So the idea is that people make a little treasure for you to find then hide it out in the world. They mark it on this online map and sometimes give clues for how to find it. You go look and when you discover it, often there is a log inside where you can add your name and see how many others have also found it. Sometimes there is a little item inside you can trade for something else as well.
We first went looking for an "easy" one just up the street from us, which was tucked into a stop sign. While the older two looked with their dad, Baxter had fun running through a huge drainage pipe nearby, making his voice echo out to me.
Next we set out to find an old cemetery in Batavia. That one was fun because it required finding a certain tombstone, lining the top of it up with another and then following the path. Inside we found this poetic message:
There were some beautiful old stones in the cemetery too. It was a good opportunity to walk around a little and see that cemeteries aren't so scary. Initially Oliver didn't want to go in because it freaked him out but it didn't take long for him to see it wasn't so bad.
Lastly, we found another hidden cemetery in Batavia where we went out in search of a geocache hidden in the woods. To find the spot in the woods we first had to locate a specific stone. Now this cemetery was much larger, so that first step took us a while.
There were some interesting old buildings to look at as we walked too.
We did find the stone but couldn't locate the small can hidden in the woods behind it. The sun began to set so we decided to come back and look again next week.
What a wonderful family activity! It's engaging, active, you can do it almost anywhere and it's even free. I'm a believer now and I see a lot of geocaching in our family's future.
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