Geocaching

The girls love to Geocache when we go on vacation, but we've never actually taken the time to do it locally, so we headed out to Wickiup with our friends to give Geocaching a try in our own back yard. I've never Geocached using my phone, we usually just check out the GPS units that they have at the resource centers, but we downloaded the app and tested it out.

Water. Sunglasses. Hiking shoes. Ready to find some caches. 

The first cache was just a sign, so we were a bit disappointed that there weren't any trinkets to swap out or a log book to record. However, the girls pressed on and eventually found their first real cache hiding in a tree stump. They were so excited to sign the log book!

Their next cache was hanging inside a hollowed out tree and had been there for a few years so they liked looking back on everyone who had signed it. 

Of course we had to go into the Nature Center too and check out all the fun stuff that it had to offer. Norah loved playing dress up.  "All the better to eat you with" - Norah. Wolf. Fox. We have some work to do...

Emma has quite the wing span! It was a great day spent with friends. 

North Carolina Arboretum

We woke up this morning and headed out of Asheville to the North Carolina Arboretum. This place was so serene. We walked the paved paths checking out all of the beautiful waterfalls and landscaping and then checked in at the main desk for our fun activity of the day…Geocaching. I have wanted to try this for a while and I thought what better way than to do it on vacation. We checked out a GPS and started our treasure hunt. Grace ran the GPS for the first geocache, ‘Wild Child.’ It took us off the beaten path and was really difficult to find. Whoever had hidden it before us did a great job! We traded a little football for a kaleidoscope. Then Emma took over the GPS. She wanted to find ‘Stream Time.’ This one had better hints and was a little easier to find…between a V of trees. We traded our kaleidoscope for a horse head. Then Norah took over and led us toward the ‘Root of all Matter’ which was sneakily hidden under a downed tree. We hiked all over the arboretum looking for geocaches and it was a new twist on hiking that we all really enjoyed. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful hike or a more beautiful morning, the weather was perfect!

The arboretum was absolutely beautiful with all of its paths, bridges and waterfalls. 

I must take a lot of photos, the girls have started making up poses to do...I promise I have nothing to do with these, I just want a snapshot. 

Mark and Grace trying to get some hints for where the difficult 'Wild Child' must be buried. 

Signing the log book. 

Emma in charge of the GPS. She kept us on the trail most of the time. 

Trading in our finds and signing the book.

Emma thought it was awesome that her name would be in the book FOREVER. 

Watch out...Norah's in charge.

The 'Root of all Matter' was a great clue. Check out those roots. 

Norah and I trading in our horse head for a slap bracelet. 

What a beautiful day for some hiking!