Cache Cache Caching away...

Just a blog consisting of a compilation of random caches and the lovely people who sometimes join me in my nerdom.  Of course - you cachers - if you don't want spoilers on hides - STOP NOW!

Otherwise - Enjoy!

Still obsessed!

After my lovely trip to Bishop I took the day after to recover and mom and I decided to do an Irvine Park Walk and cache hunt!  Plus...I was only 3 away from getting my 100th cache and my mom was HELL BENT on being with me when I find it - so we were on a mission.

So - #98 - I'd seen this one and been meaning to look, but never made it toward the lake for some reason - did today!

Irvine Park Lake

Hmmm...looks to be an extra bold there....

Nope!  Just a cache!

Hi friends!

Next up we wandered towards one I've tried a few times, but we always get to the trail too late or too hot and don't hike as far.  So - we did that again.  FAIL.  I was pretty much ready to call it since mom and I had already done a pretty good walk, but she was like NO!  2 MORE!

So, we drove over to an area of the park I saw one I hadn't attempted yet.  Up a little hill outside the park...pausing multiple times for muggle bike riders and BAM #99!

Mom is on a mission

These kept blowing around and I felt I was in the Legend Movie

Now, we'd looked up one nearby but not in the park.  Looked to be a Community Garden in Santiago College.  After driving a bit in a circle, getting stopped by a Campus Security Guy wondering what we were doing - we found it.  The Security guy was super nice and told us the odd way to get to the garden.  There's a tiny driveway off of Katella/Santiago before you hit Jamboree.  Yay!  I never even know there was a little garden here!  So friggin cute!  This is another reason I love geocaching - it brings me to places I didn't even know existed!

SO ladies and gents - MY 100TH FIND!!!!!  Could not have been more perfect!

What's this?!

My 100th cache that's what!

That was friggin rad!

My next adventure on this blog landed me back at Irvine Park a couple of weeks later with Stacy.  I was determined to find this cache I kept trying to find but not able to finish the trail.  So we started there and off we went.

Unfortunately it seemed to actually be the wrong trail.  I kept staring at the geocache map and there looked to be a trail that cut off to the side towards the cache but we could not find it for the life of us.  So, we headed back - but not without some pretty shots.

Spider Tree

Stacy suggested we try this other trail, which did seem to be correct but I'd never seen it.  Welp - walk a bit farther the other way Jami and BAM - there it is.  This had to be it!!!  And guess what...it was!

Hell Yes...right trail!

The hint was small potato....hmmmmmm

BAM!

This hawk was watching us closely

So the next adventure took me back to Glendale.  If you recall my "hubs" Justin and I went caching in the Americana area by his house and looked for 4 and only found 1.  Well - I reached out to a friend and fellow cacher of mine because I saw his name on the ones we couldn't find!  So - he gave us some major hints to help us on our next time.  Welp - this was our next time.  There was one we still couldn't find and I'm actually pretty sure it's not there anymore.  But - we did find 2!!!

I adore this man

False Bolt in a Telephone Pole!!!  It's got a little magnet inside.  Well done 1Ghasthunter1!!

This one is behind a popular bar and really heavy Muggle Activity - so be stealth!

I was also totally unaware that it was INTERNATIONAL GEOCACHING DAY!  How did I not know that??!!!!!!  So these two finds earned me a souvenir!! (I'll have to remember this date.  I looked back to last year and that's when Pat and I did the Wisdom Tree hike!)

A couple of days after this I met up with my friend Noel down in Back Bay in Costa Mesa!  I love walking down there and used to walk it every morning when I lived near there.  It's hard to get back over there due to shitty OC traffic that is getting like LA.  UGH.  But - I had an appt down there this particular Monday and rather than sit in traffic coming home, I met up at one of my favorite spots!  Of course - I had to cache!!  I haven't done any caching down this way yet!  Plus Noel had yet to experience it.  I got there a little early and zipped over and did an Earth Cache by myself.  A fellow cacher had set up an interesting little tidbit about the river flowing to the Bay.  LOGGED!  Then Noel met up with me and we had a lovely walk.  We looked for 5 caches and found 2.  Not great luck, but I'll be going back of course!

While logging the Earth Cache I was being serenaded by these kids

Noels 1st Cache!!!

So pretty!

I was ready to give up on this one since it's a highly Muggle traffic area but I turned around and Noel appeared with the cache!  Good job Noel!

I just love the Back Bay!

So I was going to attempt to do the "Find 1 cache a day for 7 days straight" challenge for a souvenir but I've already given up.  It's just too goddamn hot.  But I did find two!

Met Carol in Downtown San Juan Capistrano for lunch last weekend and got there early so of course did a quick search and BAM!

The next day - still thinking I may do a streak I went to Bowers Museum.  Of course got there early and BAM!

The hint on this one says 5 of the same.  Notice the structure behind my hand?  There were 5!

Last weekend my boyfriend text me saying he was thinking of getting his kiddo out, so how about lunch and geocaching?  Um...I will never say no to geocaching!!  So we hit up Eisenhower Park.  There are only 2 caches here, and one of them is almost impossible to look for because it's always crawling with Muggles.  So - we were able to find one of them after some Muggles finally left the area.  Woot!  I don't have a pic of the actual cache (It was just a log) but - you'll see the hiding place in one of the pics below!

