Geocaching (Guest Post by Alia)

Hi Everybody!

This is Alia, April's oldest daughter, and I am 24 hours away from being 13.  I am SUPER excited to do a "guest post" on my mom's blog.  She is giggling in the kitchen right now because I am SO enthusiastic. . . .

Anyway, has anyone heard of Geocaching?  It is one of our family's favorite "spending-quality-time-together" activities, and we get along great and work together to find these "caches."

You can look up nearby caches online at geocaching.com by typing in your zip code, and that website has an app you can get, as well.

The hiders are extremely clever, and we find film containers, micro-magnets, fake metal magnetic plates, old ammunition boxes, and other containers like this candy cane below that was tied to a string and dropped into a storm drain.  :)

Possibly my FAVORITE cache yet!!!

This is the logo you'll want to look for if you get the app:

It is $10, but you can get a free version to try it out.  (The pricier one is a bit more accurate.)

Siblings can take turns navigating, and sometimes mistakes are made, but that's how we all learn, right?

We like to use the compass/map and that is always fun!  We all have to really think hard, because of the high difficulty levels we choose.  If you have younger kids, pick some with an easy difficulty rating, and then you are set!

Below is a picture of us on a tennis court, where we found an Altoids container stuck behind a metal box.  The contents were coins, pieces of paper, an army guy and SO much more!  The one main "rule" of geocaching is if you take something, you need to replace it.  We have a stash of bouncy balls, army guys, coins, and random tiny toys in our trunk, because you never know what size container you will find!!

Some caches are very secret and very hard to find.  See the wire coming out of that pipe? (The picture is sideways for some reason).  The wire is attached to a film canister, and it took us forever to find.  Although we were looking in the rain, everyone was cold, and everyone had muddy feet, we had fun!  That is all that truly matters.  

This is a small magnetic capsule, and these kinds of things are so fun to find!!! It takes a careful eye and lots of searching, but in the end, it is so worth it, and your family's bonds are stronger!

I hope that you have enjoyed this post and might be considering Geocaching with your family!

Love,

Alia

P.S.  If you want to listen to a really good podcast about geocaching, my mom found one HERE.