Summer Wrap UP!

Cody at Fort Casey

We had an incredible summer.  I thought I would do a little wrap up of our summer. The first day of fall seemed like the perfect time to wrap up.

Charlie snorkeling in the Hot Tub

Charlie and I watched all the Harry Potter Movies after he finished reading the entire series.

We visited a total of 41 State Parks!  Wahoo!  We are SO close to getting 50 State Parks as part of the Centennial Washington State Park Geocache Tour. Hopefully this fall we will make it to 50!

We hosted some guests.  We had my Aunt and Uncle, my parents, and my nephew.  We got to celebrate a 70th Birthday and 15th Birthday.

We hid our first geocache this summer.  It is located in Peace Arch State Park. We decided to make some predictions about our first geocache. Here are the results.

Who would find our cache first?
Charlie - GeoBees
Cody - Lola and the Gnome ***
Heather - PNW Brat
Kevin - Lola and the Gnome ***

How many cachers will find the 1st day?
We had one find on the first day so Charlie was the closest to the number

Co - 6
Ch -5 *
H - 10
K- 8

Number of hours/minutes before the first find?
Our cache was found later in the day so I believe Kevin got this one
Co - 1 hr
Ch  - 30 minutes
H- 45 minutes
K- 2 hrs

The number of times found before the start of the school year (September) Our cache was found 223 times by September 3.

Co- 20
Ch- 300*
H- 100
K- 700

Big Adventure

***This is more about our quest to get 50 State Park Centennial Geocaches for more information click here and our adventures here.

"Go On A Adventure" was on our summer bucket list.  I think the road trip we took on Saturday, counts.  We started our day at 4:30 to arrive at the Coupville Ferry Dock to take the Ferry to Port Townsend on the 7:15 ferry.  Much to the chagrin of the adults we neglected getting coffee because of the time table. Oh us adults not caffeinated is "interesting".  We made the ferry and arrived at Port Townsend.  We headed to Fort Worden.  We wandered around on the roads.  We stopped and took a hike to find the Centennial GeoCache.  We ended up off the main road and on what I call a billy goat trail. Hey, sometimes you need to find your inner goat. Though it brought us to this interesting broken down building.

Giant Man Child with Tigger

There is some fabulous history here with all the artillery batteries.  What a great place for kids and adults to explore. 

You just can see Cody up in the Tower

There was a lot of talk of exploring, ruins, and Indiana Jones. The view would be fabulous but it was rather overcast. We found the geocache without much trouble.   The whole time we were here, I thought we were at Fort Townsend.  I am blaming it on lack of caffeine.

Next we headed to Fort Townsend.  We followed a little nature trail to the Centennial Geocache which was quite cleverly hidden.  The trail also ended in a great place with a view but it still was quite overcast.

Boys and Dog near the cache site

Then we were off to Fort Flager.  Prior to this we finally located COFFEE.  I am so turning into a Pacific Northwest person. Fort Flager is a favorite park with many and while we didn't stay long. We were there  just long enough to find the geocache under the old hospital steps.  I could tell this would be a great place to spend more time exploring.

Onward, we arrived at Anderson Lake.  Oh my it was simply beautiful and the most uncrowded place we visited so far.  The lake was closed to due to algae bloom but gorgeous anyways.  We followed a trail around the lake.  We ate our lunch here too.

Anderson Lake

We had a change in plans and decided to forgo visiting Miller Peninsula State Park.  After reading the description about the hike, we decided not to visit. We headed to Sequim State Park. The Centennial Geocache takes you to a lovely covered bridge within the park.

Because we decided not to do visit Miller Peninsula we headed south to Dosewallips.  We managed to end up at the wrong parking area but eventually figured it.  By coincidence we found a centennial state park coin at the first parking area in the camping area. Once we at the right area, we headed down the path to an observation tower.  We soon had the cache in hand.

Triton Cove was down the road so we headed there next.  Don't have much to say about it as the cache was a drive up one and only Cody got out of the car.

The last cache of the day was at Potlatch State Park on the dry side or should I say hilly side.  Once again we went on a billy goat hike.  My inner billy goat had given up. We found the cache though and decided against going back the same way and cut through the campground. That ended our cache hunting for the day. 

We now have 28 of the state park centennial geocaches.

WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour Stats

f you have read our blog for any length of time you know we are geocachers and we are participating in the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour both as cache owners and geocachers.  We have found 20 State Park Centennial Geocaches. We decided from the beginning we would do our best to find 50 of the 103 geocaches. It has been a wonderful adventure this summer.

Below was listed on the Washington State Geocaching Association (WSGA) page on Aug 22nd.

