Mystery at the Museum: Case Closed

TA DA! We cracked the case and returned the jewels to the vault!

Of all the challenges Geocaching.com has had recently, this one was our favorite! Using filters to find the right caches and planning our strategies (Detective found Day 1, clues grabbed on our way to Holland, gems found around the state campground and the final 35 nabbed during Midwest GeoBash). It gave a little spark completing each stage and made some pretty hum-drum caches a little more interesting. Then to solve the final mystery to unlock the vault - FUN!

Kudos to the developers at Geocaching.com for updating the app for this variation on the game. And major kudos to the challenge creators - otherwise, I probably would never have opened the official app again. It appears, over time, they made enough changes to make the app less painful (though I still can't figure out how to attach a trackable to a Found It log!)

Case closed!

Holland of the Great Lakes

As we're gearing up for another geocaching camping adventure, I finally uploaded my pictures from the last one (darn power outage!). TaGeez and I spent an enjoyable weekend in Holland, MI.

*Note: this post doesn't contain an GC codes - no spoilers. If you REALLY want to know which caches we are at, I'm sure you can figure it out.

Coleman tent with Dark Tent Technology

Friday night we arrived just in time for a glorious sunset on Lake Michigan at Holland State Park. We viewed it from Lake-level, but we had family view it from the top of the nearby sand dunes.

Holland is very well known for Big Red.

Ah, the next morning the rest of TaGeez's family decided to do their own thing, so we headed into downtown Holland. Along the road were some fabulous statues made from old automotive and marine equipment (traffic too crazy to snap pictures). The Centennial Park contained the new Wizard of Oz exhibit plus the first stops of the Sculptured Wherigo.

Holland, Michigan is quite famous for it's annual Tulip Festival, which occurs around the beginning of May each year. Being Holland, it naturally has a functioning windmill and Dutch Village. We found this great view of the windmill across the river while doing the Sculptured wherigo. 

The Sculptured wherigo takes you to nine sculptures around downtown Holland. It was a great way to explore the areas including Hope College, Centennial Park plus the shops & restaurants around downtown. Along the way we crossed paths with the New Holland Brewing, which was fabulous! Great atmosphere, good food, and the large front windows overlooked the busy sidewalks outside.

Another sunset on Lake Michigan. Michigan is blessed with amazing views along its amazing coastline.

After packing up our campsite, we said our goodbyes and headed to Grand Rapids. With time on our hands, we decided to spend they day enjoying the new Virtuals and the Grand Rapids Adventure & Exploration Lab caches. 

I'm a little conflicted between my loyalty of the Wherigo and the new Adventure Labs. Wherigos are tougher to create and often have glitches (sometimes causing half your party unable to participate). So you'd think I'd prefer Adventure Labs (which has their own iPhone app). However, it seems like the Wherigos can be more creative and mysterious -- Although I've completed 116 Adventure Labs, I've yet to see one that made me go WOW.  So far they've just taken me to some (kinda) interesting places.

Grand Rapids Public Museum

President Gerald R Ford final resting place

Gerald R Ford Presidential Library

  

May House - Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School House

Sundays were the right time to do these. Not too much muggle traffic (except for the MSU Marching Band and Sparty at the Atwood Brewery grand opening), and we were able to find parking at each stop. We LOVEd Grand Rapids!

Final stop before heading home was Donkey Taqueria off Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids. Recommended by ThreeInATree, it features Mexican street food in a converted gas station. The food was DELICIOUS!

Just east of DowntownOpens a New Window. Grand Rapids is a neighborhood encompassing four thriving business districts: East Fulton, East Hills, Eastown and Wealthy Street. This is the city's hippest destination, where an eclectic mix of specialty shops and galleries, restaurants, coffee houses and entertainment venues reflect the area's friendly, funky, fabulous character. It's an easy walk or quick drive between the four business districts, on streets lined by historic homes and leafy trees. [Experience Grand Rapids]

Wealthy Street was a haven for fascinating restaurants and shops. Stepping out of Donkey's and seeing all the choices - you wanted to spend all day eating up and down the street. Next time we go we're definitely trying out Jonny B'z next door. If you do the Virtual and/or Adventure Labs, you will be lost in food choices on this street. Highly recommended!

