Geocaching in the Snow...

Ashlynn was excited when she found a meditation seat straight across from the falls. Of course, the conditions weren’t ideal for doing some yoga poses while contemplating the majestic beauty of nature.

Ironically, it was under that seat that Veronica found the geocache, the only one we managed to find that day.

Death of the Travel Bug Hotel...

I was really confused when we got a few emails that said there was a fence on top of the travel bug hotel that Jimmy built with the girls a few years ago. So I stopped by our old house and saw that the emails were right. Apparently the new renters have three dogs and needed a fence built. Clearly whoever was hired wasn’t smart enough to confirm that the ground was solid because a portion of the fence sits on top of the lid to the cache.

Geocaching in Aix-en-Provence...

Our final destination for the day was Aix-en-Provence, where Veronica spent a week last summer. We arrived a bit early to head to Curt and Veronique’s, so we parked the car and headed out to do some geocaching. Ashlynn found this travel bug in a wall at a park.

Ashlynn also found this micro cache behind a pipe on the side of a building.

Geocaching in Cassis...

After our boat ride, we did a little bit of geocaching. We found this cache on a wall at the beach.

Geocaching in Grimaud...

After investigating all around this 17th century wheat windmill (renovated in 1990), we expanded our search for the cache.

Jimmy finally located it on the hill below the back of the windmill after noticing this suspicious rock.

Geocaching in Port Grimaud...

There’s only one geocache in Port Grimaud proper. It was actually fairly easy to find.

However, it wasn’t so easy to be inconspicuous while searching as this air conditioner was in plain site behind a shop.

Geocaching in Florence...

It’s rare for me to be the first to spot a cache, but that actually happened when we went geocaching in Florence. This microcache was a small cyclinder hidden along a drainage pipe containing a roll of paper for us to record our find.

Ashlynn found another cache behind this sign in front of a small church on the opposite side of the river. Despite several attempts, we never did find the cache near the Duomo.

More Geocaching in Munich...

Within the Olympic Park and Olympic Village, there were also several cool geocaches. This one was disguised to look like a water main cover.

The one above looked like it might have been a cache, but was actually a bird feeder with a note at the bottom saying “This is not a geocache.” The other looked like a bird feeder and was actually a cache.

















This one was up high, but Ashlynn still managed to reach it.

Geocaching in Munich...

Since all the shops are closed in Munich on Sundays and we weren’t in the mood to go to a museum, we decided to fill our time with geocaching. We were pleased that there were several very cool caches within walking distance from our hotel. We had a tough time finding this one as it was buried deep under this giant blue sculpture.

We walked right past this one, but Ashlynn finally noticed that the warning sign was upside down on this fake electrical box.

We were surprised to find a cache rated 4 out of 5 for difficulty in an urban area. Once we figured out that it was below a low overpass next to a canal, we understood why. No surprise that Ashlynn didn’t hesitate from retrieving it. Are you surprised that Jimmy didn’t hesitate from retrieving another from the bum of this monk statue?

A Night in Groningen...

Our first trip of 2012 was an overnight trip to Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. We visited the above museum, which was as unusual on the inside as on the outside. We especially enjoyed the exhibit of giant everyday objects, including this sparkly globe.

We also did some geocaching; this was the best of the hiding places that we found. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and watched back-to-back episodes of the BBC show Merlin, which the girls love.

More Geocaching in Dusseldorf...

Several of the caches lead us off Dusseldorf’s beaten path and into the brush.

This was another clever hiding place within a sculpture.

We got a laugh out of this sign next to the scuplture, which means: Money doesn’t grow on trees.

Geocaching in Dusseldorf...

We did a little bit more shopping on our last day in Dusseldorf, but spent most of the day geocaching. This was a clever cache, hidden in a small box behind a modern sculpture in the front yard of this house.

Geocaching in London...

We found several unusual geocaches in London. This first one was a microcache (in a 35mm film canister) alongside a bank.

This was another microcache (you might be able to see the black canister just below where the tree touches the fence in the center of the photo) in the median of a busy road.

We also found a cache next to the Golden Hinde, a reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake’s ship. The most interesting location was the Cross Bones burial ground. This unconsecrated graveyard, where it is believed 15,000 people were buried, was originally for prostitutes in the 17th century and for the poor in the 18th century. The gates are decorated with tokens and notes as a modern day memorial.

Geocaching in the Midlands...

Now that Jimmy and the girls have made their own geocache, they’ve had a resurgence of interest in finding other’s geocaches. After our ride in the Forest of Dean, we met up with the men for lunch, then took some long walks as we searched for two caches. The first was in the botanical gardens; this one was right near the bike path, but we bushwhacked through the woods instead.

On our last morning at the cottage, we took Ellie along to find a nearby cache. It was raining when we visited the remains of the Backney railway bridge (built in 1855 and closed in the 1960s) over the River Rye.

A 5-Star Hotel for Travel Bugs...

After several weeks of construction, Jimmy was ready to install his upgraded geocache. Instead of just a simple ice cream container, he’d upgraded to a big fancy box with lights. He was inspired to build a bigger and better geocache after finding the box next to the garbage bins at the apartments next door. He then worked on building the infrastructure, which included reinforcing a pretty large hole with cement blocks, and wiring the LED lights above the “rooms” which he hopes get filled up with travel bugs.

Soon after the upgrade was completed, the rave reviews started appearing on the geocache website and it started earning “favorites,” which then attracts even more geocachers; so far there have been around 120 visitors. Only die-hard geocachers who pay for a premium membership can declare favorites, so already having over 25 favorites is quite an honor. It also attracted the attention of the police when a neighbor got suspicious about people searching around the bushes. Luckily we were home and just happened to notice them poking around. The officers weren’t familiar with geocaching, but were quickly put at ease when we explained the game and showed them the log book.

Placing Our First Geocache...

Although our family had only gone geocaching (a hide and seek game using a GPS to find containers called geocaches) a few times over the years, Jimmy thought it would be fun to hide a geocache near our yard. Around 8 p.m. on a rainy evening in early September, Jimmy and the girls uploaded information about a geocache they placed in the woody bit between our house and the apartment parking lot. They had dug a hole to hide an ice cream container, which held a notepad and pen (for geocachers to record their find) along with a few small trinkets for trading. Much to their surprise, about an hour later six men (one opted not to be photographed) arrived in the rain to search for the cache. Apparently these die-hard cachers got a text message as soon as the cache went live and rushed over separately in an effort to be the first. The girls got out of bed to greet them.