South: Shop Hopping, Picking Up Caches, WSGA Meet and Greet and Pizza

Earlier in the week I let Bev know when to be ready since she wanted to go with us to Vancouver to the meet and greet.  I told her that our trip was going to consist of the. quilt stores, the event and some caches along the way.  I said I had a list of caches with a lot of favorite points and whatnot.  She said she was happy to come regardless of what we were going to do.  I told her to be ready between 8:45 and 9.  I also told Mom when to be ready as well.  She said she would be.

Ben couldn't go with us because he was on a 24-hour shift at the station.  He got up around 6:30, got ready and told me to have fun. I said we probably would and told him to be safe at work.  I got up around 8ish, got dressed, got the stuff in the Escape and headed into Rainier.  I decided I should get gas before I picked everyone up so I got gas at the station in Rainier.  I hoped that we had some Safeway points for a couple cents off a gallon but nope, they were all used up.  Bummer.

I picked up Mom first.  We got all of her stuff into the Escape including her quilting stuff and headed over to pick up Bev.  We pulled up and saw Bob working in the yard.  Bev came out with her bag of stuff and was super excited to leave the house for the day.  Bob told us to have fun.  We told him we will and for him to have fun in the yard.  We got onto 507 and headed towards Tenino and down Ol' Hwy 99.  Near the alpaca farm, we noticed the on coming traffic was driving weird and wondered what was going on.  A cop car was in front of us and was driving very slow.  We noticed a bunch of garbage in the road and a truck that had a poorly strapped down load.  We had to sit there a few minutes while Sheriff Snaza helped the people get the garbage out of the road.

We got onto I-5 south and got off at the 13th Street exit because we had to waste some time before Sister's Quilt Shop in Chehalis opened.  We had about 15 minutes to kill so we drove around the weird streets of Chehalis and Mom showed us the building she started working in when she began working at the dentist office.  We drove around the block and down main street until I was able to find a parking spot in front of the quilt store.  We got there just as the lady opened the doors.  Mom and I went inside and got our passports stamped and she made a comment about having so many stamps.  We told her we went north the day before and hit all of those up.  She was impressed.  We got the free pattern and we took the back way down Jackson Hwy to 508.

I feel like we've been to Onalaska a lot in the last year.  Here we go again, this time for just the quilt store, Heavenly Quilts.  It was a short 20 minute drive from I-5 to the middle of Onalaska.  I've been here once before with Mom to check out the quilt store.  The building used to be a train station but no one was sure if it was the original location or not.  We all wandered around, got our passport stamped and our free pattern.  Bev thought the building was cool since she really loves trains and train associated things.  We jumped back into the Escape and made our way back to I-5.

We talked about several things as we made our way down to Castle Rock, which really wasn't that far from Onalaska in the scheme of things.  We got off at the main exit and Mom told me where to go since she has been here several times over the years.  I had forgotten to put in the address to Knotty Stitches.  We found the road it was on, found a parking place and Mom and I ran in really quickly to get our passport stamped and our free pattern.  We didn't want Bev to have to wait in the Escape for very long.  After getting all that we needed to get, we got back in the Escape and got back onto I-5.  Next stop, Kelso and the Paisley Duck Quilt Shop and then Longview and the Longview Sewing and Kitchen.

We took the first Kelso/Longview exit and followed Nuvi's directions to the middle of town.  I was never a fan of how they built Kelso or Longview.  I don't actually know where one ends and the other begins.  The roads are super confusing and the city blocks are in the shape of triangles and there are many bridges because of the river that flows through town.  We did manage to get to the quilt shop but had to go around the block where there was more parking.  Mom and I parked the Escape and Bev stayed with the air conditioning on.  We went through the back door, Mom browsed for a few minutes, we got our passports stamped and our free pattern.  We were in and out in about 10 minutes.  I considered grabbing the closest cache but Bev had already gotten it.  

We drove to the other quilt store in Longview on our way back towards the freeway.  That one also was a quick, grab a stamp on the passport and get the free square pattern while Bev guarded the Escape.  We got back on the freeway towards our next destination.   

We continued south and my first cache stop was at the Gee Creek Rest Area.  We found a place to park, we all used the restroom and went and found the newest cache that was here.  We've all been here many times throughout the years grabbing caches here.  This won't be the last one here.  One By Three (GC86RV0) on the map was out in the trees, where most rest stop area caches were.  They were away from the muggles and usually well hidden.  This one was dumb.  We walked to where the coords took us and we looked everywhere.  After about ten minutes, I checked the cache page and the coords were not correct.  Turns out the cache owner didn't actually update the coords correctly on the cache page and cachers were going to the incorrect place.  We put in the correct coords and it was hidden next to a large tree where, at time, muggles will see people looking for the container.  

