San Diego Harbor Geocaching

Went geocaching this afternoon with Jamie and Mae today (Alex came along as well although he didn't participate in the geocaching part lol). We found another 10 and also met a fellow geocacher...from South Dakota! There were TONS of muggles around so we had to be extra sneaky with grabbing the caches today.

We parked by Seaport Village and walked north from there. We found the first 2 geocaches fairly easily. The 3rd one we attempted was a little harder to find. We looked for a couple of minutes and I was looking at my geocaching app to see if there were any other hints then a lady comes up behind me and asks if we were looking for the cache. I got so excited, this was the first time we've met another geocacher while out geocaching! She searched with us and she was the one who made the find! After we logged our names, we talked with her for a bit and found out that she's from South Dakota and was in San Diego for a business trip. She's been geocaching for a couple years already so she's made at least 1,000 finds already....we felt like such noobs lol. She was so nice though and it was awesome to finally meet another geocacher!

Most of the geocaches we found were pretty easy and we didn't have to search too hard for them. But we did have to be super sneaky when grabbing the geocaches and putting them back without being caught by muggles! I would say the highlight of our day was meeting another geocacher...and also the fact that Jamie, Mae, and I were all unintentionally matching with our coral! Here's some pics throughout the rest of the day :)

San Marcos Night-Caching

Yesterday Jamie and I had planned to go geocaching around San Marcos. And I would say it was a very successful geocaching trip since we found 10! We started off in the Albertsons parking lot off Rancho Santa Fe and San Marcos Blvd since we had a quick dinner at Banh Mi San Marcos in the plaza across the street.

This first geocache was very clever! It was placed in plain sight but I doubt anybody who didn't know what it was wouldn't touch it because it looks like a giant booger! Grabbed and signed this one real quick but had a good laugh about it afterwards.

The next one we were excited about because it was right by a new brewery off of Las Posas and Linda Vista. The brewery is called Dos Desperados and I always drive by it when going to work on Saturdays. We were being pretty awkward with this one at first because my gps led us inside the brewery. We were staring at posters on a wall and thought okay, maybe this one is outside not inside. But we felt so awkward so we decided to grab a beer first before looking for it. When we got our beers, we talked to the owner, Steve, and explained what we were doing. He ended up giving us a clue since he knows about the geocache and we couldn't figure out the riddle that was given in the geocache's hint. So we grabbed the geocache as soon as we walked outside.

Next stop was a quick and typical park n' grab under the light in the Grand Plaza. Tried to be stealthy since it was near the plaza exit to the street.

Geocache number 4 was close by, just behind Petco. We liked this geocache, it was very clever and well camouflaged! We were looking in the wrong area at first then when I realized the right place to look, I made the find!

Our friend Alex hit us up and wanted to hang out so we met him at Penny Lane since there was supposedly a geocache there. He thinks geocaching is lame but he came because we told him we were at a brewery lol. The geocache was supposed to be inside the phone booth but we think it may not even be there anymore because it looks like they're doing renovations. So we decided to skip it and move on to the next one.

We all went to another park n' grab under the light in front of Fry's. It took us a while to grab the geocache since there were lots of muggles around even though we were there at 9pm! We also tried to find another one at the end of the parking lot by the Fry's sign but no luck :(

We then made our way to Denny's since there was a geocache by the statues! This one was quick since Jamie knew exactly where to look.

This next geocache was one of our favorites. It was a magnetic ammo box that "you can see from San Marcos Blvd" but it is definitely well camouflaged! You would think it was just part of the thing it was attached to! When we found it we couldn't pull it off lol. You definitely need some muscle to get this one so we had Alex get it for us.

Made our way to Furniture Row where there was a small geocache near the Harley-Davidson store. This one was quick and luckily we went at night so there were no muggles around. It'd definitely be harder to get this one during business hours since it's right by the entrance!

We made another brewery find over at Rip Current Brewing off Las Posas and Grand. This took us the longest to find but I made the find! It was well camouflaged and it was harder to find since it was dark too. Unfortunately we came here about an hour after the brewery had already closed so no more beer for us :(

We dropped Alex back off to his car then Jamie and I made a quick stop at the church next to Palomar College before we went back to her house and called it a night. In the geocache's description, it said it was in a bush. So we walked through the foliage looking in the bushes but we kept finding so many spider webs and almost walked into them! We freaked out and turned around then I saw the geocache in a bush right behind us! This geocache was a cute one. It was placed by an art class of 2nd-4th graders so they can learn about geography (specifically lattitude and longitude). So there were lots of children's stuff in the geocache. I took the foreign coins left behind.

Now I currently have 8 different foreign coins I found while geocaching! The coins are from Denmark, Australia, the British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Ghana, and then I'm not really sure about the others.

