Geocaching Treasure Hunt ~ Great Family Fun

 

What is geocaching?  It is a great outdoor treasure-hunting game that began around twelve years ago.    Geocaches are currently placed in over 200 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica, and the International Space Station. (source: Wikipedia)

GPS Device

 

The game is played with GPS devices.  They are used to find hidden containers known as Geocaches.  These contain prizes for those who are able to locate them.  This is a great family game that can be enjoyed inexpensively.  It is a great way to explore new areas in your city or state.

 

What does geocaching entail?  Geocachers hide caches at locations that are familiar to them or to their particular area of expertise.  For example, a cache may be placed on a rocky cliff, which can only be accessed using climbing equipment.  A cache may be placed underwater, so that only a scuba diver can access it.  Caches could even be placed in other countries.

Cache

 

For the traditional geocache, a geocacher will place a waterproof container containing a log book (with pen or pencil) and trade items then record the cache's coordinates. These coordinates, along with other details of the location, are posted on a listing site. Other geocachers obtain the coordinates from that listing site and seek out the cache using their GPS handheld receivers. The finding geocachers record their exploits in the logbook and online. Geocachers are free to take objects (except the logbook, pencil, or stamp) from the cache in exchange for leaving something of similar or higher value. (source: Wikipedia)

 

Treasures

 

In fact, there are individuals who travel all over the world looking for geocaches.  They are literally making a sport out of this.  Think of caching as your own version of “The Amazing Race.”  The only difference is that the geocachers are artists, musicians, astronomers, and scientists, and other types of experts.

Children Geocaching 

Geocaching is a good way to teach children how to use GPS devices. This, as it turns out,  is a good thing because their generation will probably rely heavily on GPS systems when they grow up or as they grow up. 

You can take part in a half-day of geocaching by enjoying a family picnic, and then getting back at it for the rest of the day.  You will have the time of your life playing this game.

Family Geocaching

 If you think you’d like to participate in a geocaching treasure hunt, you can check your local community to find individuals who run these events, or you can check many of the websites to enroll in a geocaching event.  It’s bound to be an adventure for the entire family!

Get out and explore!

Pat

Autumn Leaf Peeping in Canada and New England

Montreal

 

If you’ve never heard of “leaf peeping,” it is described as a “person who seeks out an area where many of the tree leaves have turned colors.”  In fact, leaf peeping has become quite popular these days.  That term is not familiar to me, but taking a vacation or a day trip to view the change of colors has been one of my favorite Fall pastimes.  The yellows of the aspens in Colorado and the reds and oranges of the Ozarks rank high on my memory list.

 

According to some statistics, leaf peepers begin their quest in September by visiting Eastern Canada, and end their quest in early November in the state of Georgia.  Now that sounds like an RVer’s dream trip!

Nova Scotia

 

This autumn, why not take advantage of the falling leaves in Canada?  You can rent a car and drive north to Nova Scotia via Annapolis Valley, or you can take a Fall Foliage tour from Boston to Eastern Canada.  Either way, the scenery is sure to be spectacular.

 

Another great leaf peeper vacation spot is New Brunswick.  Known for its large variety of trees, the colors of the leaves are breathtaking.  The red leaves that fall from the red maple trees, combined with the orange-colored leaves that fall at the beginning of October are worth a three-day trip to see.

Boston Common

 

On the other hand, perhaps you have saved vacation time for the fall months.  In this case, as suggest above, why not take a Fall Foliage bus tour from Boston?  The highlights include visiting such sites as Faneuil Hall, the North End, Boston Common, and more.  Traveling on to Maine, you will visit Kennebunkport and Portland (a fabulous fall foliage venue).

 

Taking the scenic route through the White Mountains, you cross over to Quebec where there are exciting tours awaiting you.  From Quebec, you continue northwest to the Laurentian Region -  the beauty of the lakes and forests will leave you breathless.

Lake Placid, NY

 

Maybe you will opt to take a day cruise before heading on to Montreal, another great city to explore.  Continue on to Lake Placid, the most beautiful village in New York.  It is a canvas whose colors that captivate the imagination.  Finally, the tour ends in New York City.

 

Fall Foliage tours or leaf peeping, no matter where the destination, always leaves you wanting for more.  Whether it’s autumn in New York, driving through New England, or taking a short weekend vacation to Canada – “the falling leaves of red and gold,” as the song goes, is your September song.