Essentially, this cache was poorly executed and will probably go missing soon. We got back to the Escape, ate our sandwiches and chips and got back onto the freeway.  I wanted to get at least on of the two quilt stores out of the way before we did our small hike in the Minnehaha neighborhood.  We followed Nuvi to the first quilt store, Quilted Treasures in the Hazel Dell area.  There wasn't a lot of traffic around so it made it easy to get in and out of there since it was on a busy highway.  We went inside and tried to make it a quick stamp and pattern visit.  The lady was nice so we chatted with her for a few minutes.  It was getting warm and we had our air conditioning on the highest setting it would go.

I put the coordinates in for the first one along the Ellen Davis Trail.  I saw this line of letterboxes on the map when I was writing down caches to grab and I wanted to get them.  We followed Nuvi's directions to the Minnehaha part of Vancouver and saw where the trail began.  I thought there would be another place to enter but we had to turn around and park along the side of the road.  I told everyone before we got out to grab important things and throw them in my back pack.  Off down the trail we went.  It was nice to walk around after sitting in the Escape for most of the day so far.

The first cache on the trail was Ellen Davis:  BUCK (GC5CDJ3).  We read the hint because this was a pretty green area and the container could be anywhere once we started looking for it.  Luckily, it only took us a few minutes to find it.  It was behind a small stump hidden by some of the brush.  I was hoping that they all were going to be pretty easy to find.

On the way to Ellen Davis Trail:  "DYNO" MITE (GC5BY4X) we walked past a guy and his daughter.  She was gathering bugs and plants in her little container.  It was nice to see a kid wandering around the trails with her dad instead of sitting inside on the computer, TV or video game.  This cache took us a little bit of time to find because we couldn't locate the "twins" that was noted in the hint.  There were a lot of possible "twins" so we fanned out and looked.  We checked one more spot that barely qualified as "twins" and we actually had to leave the trail a little bit into the brush.  There, we found the letterbox cache we were looking for.  I threw the container to Bev to sign and she threw it back for me to hide.

We continued walking the next one, Ellen Davis Trail:  Hear Me Roar! (GC5BY5Q) and we all noticed an orange cat up in one of the trees.  I thought it was ironic we were going to a cache with roar in it and we found a cat in a tree. He looked like he wanted to come down but was hesitant to.  We really hoped that he eventually got out and went back home to his family who was probably missing him.  This cache was in the brush hidden amongst a pile of sawed off tree limbs.  It made it really hard to walk through here because you couldn't see all of the limbs.  We got our names on it and put it back.

The next one, Ellen Davis Trail:  Curious George (GC5BY60) was at the top of a small hill.  To prevent erosion, someone had put like a cobblestone path down on the trail.  I went to take a picture of Mom and Bev and almost fell off the side of the trail.  Luckily, I caught myself.  No one has time for a rolled ankle!  Anyway, the cache was tucked behind a set of trees.  I had to find a way down there without falling down the hill. 

The last one we were going to, Ellen Davis Trail:  ALIEN (GC5C2AH) took us forever to find because we were in the wrong spot.  The powerlines definitely affected the GPS and where we searched.  We left the initial spot and checked a spot further up the trail and what do you know?  We found it instantly.  So dumb.  The last one of the series, Ellen Davis Trail:  we chose not to look for because other cachers have noted in their logs that the cache was hidden in the sticker bushes and this time of year those spots are very overgrown which resulted in many of them with DNF's.

We turned around and walked back down the trail to the Escape.  We plugged in the address for the last quilt store, Fiddle Sticks.  I can tell you that I do remember coming here with Mom but it's been many years ago.  It takes us down I-205 and we get off on the wrong exit and had to back track but Nuvi helped us out.  We got to the complex with the quilt store and Bev stayed in the Escape with the air conditioning on.  Mom and I went in, got our free block pattern and our stamp.  The lady admired that we've been to a lot of places and told us that we had enough to put in the drawing and gave us some new ones.  I told Mom that wouldn't it be cool if we won that drawing?  We probably won't though.

We got back into the Escape and realized we were going to be late to the WSGA-SW Meet and Greet (GC9B11W) but it was okay.  We meandered our way onto Hwy 503 and painstakingly drove north through all the traffic lights, through Battle Ground and finally made our turn into the Lewisville Park.  Bev provided the $3 entry fee and we drove to the end of the road, found a place to park and walked down to where they had the table all set up.  They had me pull out two cards for a mini version of a poker run and I actually got some good cards and ended up with a new trackable.

We signed the logbook, chatted with the The SuperKnotts (I follow them on Instagram) for a while, wandered down to the river, came back and talked to Harvey's Pack for a little bit.  Our phones didn't work very well inside the park so we decided we didn't really need the rest of the caches inside the park (we've been here several times over the years) or the Adventure Lab caches so we walked back to the Escape and left.  We were there for about an hour on a really nice, hot day.

We drove back into Battle Ground and we all decided to stop at the Fred Meyer to use the restroom and wander around the air conditioning for a bit.  Mom ended up buying some new dinner plates and a tub of black licorice for Dad.  Bev went to go see if they had any good puzzles.  Mom paid for her stuff, we found Bev and got back in the Escape.  I had a few more caches I wanted to get while we were down here.

