Caching in full COLOR! The Color Run 2015

This is going to be one of my favorite posts because this was truly such a favorite day! In July 2015 our family, my niece (who came to visit for a month this Summer), and my neighbor Stephanie and her eldest daughter, all ran "The Color Run: The Happiest 5K on the Planet!" None of us had done a "paint run" before so we were all super excited to pick up our packets and racing bibs, stylize our racing tee's, take the before pictures and hit the pavement! And of course we had to scope out if there happened to be any caches on the way!

"Run with me!"

Ready to start!

Waiting for the starting signal and already the color is flying!

Racing with friends + caching with friends, does it get any better than this?

The first cache we wanted to try for was actually on the way to the Finish Line. We had completed all the color zones and just had a few hundred meters left before "finishing" the race. My husband and I had tried to scope this cache out the day before when we completed the registration and picked up our racings packs, but that silly, silver, magnetic, eensy weeny, tiny nano evaded us on the 20m long, metal, entrance gate. But it wasn't so today folks! As anyone knows who struggles with the hauntings of a DNF ("did not find") we HAD to return and avenge ourselves, and on this day return we did! With many much eyes to scope it out, and upon victory there was many much dancing, high fivin', and victory posing! 

Did I mention part of the reason this one was so much fun to find during the 5K event, is because we literally had thousands of muggles all running past us who had no idea of was really going on? To them it looked like family and friends taking a photo op break in a parking lot, away from the throngs of runners in the street... but little did they know we had buisness to take care of! Caching Business!  Mwahahaha!  

Victory dancing, twirling, and flipping!

 Soon we monkey-walked our way over the finish line, high-fiving all the strangers waiting to congratulate us upon completion (it really IS the happiest 5K on the planet!), washed up a bit at the washing station, then made our way back to the van to begin our trek to our last cache of the day!

TB-Hotel Neckarpark was a neat cache to find. It isn't often you can find a medium size cache in a parking garage. Most parking garage caches we have found in our past, have been of the micro film canister type, but not this one! Hidden behind a ledge where two different parking garages met, we found the shoebox sized container full of TB's. We were anxious to drop off a Tracking Bug and decided to also pick up one that was in a "race" to rack up as many traveled miles as possible. How appropriate since we had just finished our own race!

Color Run + caching = Color Caching!

 (A slight note about TB Hotels and how they differ from normal caches containing TB's: Trackable Bug Hotels are a type of traditional cache made purely around housing Tracking Bugs, so the typical rule of thumb is to not take a TB out of a TB Hotel without putting another in its place so the "hotel" always has "tenants". Sometimes the owner of the TB Hotel may put a specified number of TB's that need to remain in it at all times, so if the hotel has an excess of that number, feel free to take a TB out without putting one in it's place. But if the TB hotel's number has fallen below the specified amount then please don't take any out, but feel free to drop one or two TB's in to help bring the numbers up. It's common sense really, with a slight bit of math. :P With a regular cache that happens to have TB's in it, there are no rules of how many TB's to take or drop off. It's left to the whims of each cacher. In the case of the TB-Hotel Neckarpark cache mentioned above, we picked up an angel trackable and dropped off a bat trackable my son had picked up near the Black Forest a couple weeks prior, so we stayed within the rules: one in, one out.
TB Hotel Caches usually distinguish themselves from other caches by having the words "TB Hotel" written into their title or into their description.)

So long Color Run, and thanks for all the caching, kisses, memories, and color wishes! 

Until next time....

"Before" the run! 

"After" the run!

Geocaching in Prague, Czech Republic. April 2015

In April my neighbor and I, with a handful of local friends, traveled to beautiful Prague of The Czech Republic. It was a city that captured my heart, soul, and mind. We were gathering for a Women's Conference, where old and new friends met, our hearts and souls were taught and touched, and we each left a bit "more" than we had arrived... a bit more loved, a bit more refreshed, a bit more inspired, a bit more changed yet also a bit more ourselves somehow. It was a truly wonderful weekend.

