Ok...We haven't been this excited about something in a long time!! We're not sure if we like it so much b/c we're a family of mainly boys, or if we're just super nerdy - but either way we have a hard time imagining anyone NOT liking Geocaching. In a nut shell, geocaching is a real life treasure hunting game with almost 1,000,000 little geocaches hidden around the world. If you click on the link, you'll get a better description and idea of what it's all about. We just started this weekend and thought it would be handy to share our first find with you.
After downloading the app to our phones, we set out to track down our first find. It was called Highway Garage, and b/c Randy has grown up in the area, he knew right where to go w/o having to use the provided map and coordinates. We headed to the site and just started looking. There are hints provided about every geocache's whereabouts, but we still struggled to unearth this one. Luckily, our friends who introduced us to the sport gave us a few more hints, and this is what we found...
Looks pretty benign, right? Just a cute little rock sitting in some juniper bushes. But...
flip it over, and look what you find...
a log to sign, and little trinkets that you can trade for if you've brought something along to trade with!! :)
We signed the log, recorded the geocache as found in our log...and looked through all the little trinkets before putting everything back together and re-hiding the rock. It seriously was soooooooo fun!
You would think that it couldn't get much better than that, but it did! As we were walking back to our car, a man hopped out of his jeep and asked if we wanted to go inside. Randy told him he'd lived in Livermore his whole life and had always wanted to see what was in the building...we had no idea what they did in there...
The garage is part of the historic Lincoln Highway, and has been preserved by the Heritage Guild
With lots of cool signs and placards...the coke one was a hint for the geocache
But best of all, it houses the city's restored fire trucks!!
The one above is a 1940's model, and the one below is one that they are currently restoring. It sat out in a field for 50 years or so. It was saved in 2008.
The one that you see being crank started is a 1917 model. Both the 1940's model and this one have been in several parades, and we enjoyed seeing them then - but it was even better to see them up close!
This was one of the first hoses used by the Livermore Fire Department. 6-8 men would pull it, or a car would be rented to haul it around
So...if any of you jump on the geocaching bandwagon let us know. It would be fun to see what you find! We'll be sure to keep you filled in on the fun ones we find:)
7 comments:
Geocaching is fun. The youth do it as activities out here a lot! I haven't had a chance, but it looks fun. What a neat garage and nice people to show it to you.
I've heard that geocaching is fun, also letterboxing. I've never done either, we'll have to give it a go now. What a fun day, I would have loved to have seen inside that building! What a cool experience. I'm glad that you got to go and take pictures for the rest of us! Good luck to Garron at Lacrosse, what a fun sport!
LindsAy,
We are geocachers and love it. I'm glad you are loving it too.
Kricket
Kricket...
Do you guys have an iphone - or do you strictly work through the website? I think it would be fun regardless...but there was something about watching the target range get lower and lower as we got closer to the geocache.
What memorable ones have you found?
Lindsey,
First of all I didn't even know you were back! Glad to hear it! Geocaching has become an addiction in our house! Mike has even placed a few that he is pretty proud of. We use just our iphones. It works for now. It is good fun, free entertainment! I am however jealous you got to go in the garage. That would have been cool.
Hey Carolynn!!!! Yes we're back! AND ... Mathias is at Altamont b/c there's no space at Croce. So he sees the twins at lunch and recess;). I noticed a Hoopes in some of cache logs, and thought it was you guys. It would be fun to go together sometimes ... The freelands like to go as wel - so maybe we could justake a big party of it!! ;)
i have heard of geocaching, but never tried it out. it really does sound like fun though!
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