The one that's been on my list for a long time was called Excalibur (GC66A7X).  It has been found over 400 times and has over 260 favorite points since November 2015.  I've heard people talking about this one over the years but we always managed to not have the time to go and grab it.  I've been down to Vancouver/Battle Ground quite a few times over the years but never remember to grab this one.  I changed that today.  I didn't realize it was in a cacher's yard.  I always thought it was on a cacher's property but not in their literal yard.  We found a place to park, we got out and walked to the sword in the stone.  Mom and Bev had me do it.  With a series of twists and turns, I managed to pull the sword out of the stone!  Victorious!  The container was screwed into the tip of the sword and wrote our names on the logbook.  We got a few photos and we put it back for the next set of geocachers.  I definitely gave that one another favorite point.

When I was writing caches down, I made sure I was looking for ones that were going to be memorable and had lots of favorite points.  Another one I saw that had a lot of favorite points was Pinball Wizard (GC5RCB5).  I knew it was going to be similar to the one Mom and I found in Salem, Oregon a few years ago.  I put the coordinates into Nuvi and she directed us to the west side of I-5 near a Birkenstock shoe store that was gated off.  We found a place to park, we got out and saw the pipe.  I had Bev pull the lever so the cache would pop out of the top. Similar to a pinball machine.  We thought that was so fun we did it a few more times just because.  I even took a few videos of us.

The next cache, You Blockhead! (GC59QCX) was within the same complex of buildings just down the road.  It was along the side of a Rodda Paint store.  It was weird there was a car back here just chilling.  We ignored it and found the cache that looked like a Lego head.  From the title, I thought it was going to be Peanuts related.  I was wrong!  We got it signed and put back.

The next few caches were bonus finds.  I did not have these on my list but they were alongside the road we were going to be on so we said, sure, let's get these too!

The first one was called In Memoriam (GC7QT7J) and it was literally on the side of the road.  We had to pull over as far as we could on the side of the road and hopefully no one will come.  Of course, there were a few cars that drove past.  Mom stayed in the Escape while Bev and I got out and found the bison tube.  We signed our names and put the cache back together.  We piled into the Escape and made our way down the road to the next one.

T&A Overpass Two (GC4AW13) was an interesting stop.  First, we pulled over near the overpass in a wide open spot off the side of the road.  Bev and I got out and Mom stayed in the Escape.  Then, we followed our GPS to its location.  We walked past several dead chickens someone had discarded.  Some looked freshly dead and the others looked like they've been there for a while.  It stunk so bad.  It took us to a wooded area so we thought it might be in there.  I went in there looking for something unusual but saw nothing.  Bev hollered at me to come over to where she was because she saw something that could be the cache.  It was a hole in the ground covered up by a lid that was deteriorating from the elements.  We took the container out and signed our names.  We walked back to the Escape and the stench of dead chickens permeated my nostrils.

We drove further north up the side road to the Cache and Dash Series (GC959WX),  There were nine of them and an extra one in the mix called Evil Little Hide #2 (GC959W3) which was a carefully placed stump with the cache inside of it.  It would probably "stump" newbie cachers.  Anyway, all of the Cache and Dash containers were placed inside of guardrails.  Some of them were really easy and some of them took us a couple minutes to locate because they weren't hidden in the typical spots inside of guardrails.  One we almost walked away from because we couldn't find it.  We did check one more spot and there it was.  Between all of us we got this series done pretty quickly.  We were motivated to finish because we were getting hungry.

Since we were down by Ridgefield, we had to go have dinner at Papa Pete's Pizza.  We were hoping that they were open for eating inside because the Covid restrictions had been lifted.  We didn't get to eat inside but we were able to go in and order it.  They told us they would bring it to us outside in the parking lot.  We waited the 20 minutes in the Escape and some kid brought it out to us.  He didn't give us plates or napkins.  Lame.  We had to be creative.  We drove across the street to the RV park and sat at one of the picnic tables.  We ate our pizza and drank our Pepsi's from the cooler.  It sure hit the spot.

On the way home we stopped in Woodland and went to the Safeway so people could use the bathroom.  I grabbed Gotta Do the Pee Pee Dance (GC7HY19) out of one of the lamp skirts in the parking lot.  It was a quick grab and no one saw me.  

We got back onto I-5 north and headed back into Rainier to drop off Bev and Mom.

I went home, got cleaned up, ate some popcorn, worked on my blog, logged my caches and then went to bed.  It was a long but fun day.

Next Adventure:  Father's Day

North: Shop Hopping and Picking Up Caches

Both Mom and I had Friday off but we weren't sure what we wanted to do with that day.  I asked Mom where she wanted to go and every time she said, I don't know.  She did mention something about the Shop Hop when we went to Vancouver on Saturday though.  I thought about that for a while and decided to ask her if she was interested in going to the north shops on the Friday.  She said that would be fine.  We planned what we were going to do and what time we were going to leave.  They didn't have one last year because of Covid but decided to do one this year but it had limited hours.  It usually lasts 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. but this year it will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. which seriously limits our travel time especially up north where they are more spread out and traffic is heavier.

