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Lakewood Treasure Hunt Loot! – Tupperware Tuesday

Kryptic — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 18:15:54 +0000

Yeah! We found the medallion!

Very, very early on Friday morning, PJ and I finally found the Lakewood Treasure Hunt’s Treasure chest! You geocachers out there probably guess it… It was a clear plastic Gladware container. It seems that even local municipalities have gone clear! Considering the final location of the medallion, it was a great choice. No way was the bomb squad going to blowup an award winning Veteran’s memorial on accident because of a suspicious package!

This morning we met with Dennis Higashiyama of the Parks and Recreation Department who ran the treasure hunt to collect the “Loot”. As you can see in the photo they were very generous with their prizes! Thanks to the City for the reward for having so much fun!

Dennis was very happy that for their first ever Treasure Hunt, one, that the medallion had been found and two, with their limited advertising abilities that the community had responded so favorably to the idea. He hopes to be able to do it again next spring. He wouldn’t give us any hints on his next idea, but did say they clues would be a bit harder next time around. He was also quite interested to know about any other searchers experiences and would like you to email him and let him know what you thought and how they could make it more fun for the whole family. Visit the Lakewood Parks and Recreation page here to share your story with Dennis. Increased public interaction is what I believe they are really looking for, so toward that end, if you have not yet “liked” the City of Lakewood, Washington’s
facebook page. Go here to do so and let them know specifically about your experiences with the Treasure Hunt and at the many wonderful parks they work so hard to maintain.

The whole Parks and Recreation Department has been working really hard this year to make this weekend’s SummerFEST bigger and better than it has ever been. Make sure to go check it out June 25-27th at Ft. Steilacoom Park.

Dennis also shared with us that the City is indeed aware of geocaching and are planning on including it in their next employee picnic this August at Ft. Steilacoom Park. So all you cachers out there with caches in the park may want to keep an eye out and do a bit of CITO and cache maintenance during the month of August. Let’s show the City how much we appreciate their efforts and reward their children with some updated swag and properly labeled geocaching containers. I’m thinking of doing a round of my special signature magnets just for the city employees who participate in the geocaching aspect of the picinic. One might just be: “Lakewood Geocachers Love Lakewood Parks and Rec’s Dennis Higashiyama!” What do ya think?

Does your city host a Treasure Hunt? I’d love to know if you have participated and how you liked it.

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Chime in with your comments or your weeks caching highlights. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

Link your Treasure Hunting or Geocaching article to this post:

Geocaching Events – The Treasure Is… You!

Kryptic — Sat, 08 May 2010 08:05:29 +0000

I was looking at my geocaching stats and admiring my new icons, (3 new cache types! But I’ll get to that in a minute…) when I had a question pop into my head. “Why do I have so many Events caches and so few actual Geocaches showing on my last 30 days of activity page?” The answer: You! My fellow geocachers are the treasure I find at events.

I feel compelled to attend geocaching events. I really appreciate the time and effort the hosts put in to make them fun and enjoyable. By attending I feel like I am saying “great job” and “thanks” for creating an opportunity for me to get to know more great people and just visit with folks who enjoy the things that I do.

An Event is a fixed time and place and if you miss it, there is no tomorrow. A geocache? Well, that will be there next week when I’ll have more time. At least that is what I tell myself. (But really when do any of us really ever have more time?)

It seems like I need to have a mountainside fall on me to get me to actually step away from all of the little things that seem so important, like laundry, housecleaning and oh yeah, work, to get me to go outside and caching. Going caching alone is often just the ticket I need to sooth my soul. I get a great sense of peace just hanging out in the nature that surrounds me on a mountainside or in a great park. Other times, I just have more fun caching with friends. And Geocaching Events are the place to make Geocaching Friends.

So, thank you to all my geocaching friends, old and new, for brightening so many of my days this last week. Which brings me to my icons!

I was lucky enough to attend three “10 Years!” geocaching anniversary events last weekend.

10 Years! – Tacoma, WA (GC26TQB)
10 Years! – Seattle, WA (GC25617)
10 Years! – Olympia, WA (GC273T6)

I had a blast at each and every one!

Picked up a webcam cache while out running errands.

Phatboyz…Go dogz (GCH3NT)

And finally was able to do my first Earthcache!

It’s the Water…and a Parking Lot, Too! (GC1B9WN)

Not a bad geocaching week! Enjoy your weekend and Happy Caching!

Tupperware Tuesday: A Properly Applied Geocaching Enhancement!

Kryptic — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:09:58 +0000

Today’s “Tupperware Tuesday” actually has a Tupperware find in it! OK, not Tupperware per-se, actually a small Lock N Lock, but clear plastic none the less! I’m not usually a fan of clear Tupperware caches. I like caches that are creatively cammoed and hidden in plain sight, but for a very busy running all over town kind of afternoon, this clear little devil made me extremely happy. The cache was Light the way(GC1KMVV) by muffy69. I don’t think I am giving anything away by saying that it is a lamppost cache in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Caches here usually don’t last long. People spend too much time looking for small dark colored nanos or film canisters against the dark background of a lampost skirt. This takes up a good bit of time. Usually, just enough time for the security detail to pick them up on camera or notice suspicious activity while driving around. Wal-Mart seems to hate geocaches on their property, so if security finds them, away they go. But! Because this cache is small and clearish white, grabbing it is as quick as lifting the skirt and picking it up. It’s a really good example of a container enhancing a cache experience by forethought and proper application. A great first cache by a cacher with a bright future! Well done muffy69. I look forward to more of your hides.

