Geocaching

Chris and I were sitting on the couch Friday night watching TV, whining and complaining about wanting to get out of the house and do something fun. Well, I was whining, Chris was playing Candy Crush and trying his hardest to ignore me. We are currently in super-savings mode in an attempt to buy a house sometime before our fiftieth wedding anniversary, so typical date nights are a no go right now. Cue Pinterest! Chris had zero faith in my ability to find something free to do that would actually be fun for both of us, could be done at 7PM on a Friday night, with little to no preparation. There were a lot of great ideas, like stargazing on a blanket (not dark enough yet! -Chris), frisbee golf at Tom Brown Park (too dark already! -Chris), and YouTube self-taught dance lessons (uh, no. -Chris). Then I ran across an idea that I KNEW he would love, and one that I've actually done a few times before with my family in Pensacola--Geocaching! 

Chris was skeptical, of course (I think he was finally on a roll in Candy Crush...he hasn't gotten the memo that no one plays it anymore...) but he ended up loving it! Just like I knew he would ;)

If you've never Geocached before, you must download the app right now! There is a $9.99 paid app if you want ad-free and all the bells and whistles, but we have the free intro app and it works perfectly for us! From the official website:

"Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." 

Once you download the app and create your account, simply find a geocache near you, click start, and go treasure hunting! Green dots are geochaches near you, gray dots are a bit farther away, and smiley faces are caches you've marked as found. 

We quickly discovered there were two geocaches within walking distance from our apartment, on a route we take all the time! I coaxed Christopher off the couch and outside for a leisurely stroll and treasure hunt :)

love this view

Chris was way better at finding the hidden goodie boxes than I was, mostly because I didn't think to put tennis shoes on and no way was I walking into the underbrush in flip flops and shorts just to be attacked by snakes or spiders or squirrels or whatever else was waiting in the woods. The first geocache we found was full of prizes! Stickers, magnets, a golf ball, ribbons. The rule of thumb is to "take one, leave one". We didn't bring any trinkets along with us, so we just signed the log book and put everything back. The second geocache was full of dirt. No thanks, got plenty of that already.

There are a few others hidden just out of walking distance, so we will be going on a driving date to find those gems! After we got home, Chris talking all night about places we could search and where we might hide our own geocache one day. 

Have you ever gone geocaching before? What types of fun/free/cheap things do you like to do (alone or with your significant other)? We are always looking for more date night ideas!