We had another wonderful camping outing at Keystone on Whidbey Island. Jennie and Will were with us again, as well as Brad and Robin, and their grandson Nate. Emma and Adrian, Nate's parents, were also able to spend a couple nights in camp. The bad weather held off and we had some beautiful days to be outside.
We did some more Geocaching, which has proven to be quite fun. We have been camping on Whidbey Island for almost 40 years and are finding that there are many places we have not been. It's fun to explore and learn a little more about the history of the area.
This cache took us off the trail and winding through the woods. Definitely no "muggles" (non geocaching people) around this site.
The cache box was filled with goodies. We checked out what was there, but took nothing. We signed the log book and replaced the cache.
Look at this cute little slug. I won't tell you where he is, but he was well hidden as the rock was in front of him. It's once again pretty clever as "slug" was part of the cache name and so appropriate for it's location.
Look how the capsule was tucked up inside the slug. It's another tiny little log book.
It's always fun to look at the log and see who has been there before us. We began recognizing several names. It's almost as if we were following right behind them.
This is an "earth cache" called an "erratic", because the rock is different from others in the area. It is believed to have traveled here on glacial ice and is one of the more famous glacial field boulders on Whidbey Island. Now, there's a little geology lesson for you.
This was a pretty easy cache to find as we could see it before we even got out of the car. Some are like that, which is good. Sometimes the caches require a long hike to find, or just lots of time to look, and we occasionally like an easy one to keep us motivated. It's also nice to have some of these easy ones for families with young children. They need to be able to find the cache quickly before the little ones loose interest.
We discovered a new beach that we had never been to before. As you can see my "caching party" was down on their hands and knees looking for this one. We spent a great deal of time and never did find it. Later that night I was logging my finds and saw that this one had been crossed off the list. That told me there was something wrong with it. The next day as I was looking at the caches log I saw that the owner had posted that the cache had been taken. Evidently it happens every year about this time as the beach is being cleaned up. The owner said they will replace the cache ASAP.
This cache took us for a walk along another beach we have never visited. Here we found a mailbox with boards attached that had been painted camouflage. It was a great find, well, almost a great find.
We had a clue which was suppose to let us open the lock on the mailbox. However, we couldn't get it open. As we read the logs that others had written we found that we were not the only ones that could not open the lock. Maybe it just needs some WD 40. We could tell there was something in the box, but couldn't get to it. We weren't able to sign the log, so may have to visit this site again.
Brad and Nate put a bird house together and Nate is giving it a coat of paint to make it beautiful for the birds.
We enjoy visiting the Farmer's Markets. This time we went to Coupeville, but were busy with other things, so didn't get to Langley or Greenbank.
We always enjoy watching the cruise ships come by around dinner time. We usually see 3. When you consider these ships leave almost every day of the week, and how many people are on them, it's amazing how many people are leaving Seattle to go on a cruise.
This is the Holland American ship Amsterdam. I have been on this ship when we went to see my cousin Karen in Vancouver, Canada. She was just beginning her 67 day cruise of the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. The ship docked in Vancouver for a day and we were able to spend some time with her. That was pretty fun for us. I'm sure I blogged the adventure, so you may remember reading about it already.
We brought back some of the HUGE marshmallows from Mexico. Some were pink and some were white. We haven't always had nice enough weather for a fire, but this time we did. Ah, somemores with lots of marshmallow! I'm sorry to tell you it didn't work out very well. The marshmallows didn't roast very well and they didn't even taste very good. Lots of disappointment, but we had a good laugh. They did roast "peeps" though they were pretty good. Guess we'll have to remember to buy some of those for another time.
While sitting around the campfire we played the nail game. We use a small hammer and each person gets a turn to hit the nail just once as the hammer goes around the circle. The first person to get the nail pounded ALL the way in is the winner. Nate got to use the bigger hammer and occasionally took more than one hit, though he reminded the rest of us that we got "only one hit".
A glass of wine before the game begins.
Hmmm, empty glasses and no nails. This must mean the game is over and the fun evening has come to an end.