We had such a fabulous adventure right in our backyard!

Mystery at the Museum: Jewels Recovered

We lost power which really makes it hard to blog. What do you do when you have no power?

Duh.

We found all 15 of our gems and are now working towards our random 35 caches needed. Geobash here we come!

Ok, this part is not necessarily geocache-related (unless you go to camping events), but we LOVE our new Ryobi fan! Bought at Home Depot, it's powered by a Ryobi battery pack or using an extension cord. It was a definite sanity-saver during our recent power outage.

We have 3 amp batteries, so it ran for about 8 hours (overnight) on low. They also sell 4 and 6 amp batteries, too. Quite durable - it's coming to Bash, too!

Guys and Dolls and Cachers?

I just received this message in the Message Center:

"Hi, I just logged in to deactivate 877-CACHE-NOW (GC30XJA) due to the phone being removed and I noticed your picture in the gallery. My daughter was in this play and I am in your selfie in the top left. Thanks for the memories! - Jason"

Isn't that a hoot? We stopped at the cache to kill time before the play! Small world!

Greetings from Leipzig

Holy Smokes! Now I'm receiving Virtual postcards from that D*MN unicorn!! Hahaha! 

https://coord.info/TB8HPH3

Thank you, Cookroach, for the pictures and taking him across the pond. Happy Caching!

Notre-Dame de Paris Geocoins

Ooh, the Notre Dame geocoins came while we were away. Limited minting, the proceeds go towards the reconstruction of this famed cathedral. 

Thank you, Volt Coins! 

Mystery at the Museum: Clues Collected

Having fun in Holland, Michigan!

Thursday we found our Mystery at the Museum Detective, and TaGeez & I spent the last two days collecting "clues" from caches in Holland. Looking forward to grabbing gemstones tomorrow on the way home.

Two souvenirs down - two to go!

Coleman Dark Tent

Ok. Discovered the downside of sleeping in a tent with Dark Room technology... the world is shockingly bright when you open up the flap first thing in the morning.

First night in a 10-person Dark Room tent. Dark technology keeps the morning light out and keeps the tent cool during the day. We had the tent up and everything setup within 10 minutes. Now that we have a home base, we'll head out for some caching (except for the MSPCGT cache - we'll wait until the team is back together).

Mystery at the Museum: The Detective

Woo hoo! Day #1 of Geocaching.com's Mystery at the Museum game, and TaGeez & I found our Detectives at a cache! Next up we need to hunt for a 2 shadows, 2 footprints and 2 fingerprints each. We're not sure what we're doing yet, but we have a lot of new (to us) caches in Holland, MI this weekend to figure it out!

Hider Happiness

Received this cool email from geocaching.com. Wow! Really makes it worth all the hard work and maintenance! 

MSPCGT: Visiting the Upper Lower

Isn't that just a Michigander thing? 

"Where are you going this weekend?"

"Oh, just upper lower."

TaGeez, ShelleyJean and I had a fabulous weekend in upper, lower Michigan (top of the mitten!) doing the Michigan State Park Centennial geotour. This tour included Wilson SP, North Higgins, South Higgins, Hartwick Pines, Otsego Lake, Clear Lake, Onaway, Burt Lake, Aloha SP, Wilderness SP, Petoskey SP, Young SP, and breathtaking Fisherman's Island. 

Starting off early on a Saturday - sunny and clear - we headed off to the first of many beaches and birdhouses. Ah, it's a good sign for a fun time!

Admittedly, this leg of our tour was a little different than the last. The last one was sensory overload of beautiful sites, stunning beaches, blue water. This one started of a little more history-focused, and it was a little eye opening for me. I've read about the Civilian Conservation Corp, loggers & lumber barons, but this was real! We visited CCC villages, the woods they managed, nurseries, logging museums... it sounds like a cliche but the history books came to life. 