We agreed that we would drive the Expedition and we will leave as close to 6 a.m. as possible.  We will need all the travel time we could get since our first Shop Hop stop will be in Lynden.  I was hoping we would get there a tad bit early so we could grab a few caches I need for the Towns and Cities Challenge I've been doing since I started caching in 2010.  It has been an on going process since then.  I would have been further along but didn't do a whole lot of local traveling from 2012-2015.  Oh well, it gave me a goal to attain and pushed me to take weekend adventures.

The night before, I made sure I had everything written down.  All of the shops and their addresses, the order and the caches I needed for the towns and cities I needed.  We also talked about bringing our lunch and finding a place to eat dinner along the way...wherever that was going to be.  We will see where we are at when that time comes.  I set my alarm for early o'clock and went to bed.  

The next morning I got up and got ready to go.  Mom was a few minutes late because she got gas at the Nisqually Reservation before she got to my house.  I got my Nalgene and food ready and put in the cooler with some ice packs.  I made sure I had my GPS and my notebook with all of our stops inside of it.  We left the house around 6 a.m.  We drove down Ruddell and onto College and eventually to Martin to get onto I-5 North.  I think we left at the perfect time because we didn't hit traffic until we reached Seattle.  Along the way we talked about work, Peru, brainstormed where to go next spring with our JetBlue points, geocaching, the Shop Hop and other random things that came up as we drove.

We got to Bellingham at a decent time (around 9 a.m.) and got off on Hwy 542 and headed northeast towards Everson.  We turned left onto Everson Goshen Road and with about three more miles to go, I had to go.  I am not above stopping on the side of the road and going.  I just had to find a good place to pull over.  I found a place and parked the Expedition on the side of the road.  I grabbed some wipes and ran across the road to someone's yard.  They had a side yard that was covered in brush and trees.  Perfect.  I will be well hidden from the road and the people that could be in the house.  I did what I needed to do and jumped back in the Expedition.  We followed the road and made our way to a town I've never heard of until I started this challenge.  It was literally a blip in the road.   We know this area more by the name of Nooksack Valley.

There were a few caches in this town that met the criteria but I decided on the one in Riverside Park.  I figured it would be easy to park and grab without being in the way or people seeing us.  We pulled into the park and just as I thought, it was an easy park and grab.  Test Tube Baby: Wendy (GC5NEN2) was underneath an old log.  Mom sat in the Expedition while I jumped out to sign it for the both of us.  I got a photo and we drove back into town to head to the next one.

We turned onto Hwy 9 and made our way north to Sumas.  The only time I've ever heard of Sumas was this past winter when the river flooded and the people were stranded there for a few days.  People were kayaking through town and everyone tried to keep the flood waters out of their houses with sand bags.  Anyway, I had planned on looking for No Overnite Camping (GC1HEMC) but the nettles and sticker bushes were in full force so we decided to go find the other one in town, Bridge Over Troubled Water (GC8ZNRN) instead.  We parked near the bridge, Mom stayed in the Expedition again while I ran over to the other side to go look for the container.  Thank goodness it was easy to find and it was there!  I signed our names, got a picture and realized I could literally see Canada from here.  

We were not even a quarter of a mile from Canada.  The main road in town was the border crossing.  Just north of Sumas is Abbotsford, the city that was suppose to host GeoWoodStock in August 2020.  But you know, Covid.  We were hoping to go this summer but still, Covid.  Maybe next summer?

I put our first address into Nuvi and then got back on the main road and follow it to where Hwy 9 turned into Hwy 546.  We had about 15 minutes until the quilt stores opened at 10.  We were going to time this perfectly.  Hwy 546 took us into Lynden.  We parked on the street and went into the first quilt store of the day, Tangled Threads Quilt Shop.  I know Mom and several other of her quilting ladies have been up here in the past, I have not.  This is uncharted quilting store territory for me.  I told Mom that we can't spend a ton of time in each of these stores or we won't make it to all of them.  She understood.  We walked around, grabbed our free pattern, got our passport stamped and saw a Covid quilt.  On to the next one!

There were three in Lynden so when I originally put them in order I went from east to west since that's kinda the route we were going through town.  Calico Country was the second quilt store on our list and we went in, got our free pattern, passport stamped and looked around for a couple minutes.  Mom ended up finding some Seahawk fabric one of her quilt ladies was looking for so she bought a few yards of it.  I walked through the parking lot because I saw a huge windmill and I thought it was cool.  I walked back as Mom was getting her fabric cut.  We drove to the last one in Lynden and were making pretty good time.

Folktales was a little rustic quilt shop kinda off the beaten path.  It was outside of town and carried a lot of browns and greens...almost like they sold woodland creatures and forest colored fabric and knick knacks, kind of whimsical-like.  They had a lot of Christmas stuff and gnomes. We got our passports stamped, bought the finishing kit because it had buttons we needed to finish the square and Mom bought some of the 2021 fabric and the fabric to finish the quilt here as well.  We got back into the Expedition and drove to Bellingham.  