Here are a few statistics on the WA State Parks Centennial GeoTour as of Aug. 20 (74 days into the GeoTour, which started June 7) - thanks, rambudo and Ranger Tina.

Visitation:

• 3,408 people have logged at least one GeoTour cache.
• 3,137 have found/visited from one to 50 GeoTour caches.
• 261 people have found/visited more than 50 GeoTour geocaches.

There are 103 caches in 102 parks.

• Total Finds: 13,712
• Total DNFs: 76 (primarily missing caches)

Cachers who have found/own all 103 caches: 4 - Mr. Gadget #2, rambudo, rocketglider, lamoracke

Most Favorite Points:
38: Rosario Beach - Deception Pass
30: Fort Worden
23: Kanaskat-Palmer
19: Potholes
19: Wenatchee Confluence

Most Found:526: Iron Horse - Hyak (thank you, APE event!)
240: Lake Sammamish
239: Fort Casey
237: Saltwater
231: Saint Edward

Least Found:44: Mount Pilchuck
47: Lime Kiln Point
50: Fields Spring
53: Curlew Lake
55: Spencer Spit

For more information on the Washington State Centennial GeoTour.

Geotour - Bridle Trail, Tolmie, and Millersylvania

We are working on finding all the 100 geocache in the Washington State Centennial Geotour. After this weekend we now have found 20 of the 100 geocaches.  "100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years."

We stopped Friday afternoon at Bridle Trails State Park.  I was shocked how few people were there.  In an article by The Seattle Times Bridle Trails was considered one of the worse state parks. Some actually said the parks existed for the benefit of its rich neighbors. We saw none of that. We set off on the trail dodging the horse pies.  We even ran into two riders on horses.  Tigger got to meet horses for the very first time.  He didn't even bark.  He was in love with their poo. (I know gross) We loss the signal for our GPS but our great geosenses took over and before long we had the cache in hand.

Cody under the tree tunnel

Saturday we convinced Nonna and Pappy to go geocaching with us.  We stopped at Tolmie State Park which is pretty close to Nonna's house.  The beach is nice but the parking is somewhat limited at the beach access.  I did like that the beach was close and a fairly level approach. Pappy was able to do it with his walker.

Cody on the Beach

We had the cache in hand pretty quickly.

Then we ventured on to Millersylvania State Park just south of Olympia.  This has Deep Lake.  Millersylvania was also voted on by Seattle Times Readers as one of the worse parks. It certainly seemed popular when we visited. We had some concerns about retrieving this cache as the park was really busy.  Practicing a photo op helped us make the grab. I was in the photo so no pictures here.

So far this summer we have hit 20 state parks.  I am amazed at the diversity in our Park System.

Slackline

Slacklining was on our bucket list.  We deconstructed our playground and in it's place we are putting a smaller playground (swings only) and a slack line course. While it isn't the prettiest to look at here is the slack line in all it's glory. It is tons of fun.

You can see one upright of the future swing set

 

Charlie rocking the Slackline

Bike Riding - Summer Bucket List

Went for a bike ride on Sunday morning before it heated up. It still quite warm when we started.  It was a request on our Bucket List.  We rode the cascade trail.  We parked in Sedro Woolley and started the trail. We ran into quite a few people walking their dogs and a few bike riders.

We think we road about 12 miles round trip.  Kevin liked it because it combined geocaching and bike riding.  I liked it because it was nice and level.  We saw lots of different things - horses, pig and piglets, turkey, lots of cows, and even an EAGLE.

 

The Cascade Trail follows the Skagit River along an old rail bed of the Burlington Northern line, between Sedro-Woolley and Concrete. The trail parallels State Route 20 through cultivated fields, open space, scattered woodlands and river bottoms. The nearby river provides for some great fishing and nice river views, as well as scenic vistas of Sauk Mountain and other Cascade Range peaks. - Trail Link

Whttling down the Summer Bucket List

Yesterday we did some whittling.  My child actually asked me if I was only doing this for the photographic opportunity. LOL  It was a rainy day and we needed to do something. It wasn't on the summer bucket list but it should of been.

The Giant Man Child had won two pocket knives so I decided why not give the children knives to whittle. IT was surprising how all the safety stuff from Girl Scouts came back to me almost instantly when my littlest picked up a knife. The younger of the two took right to it.  The 14 year old thought I had lost my mind.

I see a lot of whittling in our future summer plans.

Project Life Tuesday- weeks 23 and 24

I got caught up on my project life.  I had fallen a little behind. We have started on our Summer Bucket List by participating in the Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour (geocaching) All my layouts have lots of pictures of the state parks we visited.  Last week was my older son's last day of school.  I love that tye dye is the school colors. The week before they made tye dye shirts at school. There are a few stories I would like to come back and add but this is the general gist of the week.