When Jamie and I got back to her house, we decided that we would set a goal to accomplish before we start school in a week and a half. Our goal is to hit 75 geocaches and place our travel bugs before we go back to school! When we set our goal, we were at 48. After work today, I stopped by several geocaches by myself around Encinitas and San Marcos and now we are at 54!

The ones I found today were all in "high-muggle" areas. The ones in Encinitas were all in parking lots. The ones in San Marcos were all close to my house. I stopped by the geocache by Froyo Love again, since Stacy and I weren't able to find it on Tuesday. After talking to my friend Christa who also geocaches, I was able to find it this time! Swung by the bank to deposit a check then made my way down the stairwell in front of Starbucks to find the geocache over there. I felt really stupid trying to find this one though lol. I was in plain view of the Barham/Twin Oaks intersection so I sat there by myself trying to look for the geocache while trying to look casual at the same time haha. But I found this one as well! Then I made one more stop in the industrial park on Barham for my last find of the day. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about people seeing me trying to find this one.

So I made a total of 6 finds today! It would have been 8 but one of the geocaches was in a high-muggle area so I felt like I looked super suspicious trying to find the geocache. Then the other one I just really couldn't find. But I still got quite a few! Getting closer! I think 75 is definitely doable by the time school starts. We will be taking another team geocaching trip on Sunday afternoon and hopefully at least another couple times next week as well.

Geocaching around Legoland & Carlsbad State Beach

Went on a geocaching trip this morning with Jamie today! So bummed Mae didn't get to come with us today :( We went near Legoland then afterwards headed towards Carlsbad State Beach and found a few there before we headed back to San Marcos.

We parked near the Museum of Making Music and started our route from across the street. The first one we attempted to find was a pretty hard one so we decided to skip it and come back for it later after we couldn't find the geocache. We made our way to the next one which I found! I'm known for my rock-flipping so I flipped a rock and found the geocache!

This geocache was tied to the giant rock which is why I couldn't really pull the whole thing out lol.

And behind me is what would have been the Carlsbad flower fields lol. We just saw a bunch of dirt instead haha.

Funny story, we were making our way to the next geocache and we randomly saw our friend Alex who was working nearby! We forgot to take a picture with him and we didn't get a chance to when we made our way back since he was on his break. He sucks though because he thinks geocaching is lame haha. After we talked with Alex for a bit, we made our way towards Cannon Road to get to the Legoland trail. I found the next geocache as well, and again it was where I said it would be...underneath a rock lol.

This one was along the bike path leading to Legoland!

We started heading towards the Legoland entrance where we took pictures with the W for WanderlustWarriors! And also for a picture of the Lego Frodo travel bug we found at Balboa Park a few weeks ago. Jamie had a great idea of giving Frodo a little traveling buddy from the future, R2D2! Jamie used to work at Legoland which is where she got R2D2 last year!

Jamie and I wanted a pic too but Jamie took it when we were laughing lol.

We started making our way to the trail that goes behind Legoland to find the 2 geocaches there. The first one we found was right by the Legoland entrance for the people staying at the resort next door. Luckily we went early in the morning so we wouldn't have to worry about muggles!

The next geocache wasn't too far. And again...I found this one by predicting exactly where it was. And it was there! Unfortunately there's a crack in this container so some of the log sheets were soaked. We decided to leave the Frodo travel bug in here since it's the biggest geocache closest to Legoland.

We started walking back the way we came from and went to the geocaches we skipped along the way. Jamie made her first find of the day and this was the biggest one we found today! There were lots of goodies in this one. I took some foreign coins that were left in there!

We went back to find the very first geocache we skipped which was probably one of the hardest ones we've ever found! This one was a micro and Jamie found it! Look how small it is! This one was tough.

We drove to the beach and found 2 here. The first one was a magnetic one I found!

The next one we found we almost couldn't get out! It was hidden in a pipe and on top of the geocache container was this other metal thing that we couldn't get out because it wasn't put in straight. After several minutes we finally got it out! We found a Viking travel bug in here from Norway so we took that and left the Frankie the Fish travel bug we originally picked up at Torrey Pines.

Later in the afternoon I hung out with my other best friend, Stacy, because she was in the area dropping some paperwork off. We went to Froyo Love for a little froyo mini date and had some nice girl time. We attempted to find the geocache right outside Froyo Love but unfortunately couldn't find it. I tried looking at past logs of geocachers who previously found that geocache and found out another one of my friends started geocaching as well with her boyfriend!

Pigging out on our froyo!
 

