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.

A 100 Years, A 100 Caches, 100 Parks

Need a great summer activity? Well Washington State Geocaching Association is teaming up with Washington State Parks to celebrate their centennial anniversary.  They have produced a GeoTour.  What is a GeoTour? It is a series of geocaches that will take you to explore a certain area. 

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 are so excited because we got to hide one of the caches for the Centennial Anniversary of the Washington State Parks in Peace Arch Park.  Peace Arch Park State Park is located in Blaine Washington.

I of course will be blogging about GeoTour of Washington State Parks.  We hope to visit at least 25 this summer/fall. Our ultimate goal is to visit at least 50.  It would be awesome to get all 100 but we have lives people!

How to participate in the GeoTour of Washington State Parks

1. Log into Geocaching.com and create a free account
2. access GeoTours of Washington State Parks to see all the qualifying caches
3. Use your GPS or Smartphone to locate State Park Caches
4. find caches
5 stamp your geotour passport/sign log book
6. log your find on geocaching.com
**** A Discover Pass is required to park at all state parks.

3..., 2..., 1... LAUNCH

After months and months of planning and waiting, there was lots of waiting.  Our first geocache launched today .  I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!! The anticipation has been killing me.

For our first attempt at this kind of thing, we thought go big or go home so we signed up to be part of the group of cachers to place Geocaches in Washington State Parks for their centennial.  Our cache is at Peace Arch Park. Our team name is of course THE TWO MAN WRECKING CREW. These geocaches are little different as they will be containing stamps as well as the usual stuff that is in geocaches. The stamp is to stamp your State Park passport. If the geocachers gets 50 stamps or 100 stamps they submit the passport and will be awarded a coin - silver for 50 and gold for 100.

Project Life Tuesday on Thursday - Week 22

I am linking up with The Mom Creative Project Life Tuesday.  I am a little late linking up but here it is.

Week 22 was a little bit of a slow week coming off the big holiday.  The quote 4 x 6 card I made in Photoshop as well as the 3 x 4 one for the record journal card. We were the FTF (first to find) on a geocache near Silver Lake Park on Monday the 27th.  That was exciting.  My son is pictured in the sculpture, " The Nose Knows." at Peace Arch State Park. The cow we saw when driving and I got my youngest to take a picture.

We are still in school and I can't WAIT until school is out to spend some time with the Two Man Wrecking Crew.

Supplies
Photo Protector Design G
Cobalt Edition Project Life for the journal card

Summer Bucket List 2013

 

I am linking up with Happy Family Movement Bucket List Challenge and in the spirit of  Ali Edwards Summer Manifesto. 

I usually try to have some type of bucket list for the summer.  My kids are two boys 11 and 14 years old - Also know as the 2 Man Wrecking Crew.  We live in the Pacific Northwest. School is not out for another 2 weeks so this our very preliminary list. I am a Stay at Home Mom so we spend most of our summer together.   So here is our list. I wanted to use 3 x 4 cards so hopefully they might fit in my project life album.  I am not sure if I plan on making a separate album or not.

Bike Rides- Everyone has a bike.  We finally installed our bike rack on the back of the car.  We are good to go.

Washington State Park Geo Tour - 100 caches, 100 parks, 100 years (more details to follow) - This geocaching program launches June 7th. We are big time geocachers and we got to hide a caches for this. We hope to wear out our State Discovery Pass and find25 caches in 25 different state parks this summer and fall.


Campfire

Beach - We live close to Birch Bay State Park and try to head there for a picnic dinner a couple times during the summer

Eat Ice Cream at Edaleens - It is a rite of summer to enjoy a cone from this semi local dairy to us. 

Ride the Hiawatha - This was on our bucket list last year and didn't happen.  Hopefully we can make this a reality this year.

PJ Ride- This is an idea I got from some Moms at MOPS.  When everyone is in their pajamas, you declare a pj ride for ice cream.  We do this every once in a while.  It is a very big hit. It sounds like Burger King has cones for 50 cents which makes this pretty reasonable too.

Water Fight

Swim- We had a request to go to our local aquatic center.  Hopefully we will get our youngest enrolled in swim lessons. 

Have an Adventure

Reading Program at the library - This years program is called Dig into Reading for Kids. The teen program is called Beneath the Surface.  There is even an adult program called Ground Breaking Reads.

Grandpa and Grandma Visit - The best part according to my kids is that my nephew Colby is coming as well. I should of made a card that said Colby is visiting.

Jetty Island- This is an island near Everett reached by a very short ferry ride.

Learn to Slackline - Our neighbors have one the kids have been messing with.  So on a whim I ordered one from Zuilly.  Anything to get the kids outside.

Here is our list from last year.

The Count Down Begins and Some Linky Love

Giant Cow
This made Charlie and I do a double take

Well, we are finally nearing the end of the school year.  I have one with 10 school days left and the other has 12 school days but who is counting, right.  My 4th grader informed me last week this was his last math homework. Hopefully, I will be posting our Summer Bucket list later in the week.

Linky Love
Love how this Mom tells us about being the "Worst End of School Mom Ever" This made me laugh and I think every Mom who has made it to the end of the school year feels the same way.

State tells Seattle schools to fix problems in special education | Education | The Seattle Times - yet another story how school districts have let down special education students.  If I was a parent of a special needs student in Seattle School District, I would be livid.