A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

geocaching travel

It’s time to plan to attend a block party!

Every hobby or sport has a mecca, of sorts.

If you’re a baseball fan, for example, Cooperstown is the ultimate baseball destination with the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In golf, it’s Augusta and the Masters.

In board gaming (at least in my short time in the hobby), it’s either GenCon or Internationale Spieltage SPIEL — or as it’s affectionately known, Essen.

And in Geocaching — it’s Seattle (and a couple of spots you can get to from Seattle).

Groundspeak, the owners of geocaching.com and the biggest company in regard to the hobby, is located in Seattle. HQ, as it’s known, is a place people can visit, so it’s a rather large destination spot for geocachers.

I’ve been a geocacher since 2008, and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to go. If not just because it’s the “place” where geocaching happens, in regard to the game through geocaching.com.

That trip, though I’ve had talks with several people about doing it, has never happened. Summers are always busy, and then add in a span of 2 1/2 years where I was unemployed, and it just never worked out.

That’s going to change this summer.

Three of us have decided to make the trek for the final Block Party, an event that happens outside of HQ. It has looked like it’s a lot of fun and, earlier this year, Groundspeak announced it would be the final Block Party. Sure, something will replace it, but this is the final Block Party.

Now was the time.

After figuring everything out and pricing it out, we decided that this was a possible trip. Flights are better to order now, that’s for sure, and my plan is to order mine this week.

Hotels are already reserved.

Soon, I’ll start my work with Priceline to get a rental car for the time out there.

Then, of course, comes the work for the geocaching aspect of the trip. We’re going to hit some historic caches, and some fun ones as well. I’m sure there will be some great views. I’m looking forward to the events that are going on during this timeframe, including the Block Party, the International Geocaching Film Festival, the event near the old APE cache, and the meet-and-greet with some Groundspeak employees. Between now and then, it wouldn’t even shock me to see another one or two pop up.

I have a few more fun things planned this summer — from softball, to a few geocaching (mainly day) trips, and some baseball, too. Hopefully I’ll even get to play a few rounds of disc golf.

But this trip is really at the top.

Unfortunately, the Mariners are on the road during the time I’ll be out there, so no chance to see them. But on the final night of being there, I’m going to check out a minor league game.

I look forward to all the planning and discussion with the others to see what kind of caches and what we will be doing. Looking for places to eat and other little things will be a lot of fun, too.

And, of course, we know it will move fast. It’s a little more than 100 days away, so time will go by. Though I can’t wait, it can take it’s time coming as there will be some fun things between now and then … and it gives me more time to save some coin!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Traveling and seeing new things through geocaching

Sun disappears over Lake Michigan.

When I travel and plan on geocaching, I like to attempt to contact a local. The reason being, they’ll be able to point you in the right direction of good geocaches and, hopefully, will be willing to join you on an afternoon of caching.

Because as much as I love geocaching, it’s not always fun to go alone. I’ve had some good times caching solo — such as a nice stroll on a good trail or something. But for the most part, I like caching with people as it’s more fun and you have the chance to meet people in the caching community.

I’ve had the chance to cache with people in places such as New Jersey, Philadelphia, Ireland, Maine, and Chicago. I love being able to meet fellow cachers and have them take me on an adventure in their area. Very cool stuff.

There are several reasons I like to meet with locals. First, they know the terrain and the area. Often when I travel alone and try and do some geocaches, I have no idea where to park, which side street to take or anything like that. I’ve ended up in areas where it’s all residential because I missed a slight side street that would take me to an obscure park entrance.

But the main reason that it’s fun to meet with people is because they can show you things. Give you some history.

I’m in the midst of writing a story for a geocaching publication about traveling and caching and this is a topic I cover quite a bit. I always like to make contact with someone. Whether through a message board or through a profile on geocaching.com.

For my latest trip, I teamed up with an Illinois cacher to go on a three-state trip (Indiana and Michigan added) and in the end, we were at New Buffalo, Michigan.

We ended up at a small beach on the shores of Lake Michigan.

The above photo is what we saw.

I never would have seen this if not for geocaching and meeting up with a local.

I thought I’d also share some of the highlights of things I’ve gotten to see because of this —

  • The Wicklow Mountains outside of Dublin, Ireland.
  • A large lobster structure in Maine.
  • A really wild lighthouse in New Jersey.
  • The store used to shoot Clerks in New Jersey.
  • A wonderful park and a cool covered bridge in Philadelphia.

There’s more for sure, but these are some of the highlights.

So for you cachers out there — tell me what you do when you travel? Do you reach out to locals? Look for events? Cache solo? Everyone does things different, so it’s always cool to see what people do when they travel.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.