew there was a restroom to use.  Afterwards, I spent some time looking for It's the Water (GC3F1K6) but found out the fence it was on had been removed.  I logged a DNF and told the cache owner in my log that it was missing due to the fence being gone and needed maintenance.  Bummer.

We then drove across Hwy 101 and entered the other side of the state park. I've not been to this section of the park before.  We find a place to park and had to walk to the trail head to the Steam Donkey Trail.  It was a 1.5 loop but we only did part of it...basically up to the cache and back.  It was a very nicely maintained dirt trail.  The maps and signage were visible and concise.  

We had no trouble getting to where we needed to be.  I had my sights set on an oldie, DonkeyPond Falls (GCD7A1) which was placed in January of 2003 and has been found almost 650 times since then.

We walked back down and took a small side trail with a bridge over a creek. It was a fun little spot to explore.  

We decided it was time to head back towards home.  Mom had to do some Costco shopping for work.  We drove into Tumwater and hit up that Costco.  I am not sure how we fit everything into the back of the Expedition but we did.  All those years playing Tetris on the Gameboy has paid off, multiple times over the years.  We stopped at Walmart to get a few things and then we drove over to the cemetery to visit with Grammie for a while.

Mom was hungry and wanted some food so I suggested we get some DQ from the drive thru and take it to Pioneer Park and eat it since it was a nice day.  She said sure.  We drive to the Dairy Queen, grab our chicken strip meals to go and then found a nice picnic spot at the park.  They had opened up the parks about a week ago so we were able to drive in and park.  We opened our boxes and found out they forgot to put the ketchup in!  Aghh!  This wasn't the first time we've asked for ketchup and they forgot to put it in.  Then we remembered that Mom bought some ketchup from the store so we pulled that out and used it.  We finished off our food with our ice cream that came with our meals.  It was delicious.

We called Erika to see if she was home so we could drop off some stuff at her apartment.  She was so Mom stopped and let me run it up to her since along the way she got a phone call from one of her coworkers.  She sat in the parking lot and chatted.  I told Erika what we did today and handed her the buy one get one free popcorn that Mom got for her.  I grabbed some of her cans for recycling that she saved for me and then let them resume with their day.

Mom dropped me off at home and I put my stuff I bought away.  I showered, ate popcorn since we had a late lunch and then started The Last Dance series on ESPN about the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan played.  It was a quite an eventful weekend and I hope we have a bunch more weekends like that.  I am tired of not being able to go anywhere.

Next Adventure:  Bonney Lake for the Weekend

Geocaching in Hawks Prairie and Lacey with a Monsoon

I was tired of being cooped up in the house so I asked Ben after breakfast if he wanted to go out and get a few caches in the area.  He said sure.  I looked and made a list of about seven of them to go and try and get.  We got ready and made sure to bring coats with us because the weather was suppose to be rainy off and on.  We jump into the Escape and make our way to the first one.  Traffic wasn't too bad but you could tell some people were out and about getting their errands done.  At this point, more non-essential business have opened up since being under lockdown (shelter in place) on March 15th.  

God Damn Covid.

We get onto Carpenter Road and I shared with Ben the last time I came out this way to pick up caches which was a long time ago and they probably aren't here anymore.  I find a place to pull over off the road because we were going to have to go inside the forest to get this one.  Our shoes got wet because I didn't know, until we got here, that we had to wade through the brush to get A Nice Green Space (GC8T1XC).  It was a log that someone had turned into a cache.  Pretty clever even though I've found several like this in the past.  We sign our names and put it back.  On the way back to the Escape, Ben complained that his feet were wet.

We drove into Hawks Prairie and drove down to the convenience store.  We pulled in and had to sit in the Escape for about twenty minutes because it literally monsooned outside.  It came down so hard there were rivers flowing through the parking lot within seconds.  We sat there and speculated where it was on the old phone booth.  The rain finally died down and I had Ben get out and found Beside the One That is There (GC8AKP6).  It took him a few seconds to find it but he grabbed it and brought it back into the car since there were muggles everywhere.  We signed it and then we had to wait another five minutes for the lady in her car next to us to leave.  She finally left and Ben went and put it back.

I saw a series of caches that published one after another one day by Dr. Alien.  Who is Dr. Alien?  I checked out their profile and it didn't say much.  However, it looked like they've hidden caches all over the US and in other countries.  Collectively, they have hidden over 1,000 caches.  Alright, let's go get them before they disappear. 

The first one, Dr. Alien's Most Awesome Caches of All Time #799 (GC8T07R), was an easy park and grab in a small parking lot near the O'Bee Credit Union.  Since it was the weekend and banks were still pretty much closed, no one was around so it made it easy for us to find, sign and put back.

Dr. Alien's Most Awesome Caches of All Time #802 (GC8T07Z) was off of Martin Way near a small strip mall.  We pulled in and this red convertible with two Boomers inside was in the way.  We drove to the back of the parking lot and the convertible had driven around the loop and then stopped right in front of us.  I asked Ben, what are they doing?  Ben said, no idea but they need to figure it out and get out of the way.  They eventually did and we weren't sure why they were there in the first place.  Whatever, we parked and grabbed the cache.  It was hidden underneath a lamp post without the skirt.  A rock was placed in front of it as a cover.

We continued driving down Martin Way and stopped in the Shopko/Theater complex to grab Dr. Alien's Most Awesome Caches of All Time #801 (GC8T07V) and this one was also an easy park and grab.  Ben was actually getting tired of how lame these caches were and started adding lame to his logs.  This one was another lamp skirt hide between the tire place and the Chinese food restaurant.  We signed the log inside the Escape.  Ben put it back.

We drive to the area that divides Sharis and Red Lobster to get Dr. Alien's Most Awesome Caches of All Time #798 (GC8T07Q) and it was another lamp skirt cache.  Ben was so done with these at this point.  We gave it a sign and put it back.

The last one, Dr. Alien's Most Awesome Caches of All Time #800 (GC8T07T) was over by the parking lot of the old Kmart which is now a Hobby Lobby and a Tractor Supply.  I was actually pretty sad that the Kmart was gone.  I had spent a lot of time with my Grandmother here when I was a kid.  A lot of my happiest times were in this parking lot with her.  We would shop here often.  When I found out it was going out of business I immediately called Grammie and told her.  We reminisced about the time where we got Happy Meals from the McDonald's nearby and ate it in the Chevelle before we went inside to go shopping.  Grammie had thrown out some bag fries to the seagulls and one of the grabbed some and looked at us.  It looked like that seagull had French fry whiskers and we laughed our heads off.  I was probably 10 or 11 at the time.  It was such a happy memory of mine every time I was near that area from then on I remembered that funny story.  I think I've repeated it several times over the years to various people.   Anyway, Ben and I parked as close as we could and we noticed the lamp skirt was between two semi trucks parked for the day.  The people inside were probably sleeping.  We hurried.  I didn't bother getting a picture of this one.

I wanted to go to the Dollar Tree, so we stopped and I found a couple things.  Then on our way home we stopped at the liquor store off of Yelm Highway and Ben bought three fifths of booze and then we felt like chicken teriyaki for dinner.  We stopped at the one near our house and was there probably for about twenty minutes while we waited.  All restaurants at this point were take out or delivery only.

We got home and ate our food.  We watched Scoob, Sonic and Rocketman while I logged my caches and worked on my blog.  Ben got on his game for a bit and played with Josh.

Next Adventure:  Rocky Brook Falls, Dosewallips State Park and Some Errands