This guy was guarding the cache

Notice behind Pat's head...something look out of place?  Kick in those GeoSenses!

Pretty duck!

A trio of cachers

So last weekend after Halloween Crafting with my mom, I noticed a Little Free Library Cache!  Elise doesn't recall ever checking out one of these so I thought it'd be a perfect detour on our way home.  We took a book (Thank you Stacy!) and hit it up.  So cute!!!  I absolutely loooooove these!!!

The hint was "All libraries have basements!" So creative!!!

The book Elise chose to borrow

This concludes this collection of Geocaching for this blog!!  Now to post!! 

Looking forward to more geocaching adventures!!!!

San Clemente Chillin...

San Clemente is such a special place for me.  I'm sure I've mentioned this every time I write a San Clemente blog.  I'm so thrilled when I can get down here the week my mom is staying at her yearly visit to her timeshare.  This year was another perfect mini get-a-way!

Mom had her week down there.  I didn't have any vacation time to join her, but I came down Friday night.  She had said Pat and I could have the weekend!  I was so excited to get at least one night with her and then a little bit of time with my man.  It worked out to be a perfect weekend away.

Friday night Pat and I headed down early evening ( I seriously ran out of work, had packed my bag the night before and we hit the road as soon as Pat pulled up.)  Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been on a Friday early evening and we rolled in around 5.

Pat got the rundown of how it works - "What do you guys do down here?"  "Nothing.  Absolutely nothing."  One of the best things about these little getaways is you just relax.  I love vacations and adventures so very much and want to do so many more, but - when you vacay to a new place you want to see everything.  You make plans to do this and go here and see this and oh we have to make sure we eat at that place.  Which is amazing yes, but sometimes it's nice to just do nothing.  I'm super familiar with San Clemente and there's nothing I haven't seen, so we can just do whatever.  Eat, drink, watch the sunsets, listen to the ocean, take walks, anything we want.  It's truly one of the very few times I can come somewhere and completely relax.

So - we hit Fishermans Restaurant for Dinner which was delish then walked the pier a bit. 

Yeah, that's alright

Love my mama!

Love my sweetie!

Now - mom and I had tried to find a cache that was on the Pier last year, but the dude at the store actually said "Oh it's gone, the city took it".  Well, for funners I looked it up and it seemed to be back!  So I was able to turn my sad face log into a happy face log!!!

Mom was stoked to find this one!

Had to leave a little swag

We got back to the timeshare for the sunset and it did not disappoint!

My heaven

No filter

We said goodbye to mom and began the little mini romantic weekend by playing cards of course!

Love this game!

Don't you fret...there was some romance...but no need for details there.  Tee hee!!

Saturday morning I awoke way earlier than intended, but took that time to wander out on the balcony and take in the beautiful salt air filled morning.  The awesome thing, was during the night the waves were crashing loud enough to hear in the back bedroom.  I can't say enough how much I love falling asleep to the sound of crashing waves.  The morning was beautiful and silent except for the now quieter waves crashing.  I watched early morning runners, dog walkers and strollers.  Then the scent of coffee wafted up from below.  We planned on meeting my friend Carol for breakfast but that coffee....mmmmmm!  I ran downstairs and got Pat and I some yummy fresh brewed coffee from the Bear Coast Coffee that's a new addition to the area.  After coffee on the balcony we headed out and walked up Del Mar to meet Carol at The Cellar for breakfast!  Um...brekkie at a wine bar?!  Hell yes!

It was so good!  I had something called The Works Toast and of course a bit of bubbly.  I mean I'm on vacay!  I was so excited when my Hibiscus Drink had a flower in it!  How cute is that!?

Yes please

A flower!!!

It's the little things that bring me joy

It was a lovely morning, chatting with Carol and enjoying the really great ambience of The Cellar.  Afterwards we walked back to our condo and decided to take a beach stroll.  I wanted to look for some caches to the left since I had gone to the right the year before.  Unfortunately I was having cellphone service issues and it got really really hot!  Walking along the beach was nice, but then the trail crosses inland a smidge and that made a huge difference.  So we did find one cache but then decided to screw it after that and walk back along the water.  It was so nice!!!

Good find baby!

Beach walkin

I love him

We grabbed a sandwich to share and chilled back at the condo.

Pat said he never really naps.  MmmmHmmm.  You do here my love ;)

Later on in the early eve Pat suggested we walk Del Mar again and maybe grab a drink or two and maybe some snacks.  Sounded delightful to me!  We hit the Cellar up again because they had a Rose Slushy I wanted to try!

Beer that came with a matching glass!

Rose Slushie!!!

We then wandered quite far and landed at a new sushi place!  Holy crap was that delicious!!!!  The place is called Sushi & Co and it was a hidden gem for sure!

Buy me sushi and tell me I'm pretty

After this we wandered back down in time for the last sunset.  None of these have a filter - it's that gorgeous.

I mean...

Can you even...

So peaceful...

Sunsets are my favorite color

The next morning we had breakfast at a little place below the condo then headed out.  I am so grateful that I'm able to usually do this at least once a year.

It was a lovely little escape in one of my favorite places with people I love!