Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day 2009



The Hardy Family included us in their Father's Day brunch at the Great Wolf Lodge - what a great idea that was! Peter and Melissa and the girls stayed there for Father's Day, and they had a ball doing all of the quests with the magic wand. Autumn could make the bear talk, and make the lights on the tree come on - what a good time!

Brunch was wonderful - I'm glad we had a chance to talk to Barb and Jim, and it was just nice to see everybody. I haven't seen Betsy for ages, and I'm glad she was there too. Altogether there were 5 fathers there to be honored, counting Adam - he's already a step-father and will be a new Dad on July 2. Barb and Jim had 3 and a half grandchildren there.

The Great Wolf Lodge is a perfect place for families, especially children. Everything looks very lodgy and campy and comfortable, and the water park is great fun for everyone. In the lobby there's a computer for public use, and a young man was playing WoW! With all of the other things to do - he was probably just checking his auctions.

After that pleasant start to the day, we were off to do some geocaching - what else would you do to celebrate Father's Day? It was the perfect day. All in all, we found 7 caches, and Dick had a great adventure to help make this a memorable Father's Day!

We started our Fathers Day outing with a family brunch at the Great Wolf Lodge. What a great facility for kids no matter how old they are. Can't think of a better way to spend the day than by collecting some caches that have cropped up this spring. This one just cropped up this morning and after noting the location just up the road, put it in the Garmin. Unfortunately for us, our Palm got fried a couple of months ago and we've been using paper again. Not much info on the page so I didn't bother to print it. I didn't note the terrain either.
Anyway, the day was drawing to the end and we were tired but, what the heck, why not one more. Found a place to park with a faint path heading straight toward the cache. Took off on a solo which should have been a warning. Maybe I should have stayed in the car.

After about .5 mile, the path forked - right or left? Straight ahead led to a steep drop. Oh well, as Yogi said, when the path forks, take it. One led in the right direction. For a while. Then the GPS started counting up. Bushwack time! Down the hill into - - a swamp.

Now I'm still dressed for Sunday Brunch, white sneakers, tan shorts and a polo shirt, and the wise one is "patiently" waiting in the car. (Which I now realize I forgot to mark) There's no turning back. Forge ahead along the edge of the swamp and come to -- a creek. Found a downed log and teeter my way across. I almost made it but I needed a new pair of grubby shoes any way.

Once I was in range, I found the cache quickly as well as a water supply and an easy path complete with boardwalks and bridge for the trip out.


It was a good adventure, a FTF (too tired to dance) and a trail I didn't know about. On the way in I was thinking of stopping at the store and picking up a couple of T-Bones to grill for supper. When I got back to the car, (just about an hour round trip) I just wanted to get home, mix a drink, and settle for anything, A PB&J sandwich sounded good. TN.LN.SL. Thanks for a most memorable adventure.


Actually, I made a hamburger hot dish for supper (low fat). It was quite good in my opinion, but no match for T-bones!

We left home this morning at 9:30 a.m., and returned at six o'clock this evening - a full, fun-packed Father's Day 2009.