Get out and explore!
Pat

US West Coast ~Top Cities

Source

There are so many gorgeous places and cities in the US that you can be hard pressed to make up your mind  when planning a trip to visit or even if you live in the US and are planning a family vacation.

This article will cover the top cities in the three states that make up the West coast - California, Oregon and Washington. The West coast is pretty famous for its diversity, not only in culture but in the landscape itself.  For example, Northern California can be thought of as the complete opposite of Southern California.  Plus, when you travel further North into Oregon and Washington the landscape gets more rugged and the climate can change dramatically.

Three of the top cities on the west coast are in California.  They've pretty much become the typical landmarks people associate with the West coast.

 

Hollywood - Source

Los Angeles is the city most widely known for celebrities and film in the United States. On the outskirts is the world famous Hollywood.  Nearby is the ever popular Beverly Hills which is known as "the rich neighborhood" of the states.  Although Beverly Hills and Hollywood are considered more as suburbs of Los Angeles it is like getting a 3 in 1 trip in this area.

Hollywood is home to many famous landmarks that have been visited by some of the most well-known celebrities in the world.  There's the Walk of Fame where you can see stars placed on the sidewalk and named with famous actors and actresses. You can also see some of their hand prints and signatures.

Beverly Hills is well known for shopping and enjoying a more expensive lifestyle.  It became more popular after the airing of the TV show about rich kids.

San Diego, while not always as popular as San Francisco or Los Angeles is home to one of the largest and most popular zoos in the world and another great popular destination is Sea World. It's also very close to the border of Mexico, so a trip into Tijuana is a must see too.

All are worth seeing on your trip to the West coast.

 

International Rose Test Garden in Portland

Source: www.flickr.com/   sha-put-ski's

Portland, Oregon is another great city to visit. It is further inland from the coast than the cities in California, but it's still worth a trip.  Portland is a gorgeous city and also great for a winter vacation.  It is home to the International Rose Test Garden and the Museum of Science and Industry.

If you love water sports you'll love Mt. Hood. It offers year round skiing and even windsurfing. It is also home of the second highest year round waterfall in America.

Further north, in Washington state is the city of Seattle. Seattle has a very diverse and lively music scene and is famous for producing many grunge style music stars and bands.  It is also home to the "Space Needle"  where the observation deck is also a restaurant that rotates a full 360 degrees in less than an hour.  It is no doubt difficult to concentrate on your food when you can watch the city of Seattle go by. This is a must see for sure. Dress is casual, although sleeveless and tank tops are not allowed.

I hope this will give you some idea of what is waiting for you should you choose to explore America's West Coast.  It's a wonderful place for dining, adventure and family fun!

Get out and explore!
Pat

Notes From the Far North - Part Two

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River. They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later. Such a life, what a job! These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law. I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

 Root Glacier

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Greetings from the Land of the Midnight Sun!

Thought you might like to see a few photos from our trip down to McCarthy, AK in Wrangell-St. Elias NP.  Our route followed the pipeline south and it was beautiful scenery the whole way!  The little town of McCarthy sits next to the little mill town of Kennicott.  Kennicott was the site of a copper processing mill high on the hills above Root Glacier.  It was no easy task getting copper out of the mountains here back in the early 1900s, but it the copper was such a high grade that it was worthwhile.  We decided there must have been some real tough characters who came here to work back then.  It had to have been a hard life.  We had a nice hike up to the glacier and camped in some pretty nice spots on this trip.

Kennecot Copper Mill, McCarthy, AK

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We are getting ready to go back to the Yukon tomorrow to count peregrine nestlings and then we head home!  Hope you are enjoying your summer!

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey

Get out and explore!
Pat

Notes From the Far North - Part Three

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River. They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later. Such a life, what a job! These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law. I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

Bundled up and scoping out the valley.

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

 

A few more photos for you...

Musk Ox

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Trans Alaska Pipeline

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We spent the past few days driving up the Haul Road almost all the way to Prudhoe Bay.  The "haul road" was built to facilitate the building of the pipeline and get supplies to Prudhoe Bay.  It goes north from Fairbanks, through the Brooks Range, skirts the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on one side and Gates of the Arctic NP on the other, and on to the North Slope.  It is some of the most scenic countryside in Alaska.  I had never been up the Haul Road but Skip and I had both been to Prudhoe Bay so we didn't feel the need to drive into Deadhorse (end of the road).  We went as far as Sagwon Bluffs and had an amazing trip.  Again, our route followed the pipeline, only north this time.  There are lots of raptors that nest up here (gyrfalcons, peregrines, golden eagles, rough-legged hawks) and I saw 2 more "new" birds (Smith's Longspur and Northern Wheatear!!).  We saw wolves, musk ox, and lots of Dall sheep.  I'm already looking forward to going back.  But for now...it's back to the Yukon.  More later.