The quilt store in Bellingham was in a really obscure part of Bellingham.  We took some back roads from Lynden and popped us into the east side of Bellingham near Whatcom Lake.  When I was researching caches in the area to grab, I saw a virtual cache and it was near Kori's Fabric Creations.  As Nuvi took us closer to the store, we noticed we were in a residential area and wondered if we were going in the right direction.  We made one more turn and there it was.  The parking area was weird so we parked outside on the road and walked in.  There was a raffle drawing for a quilt outside so we spent a few minutes hearing their spiel and then went inside for our free pattern and our stamp and ended up getting the finishing kit here too.  We used the restroom before we left.  We went back outside and I put in a dollar to their quilt raffle.  As I filled out the ticket, the lady rolled her eyes at me when I accidentally put the used pen into the unused cup.  Mom thought they were rude and I really didn't care that much.

I put in the coords for the virtual cache, Triplin' the Rock Fantastic (GC8DBEH).  It was right up the road from the quilt store.  We follow Nuvi's directions and make our way to a place called Big Rock Gardens.  It featured a fenced off sculpture park (similar to the Monarch Sculpture Park near our town), trails and a parking lot.  We find a place to park and I read the cache details.  It was an offset one like most letterbox directions so we start walking down the trail.  Turns out it isn't along the trail but inside the gated off area inside.  We went inside and walk down to the sculpture that I needed to answer questions on.  I got what I needed and we walked back to the Expedition.  We ate our lunch as we drove ourselves to I-5 south.

We booked it down I-5 even though Sedro-Woolley wasn't that far away from Bellingham, a mere half hour drive, we just didn't want to waste precious Shop Hop time.  We weren't even halfway done with the quilt shops yet, but with this one we would be half way done.  I kept reminding Mom that the last time I did any Shop Hopping with them was with Grandma back in 2013, a whopping eight years ago, when we drove around Pierce and King counties.  I also remember the finishing kits being like a dollar or two, not this five or six dollar expensive stuff.  Mom said that it's a new thing because of Covid, a lot of these stores were closed down and didn't make much money the year before so this is how they are sorta making it up.  I get it but holy cow.

I didn't need any caches in Sedro-Woolley because we basically got them all when we were here in September so our visit will be pretty quick and easy.  We got off I-5 at the first exit that took us to Sedro-Woolley and that was a mistake.  This exit didn't have a light for a left turn and there were tons of people getting on I-5 south.  There was a huge back up on this road because people were stuck behind a tractor so it messed up traffic.  We did finally manage to find a gap so we could turn onto the road.  We got into Sedro-Woolley and found a parking place near the address of the quilt store.  We got out and went the wrong way and had to turn around and walk down the correct side of the road.  We walked into Quilting Foxes, got our free pattern, got our passport stamped and Mom looked around for a few minutes.

We drove down Hwy 20 back to I-5 south to our sixth quilt store, Cotton Pickin's, in Stanwood.  Stanwood was another town and city that I needed for my challenge.  We got off at the Lake McMurray exit and drove the back way to Stanwood on the Pioneer Highway.  I had checked the area for caches when I looked up the address on the internet.  I saw one that was the closest to the quilt store that I could basically walk to if Mom wanted to spend some time in the store.  We get to the quilt store, we go in, get our passport stamped and our free pattern.  I told Mom I was going to run across the street to get a cache and to check out a Scandinavian store called Uff Da.  She told me if I had time to grab her some cold water and handed me a couple bucks.  

I ran across the street and into an old shopping center called Viking Village.  It was once a thriving shopping center but time has crushed its spirits.  There are still some businesses still functioning in the run-down mini mall but there are a lot of vacant store fronts.  I found the nano, Velkomen to Stanwood (GCWH64) on the sign near the highway.  I initialed our names, put it back and spent a few minutes inside of Uff Da.  

I saw a winter hat I'd like to have but I didn't have my wallet with me.  Just as well.  I had to get Mom some water so I ran across the street to Rite Aid and got her a bottle of water.  Afterwards, I walked back to the quilt store and she called me to see where I was.  I told her I was almost there.  We get back into the Expedition and put in the next address. I wanted to to get the virtual cache a few miles down the highway towards Camano Island but we were running short on time so we decided to do it another day.

The next quilt store was to Aunt Mary's Quilting Shop in Arlington.  This shop was going to be right off the freeway but we knew there was going to be some traffic since it was now early afternoon.  We got off I-5 and saw we couldn't make a left turn because of the cement barrier.  We will have to go around the block at the light.  That took way longer than it should have because of the traffic.  We eventually got there, parked and went inside.  We got our stamp, grabbed the free pattern, donated a dollar to the raffle for a chance to win a basket and we both used the restroom while we looked around for a few minutes.  

