I took the kids on a walk, and they decided to make it an adventure. They called this place the “Savanna” and we were exploring, looking for interesting objects and treasures (mostly leaves, twigs, grass, rocks, etc) .
We wandered along looking at every rock, every twig, every everything, and collecting the “treasures” in grocery sacks.
I had to really remember to be patient—it seems like when I’m on a trail and have my walking shoes on, I’m in automatic “fast walk mode…”
…but when you’re on the “Savanna” looking for “treasures” with the kids, you have to switch to “slowdown and look at everything mode.”
After a while of walking and wandering and collecting quite an assortment of rocks, Mary’s plastic bag broke and so did her heart. Tears were streaming. (That’s what I get for using that yucky plastic…Note to self: take canvas shopping bags when treasure hunting).
So we took pictures of their favorite finds and put the bursting bags in the bottom of the stroller.
An amazing twig…
A very cool rock…
A beautiful pebble…
After the bag burst, that was about the last of the adventure until…
We ran into some interesting people! We saw them walking on the trail, about to pass us, then suddenly they looked at these electronic things around their necks, and darted off into the grass. Weird…It was so curious that we kind of had to stop and try to inconspicuously figure out what they were doing.
One of the girls suddenly called out “here it is!” and she picked up a rubbermaid box. [What in the world?]
Forget the inconspicuous!–I couldn’t help it and asked what they were doing.
Turns out they were treasure hunting too! They are called Geo Cachers…
“The hobby is called Geo Caching,” they said. Then they explained the whole thing. There’s a website you can go to, www.geocaching.com, and find locations in your area.
You use a GPS to find each location. You find the box (be sure it’s an official Geocache box)…
…add your name to the tally, then you can choose something out of the box, and replace it with another item. You carry a notebook with you too. If there is a stamp in the box, you stamp your notebook.
This one had stamps, poker chips, little funny leprechaun toys, and bouncy balls.
So how about that? The kids actually found a real treasure…
–well sort of.
Since we didn’t have any goods to put in the box (besides rocks and twigs), the Geo Cachers gave the kids some of their treasures…
Thank you GeoCachers!
I think we’ll be trying out Geo Caching for ourselves very soon. It looked fun!