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey

Get out and explore!
Pat

Notes From the Far North

Their "summer office" is a boat in the far North...on the Yukon River.  They study the Peregrine Falcons along the river each year, counting nesting pairs, then counting babies about two weeks later.  Such a life, what a job!  These are notes from my daughter and son-in-law.  I am sharing them with their permission, so you can enjoy the beauty of this wonderful land!

Yukon River

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Greetings from the Far North!

We just returned from 3 weeks of surveying for falcons out on the Yukon River.  It was a great trip, a little rainy but we stayed nice and dry in the Dream Boat (love that Dream Boat!!!).  Before this trip, we thought that the peregrine population was leveling off at about 53-54 occupied territories in our 160 mile study area.  We were wrong.  This year we found 60 occupied territories!  We were hoping to get one or two more territories, but 6 more was a pleasant surprise.  Just when you think you might know what's going on around here, you find out you really don't.  Needs more research, as we like to say!

My Granddog, Abbey

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

Big chunks of ice on the Yukon River

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We tried a few new recipes this trip and the big hit was the fresh baked bread.  The first loaf was a beautiful Yukon Sourdough and the second was the super easy No Knead Bread recipe.  It took some guess-work to figure our the right number of coals for the Dutch Oven, but it all worked out fine.  We got some sourdough starter from our favorite little restaurant up here and made sourdough pancakes too.  Not as good as Sourdough Sam's pancakes, but still good.

Rainbow on the Yukon on a stormy night

Photo: Florian/Ambrose

We are going to do a little traveling around here before we go back out to the Yukon again in July.  More photos coming soon!

~Chris, Skip, and Abbey the Wonder Dog of the Yukon

Get out and explore!
Pat

Try These Family Fun Attractions ~ US

Photo: Flying Cloud flickr.com

The US has almost cornered the market in family fun attractions with all the theme parks and educational museums.  Although many states have their versions,  the majority of the large ones can be found in Florida and California.

The most famous are Disney World, Sea World and Six Flags, but one doesn't need to look far to find a number of smaller attractions like Dollywood, owned by country singer Dolly Parton.  Also worth a mention are Busch Gardens, Magic Springs and Silver Dollar City.  Nearly every state has some sort of theme park or family fun adventure. These range from amusement parks with rides, to zoo type parks to aquatic parks and even movie studios you can tour.

It doesn't matter which state you travel to, you can enjoy a family fun vacation that kids and adults of all ages will enjoy.

Photo: Andy Roberts Photos

There are also odd and unusual destinations if that us your taste.  Ripley's Believe it or Not Museums are a great place to visit. There are about 25 of them located in the US, Mexico and Canada. They also have other attractions like wax museums and aquariums, but the biggest of the Ripley's line of attractions is the oddity museums. No matter what part of the US you visit, there is likely a Ripley's fun attraction within a days drive.

For a great family fun vacation you can visit Pigeon Forge, TN. This is the home of Dollywood, but also has other attractions, from bumper cars to laser tag. You can also visit one of the two Titanic museums, and/or check out Wonderworks. This area also offers a year-round Christmas village. Wouldn't it be fun to stay at the Inn and enjoy Christmas decorations any time of the year?

Photo: treehouses.com

If you happen to be around Cave Junction, Oregon,you and your kids may love to stay at the Tree House Resort.  The cabins built in tree tops are roomy enough for the whole family. In addition, there's fun for the whole family with horseback riding, zip line adventures and some caves nearby.

Other cool places to visit or stay include an African safari outside of Santa Rosa, CA.  Safari West includes all types of animals and lodging is available on the reserve.  There is no television or cell service, so this is a great vacation spot if you want to get away from those things for a day or two.

The United States offers a ton of unique and fun things to do for the whole family. The places listed above seem pretty normal, but the states also has its share of odd-ball attractions too.  Stuff from the largest ball of twine to the largest skillet.  If oddity is something you like, the states will have plenty for you - just Google your ideas.

Be sure to visit Exploration Travel Magazine and read my latest article on Airline Fees!  I'd be honored if you would follow this blog and also subscribe to the Travel Magazine!  I'll be writing a column every Wednesday on what's in the news on travel.

Get out and explore!

Pat