Saturday, October 4, 2008

My New Geocaching Style

When I first started geocaching I wanted to try and get as many geocaches as possible every time I went out. I've settled into a new style of geocaching that I think works better for me. I kind of figured this out during my recent trip to Massachusetts. Instead of loading a ton of geocaches in an area and focusing on finding them all, I like to find a couple of caches in an area that I'm visiting and focus on the area rather than the caches. This worked out nicely last weekend when my brother came to visit from Illinois.




We spent the first day at Disneyland. I think there's a cache or two there but I forgot to look and we go to Disney all the time anyway. The next day we went to Point Loma in San Diego. Geocaching in San Diego is always a great time, however I wanted to enjoy the area rather than race around looking for caches. We had my two kids and my brother's wife and daughter.

We started out by visiting Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. There is a regular sized geocache just outside the cemetery walls. We spent some time paying our respects to the many fallen heroes laid to rest in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. We walked over and found the geocache and signed the log. Then we walked across the street to a memorial to the USS St Lo. My Grandfather was on the St Lo in WWII when it was struck by a Kamikaze. Grandpa made it off, however many men did not make it to safety before the ship went down.

Next we headed down the hill to the Tide Pools. We took off our shoes and walked around looking for sea life. The weather was perfect. The Boy and I were first to walk to a nearby beach area which gave many others the inspiration they needed to do the same.

We put our shoes back on and went back up the hill to the Cabrillo National Monument. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 10 dollar entrance fee was waived for the day in honor of newly naturalized citizens. The view is breathtaking. The monument is at the very end of the upper portion of Point Loma. You stand and look out at the great Pacific Ocean. To the South is a great view of the San Diego Bay, Downtown San Diego, and Coronado/North Island. To the North you see fantastic beaches lined with cliffs.

We walked from the Monument up to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. The Light sits 422 feet above the water. That must have seemed like a good place for a light when it first began operating in 1855. 36 years later they decided that the low clouds and fog were often too dense and a new lighthouse was opened closer to the water. The Old light has been restored by the National Park Service and is still and iconic symbol representing San Diego. There is a virtual cache in the area which I had to answer a few questions to claim the find.
We finished the day with dinner at the Fish Market in Seaport Village. If you're ever in San Diego, make sure to stop by this great restaurant at least once.

It was a great trip and I enjoyed spending the majority of our time viewing the attractions with a few geocaches sprinkled in. There are tons of new caches popping up around home and I suppose I'll go after them eventually. For the most part, I'll go after caches that are near places I'll be visiting for reasons other than geocaching.









6 comments:

go_man said...

Great post! Like the new style. Really enjoyed the links to these 'far off and wonderful places'. Thanks for sharing.

Geocaching Online

Paul Myers said...

That's a good attitude to have. There's too much good time to be spent caching to waste your time on a bunch of skirt lifting micros.

I was at Cabrillo in late June caching and you might have missed a couple of the other virtuals there if you only got one of them. But hey, that gives you an excuse to go back.

I've been involved with geocaching long enough that I can remember when there was a physical cache hidden in Disneyland. I went to find it and couldn't. Figured out after the fact by reading the logs from that cache that some other geocacher was in the park that same day and had the cache in hand at the time and couldn't put it back because they thought I was a muggle and would see them replacing the cache. I never found that one and later it was removed by park employees.

If you are going to Disneyland, there are several good virtuals in the park and in Downtown Disney that will have you exploring the entire area. Lots of fun.

The Writer said...

Looks like you had a great time! I was telling a friend of mine who is a pre school teacher about Flat Oprah and geocaching this weekend and I think she's going to try it with her class!

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear

P.J. said...

Good style to have. I like to do things the same way, pending on travel distance. If I am going a good haul, I like to still score a bunch, but I'm not afraid to pull off and really absorb one place, take photos etc (we did that Wednesday, actually).

Good post.

A 'lil HooHaa

cosmiccowgirl said...

I have become like that lately myself. I was explaining to my friend my new approach, which I describe as "opportunistic geocaching" - just choosing a few finds that serve the purpose of showing me the area. Sure I might go on a power run sometime in the future, but it is more about geocaching being a way to enjoy an area better.

Crazy Cacher said...

You know, I really need to start doing this as well. DOn't get me wrong, I love to take in the natural beauty of my surroundings while geocaching, but I also am always pushing for numbers when I just need to relax and enjoy. The numbers will come with time.

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