We got back on the freeway and headed south to Marysville.  We got off there and drove east on the 528 to Hwy 9.  We followed Hwy 9 south through several stop lights and into West Lake Stevens.  Hwy 9 took us over Hwy 2 and directly to Snohomish.  We drove through the main part of town, which was 2nd Street, and we kept our eyes peeled for a quilt store named Quilting Mayhem.  Mom saw the sign for it and it was a huge warehouse!  We found a place to park and went inside.  The place was ginormous!  It doubled as a store and a retreat getaway.  I'm sure people who do retreats here spend a pretty penny.  We got our passport stamped, got our free pattern and entered in a contest to win a brand new Janome sewing machine.  We looked around for a few more minutes but had to hit the road if we wanted to get the last two stores before 5 p.m.  We had come through here last September to grab this town and city for the challenge so we didn't need to get another cache here. 

We followed the road east out of town and got onto Hwy 2 towards Monroe.  I also have cached in Monroe so we didn't need to make any extra stops while we were there.  When we got within the city limits the traffic was terrible!  This is what was going to eat up our time.  Everyone was on Hwy 2 hoping to get out of town so they could head to Eastern Washington for the weekend.  Ughhh!  I hate traffic!  We did eventually get to the Ben Franklin Craft Store for our free pattern and another stamp to our passport but getting out of town was gruesome.  Somehow, we managed to get back onto Hwy 2 but it was so slow it was eating me alive!  We inched our way to Hwy 522 and were able to get some of the time back we wasted.  We had less than an hour left and we needed to get to Woodinville to our last quilt store.  Dinner, gas and everything else would have to wait.

Gathering Fabric, was our last quilt store of the day.  We got off of Hwy 522 in Woodinville and made our way onto the Woodinville-Redmond Road.  We followed that through many distilleries, breweries and wineries.  No wonder there was a ton of traffic on this road.  That paired with high school graduations, weddings and extra people in town because it's nice and summer time made it really hard to find a parking spot near the fabric store.  We actually had to drive around for 10 minutes just to find a sketchy place to park.  We weren't going to be here for more than five minutes so I felt pretty good about it.  We walked to the fabric store and we were literally the only people in there besides the owner.  She stamps our passports and hands us a free block pattern.  We engage in some small talk and she says she's been in the same location for almost 30 years and has seen this area grow exponentially.  She says some days are crazier than others.  We thanked her and run back to the Expedition before someone tickets it.  

I ask Mom, where to now?  She said let's get out of this crazy place and make our decision.  I needed to get two more caches while we were up here so I plugged the coordinates into Nuvi for my Woodway cache.  From there, we will decide as we drive past places.  We got back onto Hwy 522/Bothell Way and meandered our way to Hwy 104/Edmonds Way.  Once onto Edmonds Way, we both vaguely remembered being on this road when we helped Doug and Jenn move back in October 2018.  We follow Nuvi and notice there was an Ivar's on the south side of the highway.  I asked Mom if she wanted to eat there once we were done grabbing the cache.  She said sure.

It's amazing that there are still greenbelts and areas of open land restricted from building amongst the concrete jungle still around.  I bet it's nice for these city people to have some sort of haven to retreat to when they are tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and traffic.  Once we arrived to the Woodway parking lot where the coords took us, I was happy to see this small trail system was in such great shape.  There was hardly any graffiti, no garbage thrown about or drug paraphernalia littered along the ground.  Mom sat in the Expedition while I walked the short tenth of a mile to the letterbox, Welcome to Woodway (GC95B4G).  It took me a few minutes to find it because my GPS jumped around so much.  I let it settle down and found it inside of a downed log with small mushrooms on it.  I got our names on it, got a photo and put it back.  I imagine most of its finds were people finding it to meet the requirements of the Towns and Cities Challenge. 

I hopped back into the Expedition and we were on our way back to the Edmonds Highway to get some food from Ivar's.  We knew we were getting close but couldn't remember where exactly we saw it.  Mom saw it and we pulled in.  We weren't sure if they were allowing indoor seating or not so we grabbed our wallets, phones and masks and went inside.  We both ordered the three piece fish and chips and drinks and waited at our table for our name to be called. Once we got our food the place lit up!  It got super busy really quickly.  Between families coming in to eat, to Uber drivers picking up food for their customers, it was like a small ant pile with sunshine on it.  Mom and I ate our food and planned our next stop.

We threw our garbage away, used the restroom one more time and went to go find some cheap Arco gas nearby.  I got out my gas buddy app and there was one nearby.  I had Mom relay me the address so we could put it in the Nuvi.  We were in and out of the gas station quickly and then made our way back over to I-5 south.  We knew I-5 was going to be a train wreck.  It always was through this part of the state.

We merge onto I-5 and inch our way through Northgate, the University District, downtown and we managed to get in the correct lane to get onto I-90, I knew I-90 east wouldn't be that bad at this time of the evening.  Sure enough, it was smooth sailing through the tunnels, Mercer Island and onto the bridge to the other side of Lake Washington.  We followed Nuvi's instructions off of I-90 and to some side roads leading to the small community of Beaux Arts Village, the last of my Western Washington Towns and Cities.  Once we got into the neighborhood, the roads were very narrow and there were tons of houses crammed into this development.  I betcha these houses were super expensive as well.

