Okay, I think that my husband and I have officially found a new hobby: Geocaching. I had never even heard of it until a few days ago when he introduced it to me. He had only found a few "micro's" (tiny cache's with only a log book) in the Kingwood area and when he told me about it, we decided to go try and find more stuff. But I guess that I should kind of explain what geocaching is before I continue... A "cache" is a weather-proof container that someone hides somewhere and registers the coordinates so other people can go search for it. These container's contain log books (which you sign when you find it), trinkets that people have left there, and little GPS devices which you can take and place in another cache. It is SO much fun. Plus, it's free (other than gas to get you around), and it's exercise! I am positive that we hit out 10,000 step goal for the day.
We left at sunrise this morning, maybe a little after, and started searching. The Geocaching App for iPhone is awesome. You can see where every cache is in the area you are. We found about 15 within a 5 mile radius of my house. I explored area that I've lived in for years but it all seemed new to me. I've never been under the bridge at the end of my road, or walked through the woods a few miles away. We also found a cache near the cemetery that my Grandfather's brother's and parents are buried at so we got to visit them while we were there.
Some of the cache's were easy to find, some not so much. The app has a place for the person who hid it to give you a description, a hint, and photos. Some are fairly easy, and some are hidden pretty well. We looked for one for like half an hour and the GPS said we were within 5 feet of it but couldn't find it anywhere. Finally I picked up a black rock and it ended up being hollow with an "Official Geocache" sticker on it. I pulled the middle out and there was the log. For another one, we walked about .2 miles down a trail and then ventured into the woods to find a giant ammunition box in the woods with a bunch of cool trinkets and the log book dated back 5 years. Definitely worth the hunt.
It's strange to me that I've lived in this area literally all my life but have never really appreciated it. I always say, "Oh I want to live there! It's so pretty!" But in all reality, I've never just looked around. I noticed so many beautiful things today as we were exploring. It's not that I've never drove by these areas, it's that I've never taken the time to appreciate them. There's beauty all around if you take the time to look.
Little treasures are hidden, you just have to seek them out.
