Where Did We Go Wednesday? Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth, MN

On a day trip to Duluth, MN we decided to check out the Lake Superior Zoo. With our Science Museum membership, we actually got in free to this zoo which I think it totally awesome. There was quite a few animals and they were more awake and active than we have seen them at many other zoos, perhaps it was because we were coming later in the afternoon. While we were there they had a zookeeper that was doing training with the lions and that was pretty interesting to watch and ask them questions about.

There is also a beautiful waterfall located within the zoo and there is one geocache there to be found (which we did!) It is definitely worth checking out if you are in the Duluth area.

Taking Geocaching to the Next Level

 I was hoping that we would have done some of this earlier this year during the summer when we were out and about but we didn't. I had bought the ammo can to start our own regular cash this summer but we still have it. Still thinking about where we can ask to place it.

Midday do quite a bit of Geocaching here and there this summer and I now am up to 60 found Cash's, which in the grand scheme of Geocaching isn't a whole lot but it's a start and we are ready to continue. I finally decided to break down and buy some travel tags. I bought mine on Amazon because they came shipped free with Prime. They do cost $20 for a pack of four and these are the cheapest ones. There are some special designed ones that cost even more.

I know there are even more trackables out there that I haven't learned much about. We received our first trackable geocoins this summer and I know there are other items as well.

The small containers are to start micro caches. I have registered all of my travel tags and found one fun keychain to put on one of them. It is a keychain I made from pressed wildflowers on a trail up north by our cabin. I think I will call this one flower power

We are excited to start having our own Cashes to track and watch people check into them and follow our trackables.

You can read more about our first Geocaching Adventures and see where we started. Also, as a related thing of a future next level -- some day it might be fun to go to GeoWoodstock. I only stumbled upon it because the geocoin we placed up in Duluth was retrieved by someone who included a link in their post about this event. Sounds fun!

Where Did We Go Wednesday? Geocaching

What a fun little Hobby we have picked up doing as a family. I first did this with my daughter about five years ago but the sample class wasn't very informative and the app you can download on your phone wasn't as precise in its GPS location as it is now. Sometimes my phone will still get a bit turned around when I am opening and closing the app a lot but I just need to restart my phone and things seem to work itself out. What is the app you ask? Search for c:geo in your app store. It is a free app but you can pay for a premium membership. You are required to sign up at geocaching.com so that you can get coordinates and log them there.

You can automatically log your visit if you are in an area where you have internet connection or you can save your log to upload later when you are online. I am by no means an expert at all considering we have only found just over 20 different caches. This past weekend we had found our first micro cache and our first Earth cache as well as our first multi cache. Normally we have stuck to finding a regular cache which has typically been an ammo box period or we will find a small cache which is about the size of a peanut butter jar, just as a frame of reference.

Some people have gotten very creative with making their own caches. I did end up getting a book on intro to geocaching so that we can look up things as they come up to learn more about what this new hobby is about. Last time we went geocaching as a family we found a travel book. That was pretty exciting and I hope we find another one. I didn't know I could follow the travel bug online and get notifications when it gets moved when I first logged it in but I will do that the next time. You can buy your own set of Ford travel books on Amazon or the geocaching website for about $20.

We haven't quite gotten into making our own caches or buying our own travel bugs yet. Perhaps when we take our summer trip to some national parks we will buy some and bring along with us.

For the most part, so far this hobby has been relatively free. A free app To download and we usually find things around that the kids no longer want to exchange for prizes in the caches. Although after this weekend I went and bought a bunch of bags with a number of toys in them so we have a whole bag to bring along with us. The kids really like finding the caches where they can exchange prizes. It's like a treasure hunt trying to find them and you never know what you might find inside.