Saturday, February 28, 2009

Adventure Aquarium

While out visiting the Adventure Aquarium (a most generous Saturday gift from my sister) we just couldn't walk right by the geocache Crossing The Banks Of The Nile and not log it. It was a pretty nice Saturday afternoon, except for the wind, and there were lots of muggles wandering up and down the river, and even more standing in line to get into the aquarium.

We all decided that Celeste, like it or not, would be the one to retrieve the cache. It was a good laugh because she's pretty far from inconspicuous. No problems though, and Gino enjoyed picking out his swag (a tiny Canadian flag pin, even though we're nothing close to Canadian).




Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Maple Shade Geocaching

As the winter progresses, the sun has been setting later and later each day, with sunset arriving around 6 o'clock. Since I finished work a little early today, I had an extra half hour to play with. Since I had to go to Maple Shade to get the kids anyway, I decided to check out two easy geocaches on my way over.

The first geocache was called Breakthru Cache. It was very quick and easy, and was nothing more than an old Rx bottle covered with electrical tape and stuck in the dirt beneath on old tree.

The second geocache was called The Baron's Cache, and this one was at least a little more interesting. It was hidden on the edge of a tiny little park in a residential section of Maple Shade. As I drove up, I first thought that the swingset and playground equipment was somebody's back yard, but there were signs posted by the township stating the area was open from dawn to dusk. The cache container for this one really made me laugh. It was a large plastic bird, and it was tucked inside a half rotted tree stump.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Willingboro Geocaching

There were 2 other geocaches that I found in Willingboro this afternoon. Both were relatively close to each other, and both were pretty easy finds.

The first find was one called Tomorrow's House From Yesterday. This one was a virtual cache, meaning that there was no actual cache container to find. Instead, you're supposed to look at what's at the coordinates and answer a question for the cache owner in order for your log to count.

This house was called the Futuro House, designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in 1968. It was supposed to be the house of the future since it was made entirely of plastic and was light enough to be transported anywhere. It resembels a space ship more than anything else. It could accomodate up to 8 people. Unfortunately, due to the oil crisis in 1973, plans to mass produce these houses were spoiled and only 20 were actually built.

The second geocache in the area that I found today was called Close To Home 3. It was a small container hidden in the wooded area behind home plate in a public baseball field.

All In The Woodland Early

Today I visited Mill Creek Park in Willingboro to pick up several letterbox caches that were placed around the trails there. There should have been 10 caches total, but apparently some maintenance was being done to one of them, so there were only 9 active today. I found all 9 caches with no problem. Each one is pictured below.

All in the Woodland Early # 1

All in the Woodland Early # 2

All in the Woodland Early # 3

All in the Woodland Early # 4

All in the Woodland Early # 6

All in the Woodland Early # 7

All in the Woodland Early # 8

All in the Woodland Early # 9

All in the Woodland Early # 10

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Runnemede Geocaching

Brian, Jenn, and I took Gino and Ty out for some treasure hunting in Runnemede. It was an unseasonably warm day for February, with the temp here reaching nearly 70, so we just couldn't resist spending the day outside with the kids.

We went looking for 4 different geocaches around Runnemede, but only ended up finding 3 of them.

The first geocache we found was called The Clement Oak. Behind the new Wal-Mart in Deptford is one of the oldest trees in New Jersey. It's right where Big Timber Creek separates Camden County from Gloucester County. The tree was a landmark back in the 1600's, and it's said that the Lenape indians held tribal councils under the tree.

The second geocache we found was called Blanchard's Descent. The spot has a few plaques to commemorate Jean Pierre Blanchard's balloon ride. In 1793, Blanchard made the first balloon descent in North America, landing at the spot where the cache was placed. Blanchard had also brought with him the very first official piece of airmail, which had been given to him by President George Washington.

The third geocache we found was called Where The Wild Things Are. It was hidden in the woods surrounding the water in Runnemede Lake Park. The ground was wet and muddy, but the kids still had fun.

The fourth geocache we looked for (but didn't find) was called Sticker Island. The terrain for this one was much harder than we anticipated, and proved too difficult in the end. There was a large creek separating us from the "island" where the geocache was hidden, and Gino was not at all interested in crossing. Brian and Ty crossed, looked for the container for awhile, then gave up.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Burlington Geocaching

Today, Sarah and I stopped to grab two quick geocaches while doing some errands in Burlington.

The first geocache was called An Apple A Day. Pretty obvious location if you know Route 541 in Burlington... The container for this one was neat too. It was a plastic apple that had been hollowed out to hold a waterproof container for the log book.

The second geocache that we found was called
My Home Away From Home. Again, if you know Route 541 in Burlington at all, it's pretty easy to figure out that this geocache was in the Home Depot parking lot. It only took a minute to figure out the exact location of the container because in places like retail store parking lots there's only a few places to hide something.

Visit my new track Burlington Geocaching started in United States, New Jersey, Mount Ephraim.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Tower of Barad-Dur

Gino and I went searching for the geocache Tower of Barad-Dur. It was actually hidden in a little wooded section of Lakeview Cemetery in Cinnaminson. He found the container pretty quickly, mostly because the rest of the ground was still covered with several inches of snow...


Monday, February 2, 2009

Fasola Park

Brian and I took Ty and Gino out to Fasola Park in Deptford. There were two geocaches in this park, both of them pretty easy and great for the kids. The first one we found was called A Place to Retire and the second was called Fasola Strolla Re-Redux.

The kids took nothing from the first container, but each took a tiny sea creature toy from the second. Gino left the compass keychain he took from a previous cache, only this time we had placed a traveler tag onto it (Compass Geocoin).

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Traveler Tags

We received our package of wooden nickels that we plan to use as custom geocoins and travel tags. The first one that we've made is being attached to Spyro the Dragon, whom Gino so graciously decided to set free! We'll be releasing Spyro into the wild very soon, and we hope his journey is an exciting one.