Geocaching with Team Clueless

Tuesdays are special days for us since we've started homeschooling.  It's usually our park and library days and the day we often schedule our outings and explorations.  We continue on with that schedule regardless of the season and even during the summer.  This year, we had the special treat of having some of our close friends becoming homeschoolers so on Tuesdays, it's no longer just OUR adventures but ALL OF OURS and it's been a blast!

This summer, we had the goal of hanging out and exploring the city more and as usual, I've tried discovering new places online.  Unfortunately, the first day our group went out was stifling hot and needless to say, our group was discouraged to be out any further during this summer...but it's only JULY!!!

So back to the computer I go to figure out what we can do, trying by all means to keep the kids outside instead of in.  What I stumbled upon though became a life changer for all of us and what made this summer one of our most memorable!  It's called GEOCACHING and it's been around for ages waiting to be discovered by our curious group of young ones.  Don't get me wrong though, this game, sport, activity is for all ages and I, myself personally attest to the fact that this is a legit way to have a great time while engaging in something worthwhile. 

First of, what is geocaching?  We often define it as a worldwide treasure hunt.  Caches or containers of all sizes are hidden everywhere and you use a phone app to find it.  In it's earlier days, they intended for it to be played using a GPS Navigation Device and coordinates are plugged in so that you can find the caches.  Nowadays, the app shows and directs you to all the active caches in your area and the challenge is not only to find them but for more creative caches, to open them.  It's a great blend of technology, puzzle solving, outdoor exploration and active participation that's perfect for young ones and what I enjoyed most about it is that it took us to places around our area that we would have never gone had we not played this game. 

Our first cache got us immediately hooked as it was a large cache that had swags (exchangeable goods) and trackables (items meant to travel and be transferred from cache to cache).  

It was in someones front yard under a fake rock and it took some creative thinking to figure out where it was and how to get it.  Once found, you have to sign the log to show everyone else that you were there and log it in the app as well so that the community knows that you found it.  And since we are a group who are doing this together, we came up with a group name to sign up as....TEAM CLUELESS!  We branded all our swag with it and even came up with a logo.

Thus became our Tuesday obsession all summer!  Some caches were simple while others just can't be found.  We also hooked a few other friends to the game by caching in different places so sometimes we'll be in Fremont, Palo Alto, San Jose and even in San Leandro and Hayward. 

We decided we were only using the account when we are together as a team and if apart we can login in on our individual accounts.  But for the most parts we cached together.  One day we received an email from the community telling us that one of our custom swags that we left from a cache near the airport was taken all the way to the Great Wall of China and sent us a picture to prove it!  

This and so many experiences confirms the fact that this is on cool activity that I'm pretty sure we will be doing for a long time to come.