It was really hard to find a place to pull over and get out.  I did manage to find a place about a quarter of a mile away so Mom stayed in the Expedition while I walked to Qualify (GC5JCR7) which was hanging in a tree.  I had to make sure no one saw me because there were a bunch of people taking their nightly walks through the neighborhood and a few people walking their dogs as well.  It was a camoed bison tube hanging in a tree.  I signed it and  put it back as quickly as I could.  I walked back to the Expedition.

We got back onto I-90 and made our way to Seattle and merged onto I-5 south.  It was smooth sailing through Burien and Federal Way but when we got to Fife it was awful.  Mom also wanted a strawberry milkshake from Dairy Queen and Fife was the closest place that had one.  I was gonna get off the free way anyway because it was gross.  

We exited at Fife, went over the freeway to the Dairy Queen on the east side of I-5.  We were going to go in and order but we had to go through the drive through.  We had a butthole and his wife cut us off at the drive through.  We hoped that he and his wife choked on their food and or ice cream for being jerks.  

We decided to drive to Puyallup instead of getting back on to the train wreck of an interstate.  We made our way around the roads, we weren't familiar with the road we were on, but I knew it eventually went into Puyallup.  Ben had taken me down this road before so it wasn't like it was unknown.  We got into Puyallup, got onto Meridian and got onto 512 and followed that to I-5 in outside of Tacoma.  There was no traffic.  It didn't take us very long to get back to my house.  We pulled in, I took out my stuff and told Mom I would see her tomorrow for our trip down south with Bev.  She went home and I got a shower and then logged the caches we found.  It was a long day but fun to go to places I've never been before.

As of today, I need 25 more for the Towns and Cities Challenge.  Majority of those still left are in Eastern Washington.

Next Adventure:  South:  Shop Hopping, Picking Up Caches, WSGA Meet and Greet and Pizza

In Bonney Lake for Amy's Birthday

Friday, June 4

About a month ago we asked Trish what we were going to do for Amy's birthday this year.  She is in the process of getting rid of her WorldMark timeshare so no more trips to where we stay with that timeshare anymore.  Last year's trip got canceled due to Covid.  They were suppose to go down to Klamath Falls in Southern Oregon for a week and Ben and I were suppose to go down there for the weekend and spend some time down there with them.  It sucked but it's just as well that she is getting rid of it because it is costing her way more in monthly dues than actually getting her worth out of it.  It was time to bite the bullet and find out how to get rid of it once and for all.  Trish said that we would talk about specifics of Amy's birthday in the next few weeks.

As it approached a week beforehand, Ben and I called her to ask what she decided we were going to do for Amy.  She said some sort of activity outside like a hike or something.  We were on board with the idea but was Amy?  Amy seemed to be interested but she ultimately didn't care what we did even though it was her birthday.  We talked about two possibilities, Pinnacle Peak in Enumclaw and Mud Mountain Dam which was outside of Enumclaw.  We didn't think that Amy or her boyfriend David, would be able to do Pinnacle Peak so we decided on Mud Mountain Dam.  There are a few trails there that don't gain elevation and if they are they're minimal.

As far as food, Trish said we will be having pizza on Friday night and burgers and hotdogs on Saturday while we were at the park.  She picked up all the supplies at the store and some party decorations at the Dollar Store.  She asked us to bring a tomato, lettuce and whatever else we wanted to bring so I also decided to bring pickles, because I like pickles on my burgers and they never have any, and some beans.  Ed brought chips.  We also brought drinks too.

That week, I went to the store to go shopping for her birthday present and Ben and I never know what to get Amy for her birthday or Christmas.  She is the most difficult person to get stuff for and I hate getting people gift cards.  Then I remembered that she spends a lot of money on bottled water from work.  I asked Ben, what if we get Amy a Nalgene?  He loved that idea.  It will get her to use that instead of buying bottled water all the time.  It's a win for her and a win for the environment.  I also added a few things that I've had inside her gift bag so she didn't just get the Nalgene. 

That Friday, we worked and then packed up our stuff.  Ben came home at a decent time and packed up his stuff.  We took his Edge.  There was no traffic which was nice for a Friday around 6ish.  We stopped at the Safeway in Bonney Lake for gas, I went inside and got a tomato, beans, pickles and a maple bar for Ben and I because it was National Doughnut Day.  Safeway maple bars are my favorite and I can't help myself when I go into a Safeway.  We headed to the house.

We pulled in and unloaded all of our stuff and took it inside the house.  Trish was so excited to show us her new deck.  It wasn't quite done but it would be done by the weekend.  It was missing some of the boards on the steps.  She said she has been waiting like 26 years to have a deck.  She could not wait to get patio furniture and host parties on it.  

She was still upset by her choice to hire a "unknown" person to come do her lawn.  The yard looked terrible and this has been about six weeks, when he said it would start looking okay.  She has been trying to get a hold of him so he could come fix it.  She hasn't had any luck.  I told her she should have asked Ben and I before she went ahead with it.  

