As most families do, we spent too much money in December. Doing all the things, buying all the things — it took a toll on our bank account (and our mental clarity of what really brings us joy in life). We went into January with a new game plan:
No Spend January and the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge.
Talk about some New Year’s resolutions. We went hard.
So as a mom who likes to go, go, go, I needed something to do that was free and that would bring my family outside in a fun way. Because we all know that family “walks” aren’t always the relaxed, leisurely stroll that we wish they might be. (Apologies for the flashbacks of toddlers screaming or big kids demanding to be carried.)
One day, we decided that we were going to take a walk at Hampton Park. It’s my favorite park in Charleston — the angel oaks with limbs that touch the ground, the magnolia trees that bloom the biggest and best-smelling flowers, and the duckies. It’s the best. I digress.
We get to the park and my oldest son tells us that we HAVE to look for this geocache. His friend told him there was one nearby, “in a tree near the pebble road.” Um, what? No joke, he was dead serious.
So just imagine this: all four of us searching for whatever this “geocache” thing is (no one in our family knew what the heck we were looking for) and we feel so silly. I keep asking my son, “Are you sure this is a real thing?”
He says, “Mom, just google it.” Hahaha right, Eli, you are so right. So I did.
*Cue Angelic Voices*
It’s real. This thing we are looking for really is here! Somewhere . . .
So I downloaded this app (for free) and it instantly turned me into a child. I was GIDDY about this hunt for the geocache. The app told us, on a map, where the geocache was. And once we arrived at the spot on the map, we read the clue. We look and look and look — they aren’t very easy, which makes it a true hunt!
Eli screams, “I FOUND IT!”
We open up this tiny container to find a paper rolled up with tons of names and dates. We also find a few trinkets — an eraser shaped like a fish, a shark’s tooth, and a shell.
We were hooked. We had to find more. We spent the entire weekend geocaching and found so many cool trinkets, left some of our own in the boxes, and spent some quality outside time with each other without spending a DIME.
How It Works
- Download the Geocache App.
- Pick a part of town that you want to Geocache in. They are all over the WORLD, so you can geocache literally anywhere.
- Find a geocache on the map that you want to hunt for. Navigate (either walking or driving) through the app to that location.
- Begin your hunt! Follow the clue and the hints to find exactly where the geocache is located. We’ve found them in lamp posts, in tree stumps, and even held on to signs with magnets! *Hint: if you can’t seem to find it, look through the “Activity” on the app and sometimes you will find hints from other people.
- When you find the geocache, you log your name and date on the paper inside. You can take a treasure and leave a treasure (So be sure to bring some with you!). You can also log it on the app if you want — this is a fun way to connect to the maker of that specific geocache.