North Higgins CCC Village

CCC Woods

North Higgins and South Higgins were so different. North Higgins had the CCC Village & Woods where South Higgins was public beaches, beach ball, and power boats. 

But even South Higgins was a site of contradictions. There were tons of bodies on the beach (above) and in the parking lot and at the concession. Yet on the other side (below) where the cache was hidden was almost ignored and so much more beautiful! That teaches a lesson that if you don't like where you are there is probably a more beautiful site just around the corner!

My favorite pic of TaGeez on the trip

The next surprise was Hartwick Pines, Michigan's oldest growth forest. This was on SJ's bucket list, and, I admit, I had never heard of it. 

We started at the Visitor Center (gift shop/museum), and then took the entire circle tour including the chapel and logging village.

The trees towered! The silence under the canopy was so peaceful. Kudos to the people who designed the information boards - interesting, educational but not too wordy. Sad to see the Monarch lost its crown. 

The Chapel was beautiful in its simple way. I won’t give anything away about the final, but the actual hide was a little unexpected and made me laugh out loud! I know this is one state park I will return to, so peaceful walking among the big trunks.  

Logging Museum/Village

We, of course, had a few novelty stop along the way! We started with SJ's first Michigan Lost Town! Hey, can you guess what it was called? 

MLT - Big Rock GC41G4X

... and who can pass up a 45th parallel cache? Not us!

Halfway There Once Again GC6NZ9F

Oh, this sweet cache was one of my favorite on the trip! It housed a very nice ammo can, where I dropped a sweet little present for the next finder. Woot!

Speaking of novelty. This is the turtle that peed all over TaGeez. Peed and kept peeing. 

Luckily TaGeez survived the shower because we were in the parking lot of one of my favorite places: the Awakon Park - Moran Iron Sculpture Park in Onaway, Michigan. Why is this place not a Virtual in its own right?!?  Check out the nearby You must be a MORAN to miss these!

After a night in a very shady hotel where we ate very yummy pizza (B.C. Pizza in Indian River), we headed out early (before the hotel got raided by the Bunco squad). First stop: Burt's Lake and a House Divided. I made sure I was the last cacher out - GO GREEN!

I think every Michigander knows what Indian River is known for. We detoured to the Cross in the Woods as a tribute for my Mom. This was her favorite stop up North. TaGeez and I walked around looking for her memorial paver, but the place was too big and all the helpers were at service. 

Next, we headed to a different kind of woods. Do you notice what we're wearing in the Aloha State Park picture? Bug nets! OMG! The fish flies coated everything! I will never forget the crunch and squish underfoot as we walked from the car to the sign - ugh. It was like popping zits on Mother Earth.

Aloha State Park

How can you not love that face?

Finally! Wilderness State Park - Dark Park in Mackinac! Lovely views of Lake Michigan and the bridge, and the site of my face-to-hissing-face confrontation with a thick black snake. As I was dangling over Lake Michigan, looking for a cache at high tide, it slithered back upon itself trying to get away. As I'm floundering and trying not to fall into the lake, SJ shouts out from behind me, "Did you get a picture of it?" Ah, that's friends! 

Go, Super Sexy Trio!

We are doing this tour right. Can you tell how much we're enjoying each park.

Reflective moments...

Enjoying beautiful views...

... and cherishing all the gifts these parks give us.

We ended this segment of the tour with one of the most surprising of State Parks, Fisherman's Island. 

FAVORITE POINT! For a beautiful park, enjoyable letterbox with a fabulous view featuring the best this park has to offer, and the personalized stamp. 

I never knew this park existed, so I’ve told all my family about the amazing campsites at water’s edge. We saw swans, seagulls, and an adorable Beagle near the final. After making the find, we frolicked on the beach, and I, for the first time this trip, got my feet wet! Lovely way to end our last find for the day. We’ll be back!

View from the Letterbox

That's it. Until next time...