Does anyone ever go back and insert more stories/pictures?  My husband was looking through this and said why didn't include such and such.  So I am thinking about going back and adding 5x 7 insert with the story and picture.

Week 23

 

Week 24

Supplies
Project Life: Cobalt Edition
Today Rocks Digital Stamp - Ali Edwards

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life Tuesday.

GeoTour stops 9,10, 11, & 12 - Father's Day Whirlwind Caching Trip

This GeoTour celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Washington State Parks with 100 new geocaches in 100 parks across the state. Learn more and get a GeoTour passport and list of caches at GeoTours Washington State Parks. There are commemorative geocoin prizes for those submitting a passport showing they found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches.

We just can't leave well enough alone. The Giant Man Child wanted to geocache for Father's Day.  He is a little obsessed.  So we ended up visiting 4 more state parks. We were minus one man from the wrecking crew as he was all parked out. We started our day at Rockport State Park.  Wow, this is an amazing old growth forest.  This is currently a day use park. There were lots of trails and huge trees.  We ended up on going on a little hike.

Giant Man Child studying the tree rings

Next up was Rasar State Park.  This is along the river.  We were almost eaten alive by mosquitoes here.  The cache was very unique.  I think we lost a pint of blood to the darn mosquitoes however. This park also had a nice playground.

Cache Retrieval at Rasar Park

We had to drive by Deception Pass/Rosario Beach on Saturday because we ran out of time. We figured our dogs had their legs crossed.  We made it here on Sunday. 

Kevin and Charlie at Deception Pass Rosario Beach

This was voted one of the Best State Parks by the readers of the Seattle Times. The views are incredible.

Incredible Views

We visited back in 2007. 

Blast from the pass photo Rosario Beach 2007 - Me, Cody, and Charlie

The cache was very unique here as well.

Lastly, we visited Bay View State Park.  This cache didn't exactly take us to the scenic part of the park. Lets just say it was Honeypot related which I appreciated. It was really a unique cache however.  There were plenty of muggles ignorant of our quest as we removed the cache just a few feet from them.  I took no pictures here. 

***I am reminded as we visit all these different state parks how diverse our state of Washington is geographically. I am also reminded why we should protect these places. The budget cuts have really shrunk our state park budget. It is a shame that we don't invest more into these parks. These places are true treasures.

We officially have 12 stamps in our Washington Centennial GeoTour Passport.  I don't think that is too shabby.

GeoTour - 4 Park Saturday

This GeoTour celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Washington State Parks with 100 new geocaches in 100 parks across the state. Learn more and get a GeoTour passport and list of caches at GeoTours Washington State Parks. There are commemorative geocoin prizes for those submitting a passport showing they found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches.
 

We went on a epic adventure today to 4 state parks. 

Stop 1 of the Day: We started at South Whidbey State Park. This was about 2 hours from our house.  We started at our farthest point. We got a little turned around and ended up walking to the beach instead of the cache.  The steps to the beach were killer. 

We also saw 2 deer out on our walk.

I am wondering if I am on the geocaching exercise program.  We eventually ended up on all things the Hobbit trail.  Wish I had gotten a pic of the trail sign.  We found the cache at long last.

Smile for Nonna - We found the cache at long last

Stop 2 of the Day: Fort Casey was our next stop.  This is one park I want to come back and explore more extensively.  They were flying kites here.  Fort Casey has the gun battery.

According to my kids, we didn't spend enough time climbing on everything here.  Fort Casey also has admiralty lighthouse. 

The cache took us away from these to locations to a little known section of the park.  It was really interesting. We will be back.

Stop 3 of the Day: Fort Ebey just up the road from Fort Casey.  We took another hike.  One of the view points was especially lovely.  We even ran into another cacher we know who was out getting Centennial Caches as well. 

Stop 4 of the Day: Joseph Whidbey was our last stop of the day.  I am glad we had the GPS as this park doesn't have much signage until you reach it. Just before we saw this eagle.

This is the kind of beach I really like.  There was tons of driftwood.  It was relatively flat for walking. There were several driftwood structures. This is the biggest one I have ever seen.

This is another beach that would be great to bring a picnic to.

Our grand total of Centennial Caches is 8!  It is hard to believe that someone has already found 50 of these caches.

Washington State Park GeoTour : Stop #4 Larrabee State Park

This GeoTour celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Washington State Parks with 100 new geocaches in 100 parks across the state. Learn more and get a GeoTour passport and list of caches at GeoTours Washington State Parks. There are commemorative geocoin prizes for those submitting a passport showing they found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches.
 

