A Saturday in the Northwoods

We headed up north yesterday with plans to do a little geocaching (treasure hunting). Our route took us to Rhinelander, Eagle River, St. Germain, and Minocqua with lots of stops in between. Jason had about 20 caches programmed into his GPS.

The thing about geocaching with kids is you need to make sure you choose caches with a low degree of difficulty and an easy terrain, because it's all about the instant gratification of finding the treasure. The first one we found was neither of these, it was like walking through a wooded jungle and at one point I was sure we would never find our way back to the van. Although we were successful in finding the treasure, we also came back with 176 mosquito bites, 58 scratches, and 1 tick.

The next cache we found led us to the famous Rhinelander Hodag. We had to use stealth (be very secretive) when finding this one since it was along the roadside and we could be spied by muggles (people who don't know about geocaching).

While in Rhinelander, we found out that the Budweiser Clydesdales were in town so we stopped by to see them.

After a nice lunch at the Rhinelander Pub and Cafe, we were back on the hunt for treasure. Our next find was our favorite of the day. It was located in the parking lot of a church so it was easy to get to. The pastor of the church had given permission for a cache to be hidden on the church grounds. There were several large rocks in the grass just past the parking lot and after a quick search, Allie found it!

We hit several more caches along the way to Eagle River. But once in town, the kids had one thing on their minds...candy! It wouldn't be a proper trip up north without stopping at the candy shop and buying a bag (or two) of saltwater taffy.

Of course, I had one thing on my mind too...shopping. And once I had that need fulfilled, it was back on the trail for treasure. We found several on the way to St. Germain but sadly, to Jason's chagrin, there was one we could not find. This is not good because Jason will continue to hunt and hunt and hunt long after the rest of us have decided to give up.

We finally got him to admit defeat and move on. Somewhere in the day I had mentioned the words "putt putt golf" and the kids were anxious to give that a try.

Deefers had her own technique for hitting the ball and would not let us help her. Ironically, she somehow got her ball the closest to the cup each time.

This was the most difficult hole of the course and Allie got a hole in one!

After golfing, we ate supper, found a few more treasures, and headed home. We were exhausted! But what a great day we had!

P.S. Hey Panzlers...we sure did miss you!