All the Leaves are Brown...

... and the sky is grey. These words from the Mamas & Papas came to mind as we were walking out of the woods this afternoon at the Pine Tree State Arboretum. (You may note that my geocache name is MamaCacheElliot, hence the reference). Richard, SK and I went out geo-caching with the GPS that Bryan sent up (he recently upgraded his unit). This was a second attempt to locate this particular cache... the first try was foiled by the snow, which was covering everything! With the recent rise in temperatures and driving rains, much of the snow has melted, leaving a lot of mud and standing water but also a clearer view of the underbrush in the woods. We were happy to know we had actually been very close to finding the cache a couple of weeks ago, using Richard's mapping program's coordinates.

This was Richard and SK's first cache find, and I'm confident that they'll be wanting to do more! Richard found the cache so he was pretty happy, and I was equally happy when I heard him proclaiming the find! This Dr Eggman van is what we took, we left SK's ticket to the Spy Museum from her recent trip to Manassas, VA.

Geocaching is a fun, techno way to get outdoors and have a little adventure~ a really good thing for us adults who sometimes forget how to enjoy life like children do. To run in the open field, to look for hidden treasure, to slog through a few muddy puddles, to call out to friends joyously, to breathe in the crisp air deep into your lungs and not care if your hair is messy or your clothes match... yeah, I think this has been a wonderful afternoon!