"Praha your soul is hidden beneath your pretty face of rock"

Twice we headed into the heart of the city to walk, explore, learn, and discover. The first place we wanted to head to cache was The Lennon Wall. My husband is a musician and it would have been down right wrong to have come this close and yet not have seen this beautiful wall of art. It stands testament that love conquers. It conquers restraint. It conquers fear.  It conquers intimidation. It conquers different understandings, different ideals...  It can conquer the law. The wall has been painted over numerous times by the city, yet within hours, somehow the beautiful graffiti just reappears again, beautifully stubborn- that belief in Love. ;)

(Standing somewhere near "the" drainpipe.)

Stephanie, Lynn, and I. 

We found three caches in the city that day. After The Lennon Wall we walked toward the water front where we admired the beautiful landmark bridges (Europe, no one does bridges quite like you. You steal a new piece of my heart at each one I see, touch, and walk upon).

The next cache we made our way to was GC189E5 Prague Bridges 1- Karluv Most. Let me just pause here to say I *love* with all my little pink heart caches that are either straight forward in their native tongue, or already appropriately translated into English. This cache was both. We carefully walked past two different muggles who were sketching/painting the river (a city of artists in many forms! Have I mention how this city has captured my soul??) and an older couple walking a dog who were not quite sure what to make of these silly tourists, and then found it! 

"Side of bridge, two holes, second on right". 

Straight forward. In English. I <3 you. Literally.  

The last cache we found was not too far from the hotel we stayed in. My first trackable had arrived in the mail just before we stepped on our plane, and as excited as I was to drop this little bird off, I somehow forgot her back at the hotel room. Realizing this upon returning to the hotel, my awesome partner in crime, Stephanie, offered and encouraged to get back out, walk a few blocks to a cache we hadn't hunted yet and see if we could drop her off. She's so sweet. Lynn stopped in a corner cafe where she bought some amazing wine, cheese, and candies and patiently let us have one more adventure. I really liked this cache. There's just something about seeing people's ingenuity in play that is so intriguing to me. Homemade caches with clever descriptions and clues always leave this cacher's heart in a warm, fuzzy place. This cache, Cajova, had the most interesting hint, "nesem vam noviny" which translated into "we bring you the newspaper". We spent 3/4 of our walk trying to envision what this could possibly mean or relate to and it wasn't until we arrived on sight- a single street of closed businesses with roladins securely fashioned down every business door- that we finally realized how it applied!  There was one personal mailbox, designed specifically to only receive newspapers with the word "Noviny" scripted along the outside, that discreetly announced the end to our searching! After waiting a few breathless moments for muggles to walk past us, we quickly located the bottle, signed the logs, and dropped sweet little bird on her first flight. Let me just say, there is something altogether exhilarating in a different sense when dropping your first trackable. Geocaching is exhilarating in many ways, the challenge of figuring out the puzzle, of locating the find without others knowing, then just knowing

 there is something special hidden right under the noses of so many ordinary people going about their ordinary days. But when you drop that trackable, and log it as "in the wild" and wait breathlessly to see who will pick it up and where they will choose to take that little piece of you... it just, I can't describe it. It's a mystery waiting to unveil itself before you, and it brings a little piece of your life into a little piece of the lives of others that unites you in a way that is respectfully intimate, and so incredibly special. I chose a bird for several symbolic reasons, and this little gal has since flown all over the Czech Republic, slowly making her way towards botanical gardens & other interesting and beautiful places through out Europe. There's just something about being given wings that lifts the soul, tips the chin upward, and breathes into the hope within us. Even in something as small as a little tin game piece, released into the world, completely dependent on the whims of others.. yet it still whispers, still beckons, still encourages, "There is much more yet to come darlin'. Oh, yes. Eyes up sweet one. Much more..."