Welcome to Geocaching! (Or, Size Matters!)

We've heard about this Geocaching things for a while now, but never gave it any real consideration. With the home school portfolio deadline looming we are in panic mode, doing all we can to throw as much as possible in at the last minute. While I have no doubt that we did more than enough in the last year for the boys to progress on to the next grade level, I am constantly paranoid that our social media updates make it appear as though all we do is sit around playing Xbox or watching the History channel.

Geocaching is a form of modern-day treasure hunting. Someone hides a container and lists it along with its GPS coordinates at www.geocaching.com where other participants will use those coordinates to find it. What is inside the geocache container? That really depends on its type! Here are the four primary sizes:

• MICRO - These are less than 100ml in size. It could be something like a film canister, or a two-part magnet the size of a button. Typically all you will find in this size container is a log book.
• SMALL - Ranging between 100ml and less than 1L in size, this could be a small Tupperware or Rubbermaid container, or a Ziploc sandwich bag. It will typically hold a log and also some small treasures.
• REGULAR - These are larger than 1L, but less than 20L. Think shoebox size, for regular geocache containers. They can hold bigger treasures, or even just a lot of smaller treasures, and of course the necessary log book.
• LARGE - Anything larger than 20L in size falls into this category. Examples include a five gallon bucket, a large wooden crate, and so forth. What treasures await depends on the geocachers!

On our first day of geocaching we headed to 9 different locations. We found containers at 7 of those locations. My favorite treasure of the day was a little knight in shining armor. One of my sons took a wooden nickel, and the other selected a patch. We left behind army men, baseball cards, and loose change. Following the unofficial "trade even, trade up, or don't trade at all" guideline, we always left more than we took.

Here are some pictures of my boys enjoying the geocaching. Hopefully none give enough hints to ruin it for future geocachers.

First container of the day was in a forgotten cemetery. It was aptly named -- I've driven by here hundreds of times in my lifetime, and never knew that cemetery was there!

I walked right up to this box, thanks to the app on my iPhone.

This little wooden puzzle box was a cinch to open for my oldest, who saw something similar in Agatha Christie's Poirot!

We were looking for a full-sized ammo box. Tricky containers are the most rewarding!

This tricky container, hidden in some bushes, nearly eluded us!

The smallest micro container we found that day!

Awesome sunset on the way home that evening.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do with your family and friends, sign up for free at www.geocaching.com and look for me there under "beckythehobbit". While you don't need to buy the premium membership or the app, we did. All total it was less than the price of a new Xbox game, and inspires my family to get off the couch, into the fresh air, and spend quality time together.