In case you didn't know Larrabee State Park is the oldest Washington State Park.  You can experience both Mountains and Sea at this location.  We actually visited a part of the park that we had never experience.  We drove Cleator Road. 

The boys found this rock interesting so we had a photo op

Our views were pretty good even though we started out pretty cloudy.  There are plenty of caches to find before hitting the top to find Larrabee's Centennial Cache.  The centennial cache happened to be our 800th find.

 

Group Picture

The views from Cleator Road were awesome.  It was a little hazy out but wow you can see for a ways.

View From The Top

We ended our adventure with a Geocaching Event and Celebration of Washington Parks Centennial.

Here are the other parks we have visited so far
Cama Beach/Camano Island
Peace Arch Park
Birch Bay

Washington State Parks GeoTour - #3 Camano Island & Cama Beach

We are doing the Washington State Park Centennial GeoTour Challenge as part of our summer bucket list.

This GeoTour celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Washington State Parks with 100 new geocaches in 100 parks across the state. Learn more and get a GeoTour passport and list of caches at GeoTours Washington State Parks. There are commemorative geocoin prizes for those submitting a passport showing they found 50 or 100 GeoTour caches.
 

This Saturday we attended a GeoTour event at Camano Island State Park which is basically right next to Cama Beach State Park.  I had visited Cama Beach with the Adventure Van Crew but it was a great place to revisit.  From their website: Cama Beach State Park is on the southwest shore of Camano Island facing Saratoga Passage. Cama Beach offers visitors a chance to step back in time to a 1930s-era Puget Sound fishing resort complete with waterfront cedar cabins and bungalows.

kids messing around at Cama Beach Visitor Center

I still think it would be really fun to rent one of the cabins at Cama Beach.  That is my kind of camping.  However, I really like the beach exploring at Camano Island State Park a little better. It is a rocky beach with tons of driftwood. From the parks website: Camano Island State Park is a 173-acre camping park with 6,700 feet of rocky shoreline and beach. The park provides sweeping views of the surrounding mountains and offers opportunities for shellfish harvesting.

Camano Island State Park

The Centennial Cache is basically on a trail between Cama and Camano Parks.  We found it with a bunch of other cachers.

Cama Beach Post with Adventure Van Crew. The Adventure Van Crew definitely needs to revisit.

Our GeoTour so far
Birch Bay State Park
Peace Arch

Washington State Park GeoTour - Stop #2 Peace Arch

We are kinda partial to this one as we placed it. This was our first stop to stamp our Washington State Parks  Centennial Geo Tour - 100 caches in 100 parks to celebrate 100 years.

Peace Arch State Park is a unique 20-acre day-use park that lies on the boundary between the United States and Canada. The 67-foot Peace Arch monument sits on the border of the two nations at the 49th parallel. The foundation consists of 76 fourteen inch pilings driven 25 -30 feet into the earth. The Arch was said to be one of the first structures in North America constructed to be earthquake proof.  The 67-foot Peace Arch is jointly maintained by the United States and Canada. The concrete structure was the inspiration of Sam Hill, railroad builder and industrialist.

This cache will take you to part of Peace Arch Park that can't be seen driving through the Port.  The park is known for its lush gardens, vast lawns and panoramic views of Point Roberts and Vancouver Island. More than 10,000 annuals are planted each spring, resulting in abundant foliage year round and colorful blooms during the summer. Rhododendrons, azalea, dahlias and a hybrid tea rose garden are just some of the captivating plants on the grounds. The park also is the site of cultural and international events. This cache will take you to a unique feature of the gardens located at Peace Arch State Park.

This is the 2nd closest State Park to our house.  We have visited here quite a bit.  We checked on our cache which in it's inaugural day only had 1 find.  We also stamped our GeoTour Passport.  My son's have decided this park has the most perfect hill for rolling down.

kids rolling down the hill

Here is our GeoTour so far
#1 Birch Bay State Park

GeoTour Stop 1 - Birch Bay State Park

These pictures are from 2004 at Birch Bay of Charlie. He was 2 years old

As part of our Summer Bucket List, we are doing Washington State Parks Centennial GeoTour which is a geocaching challenge/tour. More information about the GeoTour click here.  Birch Bay State Park is our closest State Park to us so we have visited this state park the most - see the above picture.  My most famous post on this is 102 matches.   What is so remarkable about this park is the coastline in this park with it's mainly rocky beach littered with giant driftwood stumps.  This was a quick stop for us.  We got our first stamp in our GeoTour passport.  WAHOO

Kevin and Charlie finding the cache

The cache is quick find but if you have never been here before you should definitely explore the coast line.