Amy had the pizza going in the oven so we had a meat lover's and a Mediterranean style pizza for dinner.  Amy opened her presents from us and she really liked the Nalgene.  We told her it would cut back the amount of money she spends on bottled water, it's pretty indestructible, reusable and can be washed in the dishwasher or by hand.  

Trish realized she forgot to get ketchup and ice so she sent us back to the store to get those items.  We got back and played a round of 10,000 and I won!  I haven't won that game in a while.  It felt good.  We all had to get up somewhat at a decent time so we all got ready and went to bed.

Saturday, June 5

The next day we all got up before 9, so we could get dressed and quick breakfast of quiches and cinnamon rolls.  The weather looked promising outside but had to remember we are going towards the mountains and they tend to make their own weather.  Trish and Ed go to the park early, around 9) to make sure we got a table and a BBQ pit so he just chilled there until we left.

Meanwhile, we got all of the stuff packed up into the two vehicles and Ben and I set off while Trish and Amy went to go pick up David.  We thought we'd be clever and take a back way near the Rainier School to avoid traffic on Hwy 410.  That soon backfired on us and we had to back track and eventually get onto 410 in Buckley.  The weather was still decent.

I checked the geocaching app to see how many were along Mud Mountain Road that were easy to get.  There were a couple of them but we had time to grab one on the way through.  We knew we were ahead of Trish, Amy and David.  I haven't been out this way since the last time we came through here in September 2016.  Wow!  It's been that long?!  There were three along the road but we only had time to grab one, I looked to see which one was a quick park and grab.  KC Geo-Poker 2013 #9 (GC4JX4W) was indeed a quick park and grab.  It was hidden in the guardrail next to a gated off area so there was plenty of parking off the side of the road.  As we were signing it, Trish, Amy and David drove by.  Ben and I just waved.  

The weather was still okay.  We might make it through the day unscathed.  

We pulled up to the parking lot and found a place to park.  We started unloading our stuff and taking it to the covered picnic area that Ed has been guarding since 9 a.m.  The wind started picking up so it made it hard to put the table covering on the picnic table.  Luckily, someone remembered tape.  We get everything organized and you could tell Amy and David were bored to death.  The outdoors aren't there cup of tea.  However, it's good for them to get out once and a while and do character building things.  It started lightly raining so we decided to play a round of Phase 10 while we waited for the rain to die down.  Amy and David use the restroom and then want to sit in the car waiting for the rain to subside.  It got worse.  It was pouring down rain now and the wind made it even grosser.  We had to make the call.  Today wasn't a day to BBQ in the park but we sure tried.  We helped Trish put everything back into the vehicles and we drove back to the house.  We were all soaked.

Along the way, the weather miraculously got better and Ben and I stopped at the bottom of Pinnacle Peak for a cache.  We both noticed that they put a lot of work into this parking lot.  It actually had a parking lot now instead of pullouts along the road.  They did a great job and it looked really nice.  Anyway, Mt. Peak Parking Lot (GC79FEB) was another easy park and grab. It was hidden beside a large rock off to the side.  I sign our names and got back into the Edge. 

We got onto Hwy 410 and drove the short distance into Buckley.  There was one more we could get that was an easy park and grab.  The Mountain Man Geocache (Troop 557) (GC8FD5P) was hidden inside of some Rhododendrons off the side of the Foothills Trail.  We signed our names and put it back better than we found it.  I could see this cache eventually disappearing.  

Ben and I drove home the back way so we didn't have to continue driving on Hwy 410.  We got back to the house, settled in and helped Trish prepare everything.  It was after noon and everyone was ready for some food.  The weather was nice in Bonney Lake but not at Mud Mountain Dam.

We got the BBQ prepared, I made beans, got the plates, napkins, silverware and the rest of the food set out.  Ben was outside making hot dogs and burgers.  Trish had made her famous potato salad, she had fruit and cupcakes for later.  We ate, chatted about random things, cleaned up and played dice and Phase 10.  I played terrible in both games.  We also brought Throw Throw Burrito and had a blast playing. 

We ate cupcakes and David gave Amy a necklace for her birthday.  It was getting late and we had to gather up all of our stuff so we could head home so we could take care of our kitties.  We gave out hugs and told Ben's mom we'd be in touch for the next gathering.

We got home at a decent time, the traffic wasn't bad and fed our kitties.  They were happy to see us.  We unloaded our stuff, Ben played his game for a while since he hadn't been on in over a week...plus he had to catch up with Josh.  I watched some DuckTales, worked on my blog and ate some popcorn.  When we got tired we headed to bed.

The weekend didn't go as planned (sucky weather) but we had some back up plans so it turned out alright.  Amy's birthday has been a little different over the past two years since Covid but maybe soon enough we can go back to the beach in the next year or two (not with WorldMark) and spend the weekend there.

Next Adventure:  North: Shop Hopping and Picking Up Caches