Updated Snake Wreath

I love my snake wreath but it needed something.  I saw glow in the dark snakes at the dollar store so Mrs Epi and I added them to the wreath.  It kicked it up a notch.

The spiders on the door are simply hot glued to magnets.  That is the beauty of having a steel door.

31 Days of Adventures -Tourist in Your Own Town

 am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

A radio station I listen too was quizzing each other about things they had never done in the city they broadcast out. I thought it was entertaining and pretty surprising the things that they had never done.  It got me to thinking about the things in our state of Washington that we have never done.  We have lived here for going on 11 years. 

So I thought I would make a little list of things we have never done in Washington State but maybe even closer in our county. 

Here is a little list

Locally
Mindport
Pickford Theatre
Lightcatcher Museum (have been to old Whatcom Museum)
Donkey Basketball - I know doesn't that sound interesting.  Only my youngest and I haven't been.
Oyster Dome

Recently we did a couple of things WE HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE! I know, say it isn't so.

We went to the Street Festival in our town.  It was fun exploring all the booths.  We got some lovely pie and honey. My hubby bought me a bird garden stake made out of recycled metal.



Crazy Huge Hanging Planters
2014
The planters look like they have beards

We visited the Drayton Harbor APA Museum located out on the Semiahmoo Spit In Semiahmoo Park.  It details the history of the cannery that was located there. 

The cannery served as a center for salmon processing for nearly 80 years. Housed in an original cannery building, the museum exhibits tell the story of days gone by and include a scale model fish trap, antique machinery, a gallery of historic photos, and an original 29-foot Bristol Bay sailboat that gill-netted salmon in the Bristol Bay fishery. Take the time to view "Sockeye and the Age of Sail" video documentary with early day film footage of the APA Star Fleet of tall ships under sail, connecting Blaine, the Bristol Bay salmon fishing, and San Francisco in the fortunes of fishing

For such a small space, it was packed full of really interesting stuff.  We love the beach here but had never been in the museum.  The museum is seasonal but well worth a look.

31 Days of Adventure - Advanced or not so advanced Geocaching

I am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

Geocaching Block Party

We are big time geocachers besides basic caching.  There is a whole community of cachers who offer events or different approaches to caching. Click here for my first post on geocaching, " Finding Tupperware with million dollar satellites."

GeoTours-These custom tours showcase engaging geocaches designed to introduce you to new locations. We are big fans of the Washington State Centennial Geo Tour as our cache at Peace Arch is part of this series of caches.  We managed to log 50 of these caches and had an incredible summer of 2013. Some more info about our 100th Year, 100 Parks, 100 Geocaches - Washington State Park GeoTour.

Cache Machines-A cache machine is a set route of geocaches that everyone tries to complete either individually or as a group.  Usually you start as a group and as the day progresses people split off.
Mt Vernon Cache Machine
North Kitsap Cache Machine
Boundary Bay Cache Machine

Events - We have attended anything from a pot luck to a full blown Halloween event with the geocaching community. I even had the chance to shoot a zombie in the nose with a paint ball gun. 

Chance to Shoot Zombies at GeoZombie Run
Chuck pointing to the paint ball I lodged
in Zombie's nose

Geo Monster Ball
CITO Larabee State Park
GeoZombie Run

31 Days of Adventure - Wrong Turn

On the road of life

you can't get off

the exit ramp

without some

bumps and roadblocks-

and a few detours.

Oprah

We own a geocache on the Canadian/US Border in Peace Arch State Park in Washington State and there were several logs left for our cache that explained a wrong turn and the resulting adventure. The park has the port basically in the middle of it.

Thanks for the easy cache :)
Once we parked it was EASY. But we missed the turn into the park and ended up going through the border into Canada - my shortest ever visit to Canada! (ConwaySuz)
*** We actual had a chance to meet ConwaySuz and her partner Navymom at an event and they told us in detail about their adventure.

Thank god I have an Enhanced Driver's License in lieu of a passport. This is what I get for following my Nav on my phone (you would think I would have learned my lesson already after it routed me down the wrong way of a one-way street before). It had me routed to go around into Canada and back into the US for parking. I was in line to cross the border before I realized I should have turned earlier. A quick talk to the border agent about what I was doing, and he let me turn around.  Now I am in a 10 minute line to get back into the US. I talk to the border agent, and explain that I followed my Nav instead of my common sense. He laughed, asked if I was carrying any weapons, and anything illegal. I said no, and explained I was in the area to find the cache. He said it wasn't his first time hearing about geocaching, and that he was going to have to look it up, and try it himself someday. 
Finally, I arrive to the right parking spot. Quick find. Love the area of the hide!!! Found about 2 minutes before the sun set. TFTH (Geo-LMP)

I am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

Ever Make a Wrong Turn and have an Adventure?

31 Days of Adventure - Saving for it

 



I am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

Let's face it.  Traveling and having adventures can be expensive. Getting creative on how you save is important. This hasn't been a strong point of mine of late.

Painless Vacation Fund - Interesting idea as the money goes into a water bottle and is hard to dip
into.

How to Pay for Travel with Kids - This is from Life as Mom who is doing her own series on Travel
with Kids

How to take a BIG trip on a Small Budget this is from Bare Feet on the Dashboard

Any interesting ways you have saved for an ADVENTURE?

31 Days of Adventure - Off the Beaten Path or Not

I am joining the Nester's 31 Days of Writing.  Check out my entire series - "31 Days of Adventure."

I recently read a book, "Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day", that argued the worth of staying on the beaten path.  As travelers as adventurers we are constantly wanting to see something or do something that no one else has seen or done.  However, the tourist destinations are still worth seeing and doing.  Yes, there will be lots of people but the view or site is still awe inspiring.

One of my most favorite on the beaten path adventures happen when we stopped at Iron Goat Trail after a trip to the scenic Bavarian themed town of Leavenworth, WA .The trail goes along the upper and lower sections of an abandoned Great Northern Railway grade. This was a fly by the seat of pants adventure for us.  We had not planned to stop here. As many of you know, I started this blog because a Honeypot was parked outside my dining room window not by choice.  So you are probably not surprised that we discovered this outhouse with the incredible view on the side of a hill, all because we decided to get out of the car and go on a not so little hike. Details here. 

Special Outhouse on Iron Goat Trail
Toilet with a View

Anyone else have an on the beaten path adventure?

Halloween Vignette

I am inspired by Nester's Vignette series as Part of Write for 31 Days. 

Here is my little Halloween Vignette on my shelves next to my fireplace. This is all stuff from around the house and Halloween stuff from previous years.  The only thing purchased was a "new to me" embroidery hoop from the Goodwill.

 

Details about Wicked embroidery
Details about the Spider Web in the Embroidery Hoop
More info about the Match Stick Frame complete with bullet holes with the Chalkboard Boo
The rats/mice I got at my local Fred Meyers Store a couple years back