A REAL LIFE treasure hunt....Geocaching!!!

As many of you know, my little guy is a crazy for alllll things pirate!  On top of that, my little girl is always up for an adventure.  Soooo....when I heard about Geocaching I thought it would be the perfect summer activity to give a whirl!

Geocaching involves using your computer and a hand held GPS locator (my cell phone) to track a "cach", or hidden item.  There are cach's hidden all over the world...on every single continent!  To start this process I googled "Geocaching" and the name of our city.  From there I found a website that looked good and a phone app that worked great (for more info on the website and phone app please e-mail me).  From there we located a "cach" in our area that was under the "easy" category.

Then....we set out on our ADVENTURE!!!!

We started out driving and the kids kept track of the GPS locator.  The locator showed the roads we were on, our car, and a flashing beacon that was the cach.  Eva and Jaden had so much fun watching our car on the map as we turned down various roads!  They were also able to tell me when we were getting close (which was SUPER exciting to them).  The teacher in me loved it because it allowed me to talk about directions, road signs, etc. 

After we felt we were pretty close we set out on foot.  The app that I downloaded had a compass along with the GPS.  It also told us how many feet we were from the cach.  It was adorable to watch the kids walking together and holding the phone out in front of them following the directions.

After we got to the correct area it was pretty much a game of hide and seek!!!  We knew we were in the correct area, but the cach is hidden so we had to find it!  This cach happened to be attached to a light pole in a public area (another one we looked for was hidden in the second step in a staircase of a nearby park).  We found a tube that was connected to a box.  The tube had an official "Geocaching" sticker attached to it.

The cach was in a box that looked like it was screwed shut, but wasn't.  It had a plastic bag inside with a toy bug for the kiddies (if a cach has a "prize" inside you are suppose to replenish the prize...we added in some coins from Australia). 

It also had a notepad and pen so we could sign that we had found this cach.  After finding the hidden materials you have to hit the button on the phone app/GPS that says "FOUND IT!" because record is kept of how many people find each cach!

This activity was such a fun adventure for the kiddies and I....as well as a break from the normal summer activities!  On top of that it can be done wherever you are!!  Friends of ours traveled across the United States and Geocached the whole way!!!  I suggest you give it a whirl! 

"Life is either a great adventure....or nothing."

--Helen Keller