Stacy's was healthier than mine. She loaded her froyo with fruits while I loaded mine with mochi and cheesecake bites haha. The spoons were so cool! They turned purple when they touched something cold! I wanted to keep my spoon but we threw our trash away and forgot about the spoons haha.

We went to Walmart to pick up a few things and decided to try and find the geocache in the Walmart parking lot. We failed to find this one as well lol. I think the patrol truck was getting suspicious of us though haha so that's part of why we stopped looking. Oh well, next time! 

Til next time! Jamie and I are going to geocache tomorrow afternoon then Grace and I will be going Friday morning. Yay! I'm trying to go geocaching as much as I can before school starts in 2 weeks. Then once school starts, I'm going to be a busy girl again!

Geocaching at Balboa Park

Jamie, Mae, and I decided to geocache around Balboa Park this morning since there were caches all around the park! It's funny when you realize that there are geocaches in places you've been millions of times that you were never aware of! We found 7 today!

Our first stop was called "Heart of San Diego". It was near the Botanical Garden so we stopped by the lily pad pond to take a picture of "Frankie the Fish" (the travel bug we picked up last week at Torrey Pines).

Mae found "Heart of San Diego" and now I know why the original geocacher who placed it came up with that name...the box is a heart! We loved the hiding spot for this geocache.

The next geocache was the first one I found today called "Spreckles Organ Pavillion". It was actually behind the pavillion so that's why my picture is in the trees lol. This one was a pretty easy find. Here I am putting it back where I found it!

Next we made our way to "Balboa Park and Cache" near the Aerospace Museum. This was our first magnetic find! We had a little trouble finding this one at first and there were a lot of muggles around so we were trying to act casual while looking lol. One of Mae's friends from church was driving the tram that kept passing by. He said he noticed us trying to be sneaky and he talked about how he always sees other people geocaching then trying to act normal when he sees them haha. Jamie found this one!

The next one I found was close by and it was called "San Diego Santa" because the box had Santa on it and the treasures left behind in the geocache were toys for all the little boys and girls who find the cache! We found a travel bug in this one! Jamie's holding onto that one because attached is a Lego Frodo and Jamie used to work at Legoland! Jamie decided that she'll give him a little companion (one of her Legos) to travel with. The goal of this travel bug is to travel all around San Diego so we thought it would be fitting to bring Frodo to a geocache near Legoland next week! 

We made our way towards Presidents Way to find another winter friend...this geocache is called "It's Frosty in Balboa Park". Mae found this one and look, it's a snowman!

We made our way to Park Blvd and walked along the street to the area where the playgrounds were. Here, we found our first puzzle geocache! The geocache was called "news". I won't post the riddle or how we solved it so that if any of you decide to look for this geocache, you can figure it our yourself ;) But if you are interested, it's a geocache only made available to premium geocache members (I couldn't resist so I upgrade our account from basic to premium a few nights ago lol so we have access to more than just the traditional geocaches). We all solved the riddle together but Mae was the one who found the geocache. This one was a tiny nano geocache! We've found micros before but this is the smallest we've ever found so far! It's crazy how they were able to fit the log inside this one!

Around the playground area are the letters N, S, E, and W to represent each cardinal direction. We took a pic with the W for WanderlustWarriors!

Our last one before heading out to lunch was called "The Cat in the Hat" because it had a Cat in the Hat box and logbook! Inside this geocache we found a compass rose geocoin! Because it is a compass, the goal of this geocache is to travel to all 4 corners of North America! Mae is keeping this one. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture for this one because we were too busy worrying about the things inside the box lol.

After our geocaching adventure, we decided to check out this place in Hillcrest called Bino's Bistro and Creperie. Lately I've been trying to yelp some nice places. And I don't mean chain restaurants or really well-known ones. I want to try out some more hole in the wall, hidden gem type of restaurants. So I found this one and the reviews looked good so we decided to have lunch here. All three of us got crepes then we got a strawberry martinique crepe for dessert. At first we couldn't decide whether to get the limoncello crepe or the strawberry martinique crepe so our waiter, Luis, convinced us to get the strawberry martinque. When he came back out, he had two crepes. The strawberry martinique which we ordered, and the limoncello which he gave us on the house! He was such a nice waiter! He explained the items on the menu and also gave a free dessert so we will definitely be giving a good yelp review for this place. Unfortunately we don't have a picture of Mae's Mediterranean crepe but here's Jamie's Smoked Salmon crepe, my Chicken Florentine crepe, and the 2 dessert crepes.

While we were waiting for our food to come, I took a picture of all our trackables since we all have one now! Mae has the compass rose geocoin, Jamie has the Frodo travel bug, and I have the Frankie the Fish Travel bug! We'll be geocaching around the Legoland/Carlsbad area next week to leave these all in geocaches! Until next time!