The Hidden View

My next stop was The Life Cycle of Leach Creek Salmon (GC1G3BV) by Subman123. I had checked the logs before I left and knew that people were having a hard time opening this one. So I made sure to bring a couple of small Pocket MultiTools with me in case I actually found it. I have driven past this art installation a few thousand times by now and never really looked at it. It really is massive when you get up next to it. So I burned up a lot of time just looking and trying to find angles to get a good shot of it to no avail. It’s too big and the street is just too close. The next thing I noticed that I had never seen, because the art covers the view, is the creek behind it. As you can see it’s a beautiful little spot. After taking more than a few pictures of the creek for future drawing material, I started looking for the cache. I wasn’t able to really search for it, because the city work trucks and the local police kept coming by and you can only pretend to be be taking pictures for so long. And apparently, from the looks I was getting, I had been there long enough. So even though I didn’t find the cache, what I did find in inspiration and materials for future use, made the visit memorable. I’ll go back tomorrow and actually look for the cache, now that I won’t be as distracted by all the scenery!

Prep Work

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing prep work for a multi-cache. I visited half of the required waypoints and gathered the required information. I’ll finish the rest up this week sometime. I won’t be able to share much on this one without compromising the cache, but maybe I can write up the final location. I’ll figure that out when I find it. I like this type of multi. I get to learn and see new things and earn a smiley at the same time. Win-Win in my world.

Well, it’s nearly midnight and all the daily mundane tasks of life have been finished. The dog has been out for the last time and the cats are sleeping peacefully. I think I have seen enough of the world for one day.

Happy Caching

Tupperware Tuesday

Tupperware Tuesday: The Big C

Kryptic — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:31:31 +0000

Today was “that” day. The day you wake up and realize that you are: down to the last 4 rolls of T.P., two-thirds of the way through the last roll of paper towels and the fridge has enough extra room to be rented out, or possibly turned into a guest house. Yes, it is “that” day. Costco. Now I know that in the long run we save by buying in bulk, no denying it, that is a fact. But the cost savings and convenience of always having “something” on hand, comes at a price. That price is time. Time to plan what to shop for (a month in advance of any cravings), time to do the shoping (lugging a construction cart behind you) and time, to re-portion and re-package items purchased, into reasonable sizes.

Yes, Costco day is a dreaded day here not only because of the time it takes… But the willpower…. Oh, the willpower… I pray all the way there to have enough willpower to get through the entire mammoth structure and stay on budget!

Clean Caching

Extras this trip include:

A new carpet cleaner ( Geocaching with a dog is even messier that caching with me!)
New door mats (To help cut down on the wear and tear on the new carpet cleaner.)
And of course.. various plastic containers suitable for geocaches. (On sale of course. Sigh…)

Well maybe next time.

Needless to say, I only got to find 2 geocaches today. Not what I had planned for this week, but it will have to do!

The last cache Do you feel the pain? #1 (GC1PA4X) was a trip down memory lane for my caching partner. She spent a great deal of time playing here as a child. She shared some fond memories of the place, made even sweeter knowing the cache belongs to a little girl about the age she was then. Thanks Li’l Cookie!

Tupperware Tuesday

So, tell me .. How was your “Tupperware Tuesday”? To find out more and how to participate, follow this link: “Tupperware Tuesday”. If you love geocaching, we’d love to hear from you! Please feel welcome to chime in with your comments or this weeks caching highlight. Can’t wait to read what you found today!

Tupperware Tuesday – Inspiration Day

Kryptic — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:46:38 +0000

I choose these two caches to start off the New Year and this carnival intentionally. I have been driving past these caches since they were placed, thinking: “Oh, I should go grab those..It’s only take a few minutes…” then I’d look at the time and fret about being late and think to myself: “There is always tomorrow.”

The LPD cache has had a name change to LPD 23*101*121*135* (GC1RJQC) in honor of the fallen Officers that served at this station. LPD 23*101*121*135 is by Douglas_Clan now includes the fallen officers vehicle numbers. LPD in this case does not stand for lamp post cache, but rather, Lakewood Police Department. The The untimely death of these officers reminded me that there may not always be a Tomorrow, that Today, is the only day there really is. but most importantly, making the most of Today is what really counts. The death of Officers, Owens, Renniger, Griswold and Richards, rocked our community. But, it rocked us individually more. I live each day a bit differently now thanks to these Officers. Not only did they provide safety for me in life, but have pointed me in the right direction to live in death. Thank you to each and every one.

Next door to the police station is the YMCA and the cache Y Tri (GC1WE85), by a cacher who lives his life t the fullest. His photos on facebook often remind me of what I could be doing on a Saturday instead of looking at a screen. So, thank you for the inspiration combatnurse2003.

The last cache was chosen as an example of the type of cache I hope to never place. It has a useless cache page and takes you to nowhere in particular. It is in a parking lot facing a parking lot and is usually so full of trash that I have never ventured beyond the car looking for it until today. The cleanup crew must have gone through recently. It’s called the “Blue Light Special” GC1X1VM and there is absolutely nothing special about it.

So, a quick post for a few local caches and some inspiration for the year ahead. How did you do on our first “Tupperware Tuesday”? Even if it’s not Tuesday Link below so I can find out! Linking instructions can be found here. Can’t wait to read what you found today!