Under the Bridge

Having picked up the GPS on Friday, we headed out for some geocaching adventure this weekend. Though this was a C-inspired activity (he read about it in a Boxcar mystery), geocaching is just the kind of nerdy thing I was wicked excited to try. What's cooler to a little kid than finding out there really is hidden treasure? People hide containers, some smaller than others, on public lands and then publish their coordinates on the geocaching website with brief descriptions of the walk and clues as to the geocache's whereabouts.
Initially I had wanted to take the kids to the Blue Hills Trailside Audubon Museum in Milton just for something to do this weekend. I went on line and voila, there's a geocache hidden there (they're everywhere, 103 found in a search of Falmouth alone). It's cool to think that one could be out walking in Beebe Woods or at the Knob and probably be passing by them.
The Blue Hills cache was a mile walk through the woods, and described as stroller friendly but ultimately I thought better of it and we began our geocaching closer to home with familiar locations. Heading out to unknown territory on the first cache seemed akin to novice runners who immediately start jonesing for a Boston Marathon waiver after completing their first 5K.
Considering I didn't even know how to use the GPS yet, it would be more like signing up for that first marathon without knowing how to tie your sneakers.
Ultimately we started our quest at the harbor and after much muddling, we found the canister hidden in the tree, and then headed to a location on the bikepath which C found on his own after I realized that I'd set the coordinates at waypoint #7 but set the GPS's GoTo function to locate waypoint #6.
We'd never been on the bikepath on a holiday weekend. The parking lot was a zoo and the path itself like the southeast expressway.
There was nary a soul at Peterson Farm, except for Scamp and the sheep when we went in for geocache number four, supposedly hidden at the farm which turned out to be an hour down the path and ultimately would have been easier to reach if we'd parked at the conservatory and walked in from the other side.
All in all it was great fun though, treasure hunting, tiring out the kids, and in a getting a stroller workout all at the same time – what could be better?
And in other location quandaries - even without the aid of a calendar (or a GPS) you could tell that yesterday was the day after Labor Day on Cape Cod by the amount of road construction that had sprung up all over. Construction crews will be standing around with Dunkin Donut cups in their hands until well into May of next year.

Song: Under the Bridge • artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers