What’s your Passion? …

What’s your Passion? ….

Got Out Geocaching

Sunday, February 19th promised to be a  very nice day here. Sunny and 40. A Geocaching kinda day.

Saturday, I had browsed www.geocaching.com and found a rather large group in Carson City about 20-miles east of home. Got them locked and loaded into the GPS and took a few notes. I was ready. I was hopeful of a fun day in the great outdoors hunting.

Sunday morning turned out to be a very brisk morning, but the sun was out and warming things up nicely. By noon it was 32 and I was off with my dog River, chauffeur Ken and his loaner car. Sure glad it was a loaner or he would have never taken that Impala through the deep mud down the 2-tract to get to one of them. Boy did we get that car muddy. Even the windshield was splattered with mud. LOL

Did a little bush whacking to get to a few of them.  There we a couple pretty creative caches and we even found a travel bug. My foot was killing me, so we quit at 20.

It was a fun day spent in a sleepy little town called Carson City. They roll up the sidewalks on Sundays there. Any day spent outdoors enjoying the world around us is a good day. It was fun.

 

Chicago 2011

I had the opportunity this past summer to spend the weekend apartment sitting for my son and daughter-in-law. They live in the Uptown Neighborhood of Chicago. I couldn’t find anyone who could go with me, so I drove down alone. It was just me and “Percy” (the cat) for the entire weekend. A weekend alone wondering the city is good for the soul.

I enjoyed just wondering around the city alone. I walked and I walked, jumped on a train or two and a bus or three. Found myself at the Wrigley Field train station just before a game. BAD IDEA! Wall to wall people! Three trains went through the depot before I reached the platform and actually was able to board a train. Swimming against the current comes to mind.

 
The highlight of my weekend was a trip aboard The Tall Ship “Windy”. It was raining as we were leaving port, but the sun shone upon or return. The view of the city was awesome and the experience was surreal. Like stepping back into another time. I just love being on the water! Being aboard a tall ship is a fantastic experience. The sound of the sails, the wind and the crew yelling…. well its just surreal.

I’m Back!

Hi Everyone…

Sorry I haven’t posted in FOREVER! You know what they say, “try, try again”, so here I am trying.

The big news is that my wonderful son Justin has invested in my dream and helped me to upgrade my camera. I am now the proud owner of a Canon EOS 60D. Wow, it is more camera than I know how to use. I hate to admit it, but I am intimated by this camera. I am working hard to learn how to use it . I am watching video tutorials, reading blogs, reading the manual and taking classes.   Here is the best picture I have taken with it so far. Its my cat “Moxie”. I am trying to learn about focal points.

I hope everyone has a good day. I will “try” to post more often and keep you up to date with what I am learning. Thanks for reading and I appreciate any and all comments, so feel free to express your thoughts.

Don’t forget to check out my website, ” www.SheTookMyPicture.com “.

Thursday Night Team Sorting @ Sugar Tree Ranch

Thursday I found myself with the day off due to the State computers being down. I decided to head up to Sugar Tree Ranch to check out the Team Sorting. It’s still early in the season so there were only a few in attendance, but it’s almost more fun that way. The cows have not figured out the game yet so its pretty tough. As the summer progresses the cows learn this game to some extent, making it a little easier, but cows are stupid so they don’t ever learn it well. LOL

For those of you who don’t know what “Team Sorting” is, its a game played with young cows and horses. You are in a double pen with an opening in the center. There are 10-numbered cows, 2- without numbers and a team of 2-riders. The object of the game is to chase the cows from one pen to the other in numbered order leaving the 2- unnumbered cows in the first pen. The games starts with the announcer calling out the first number, then 1-rider tries to peel that numbered cow from the group of cows and pushes them through to the other pen, while the other rider tries to keep all other cows from going through. Usually, the riders alternate, one chasing and one guarding the gate. The team with all 10-cows moved from one pen to the other in numbered order without allowing any through out-of-order or allowing the unnumbered cows through in the shortest time…wins.

I have seen this games played by experts and novice alike. No matter the skill of the rider or horse, it is a fun time for all.

Geocaching Lures us to a West Michigan Beach.

Don’t think we would have gone to the beach this time of  year had we not been searching for a cache. It was the best part of the day.

It was very windy on this day, but was coming from the east, which it rarely does except in the spring. If you are familiar with West Michigan beaches, you know that it is usually windier on the beach than inland, but not on this day. It was calm and much warmer on the beach than even the  parking lot where we parked.

I just love the beach in the spring before the heat and crowds invade. Don’t get me wrong, I love the beach in the summer, but spring is a whole different experience. Its quiet and you get a sense of solitude and peacefulness.

Guendolee Arlene Andrews

Guendolee Arlene Andrews

To so many of us, she was just Grandma.  We all had our private moments with her over the years. Those moments we will all hold dear to our hearts forever. She gave each one of so much, her sound advice, her unconditional love, kind discipline, stories of her life, her acceptance and her forgiveness. She is in partly responsible for who we are.

We all have some common memories as well. Whenever we came running with a bleeding mouth we got a mouth full of sugar. I think we all have benefited from that little trick and many of us have used it on our children. We may differ in our beliefs on whether there were real clotting benefits or whether it just stopped us from screaming. The only thing we know is, that it worked! I think that little trick will continue throughout the generations just as she passed it on from generations before her. We all remember the $2 bills in our birthday cards. It was a little thing she did for each and every one of us every year we were growing up. Even after the $2 bills stopped, we always got a Birthday card, every year, always on time. We always opened those cards knowing that she loved us and thought of us fondly, grandchildren and great-children alike. Some of us saw her every day, others only occasionally, but she was precious to each one of us.

Our grandma has always been the matriarch of our family and the glue that held us all together. It is very scary to think about life without her constant presence. Her grandchildren will feel the loss of that presence and will struggle to fill the hole that her passing has left.  She always had news of how all of her grandchildren were doing and the major events of our lives. . She always knew where each of us was and how we were doing and she shared that information with all of us. She was our common denominator and kept many of us from becoming strangers through her news of our lives. I am grateful for that and will miss catching-up on all the news of my cousins, aunts and uncles… my family.

One of the most precious gifts she has given us all is how to be the best grandparent in the world. I think we all agree she was the best grandma of all time. We are so proud to call her grandma and honored that she loved us. We will carry her wisdom with us always and pass on that wisdom to our grandchildren and they will pass it on to their grandchildren and so she shall live on in the generations to come.

She had a quiet strength about her and her presence in each of our lives is something we all share and has always linked us. Her Grandchildren span many generations and some of us really didn’t see each other very often, but we all have two things in common, her unwavering love for us and  her constant presence in each of our lives. She was our Grandma and she loved us no matter what. How lucky were we?!

Thank You Grandma

Thank You Grandma…..

Thank You for being a constant presence in my life always.
Thank You for all your sound advice.
Thank You for all the private moments and conversations.
Thank You for making me a better parent.
Thank You for forgiving my many flaws and mistakes.
Thank You for teaching me to freely forgive others flaws and mistakes.
Thank You for raising my mother.
Thank You for your patience.
Thank You for the large family.
Thank You for being our common denominator.
Thank You for my strong sense of devotion and loyalty to my family.
Thank You for the stories of your life.
Thank You for your strength.
Thank You for the sugar trick.
Thank You for the Birthday cards and $2 bills.
Thank You for showing me what unconditional love looks and feels like.
Thank You for your discipline.
Thank You for being Grandma O.J. to my children.
Thank You for your candor.
Thank You for your light.
Thank You for all of the holiday gatherings.
Most of all…… thank you for loving me.

I love you deeply, will remember you fondly and carry you in my heart always. I Love You Grandma and I will miss you when you leave us.

GeoCaching is Fun!

We call ourselves “The Gowen Goonies” and we have fallen in-love with Geocaching or at least I have. For those of you who are not familiar with the sport, it is basically a global, high-tech treasure hunt. For me, it’s a reason to get-up off my lazy butt and get outdoors with a purpose. To find the ever elusive cache.

I have been Geocaching since September of 2010 and recently logged my 200th find. Geocaching has taken me to many places I would not have otherwise seen. I have found parks within 5-miles of my home that I had no idea existed. I found myself in the middle of the woods in the middle of Chicago. I have met people I would have otherwise never met.

My favorite caches are the ones in the middle of the woods requiring a hike. We did have fun urban caching in Chicago though. I think caching in the city is a lot harder, because of the  high muggle traffic. A muggle is anyone who is not a Geocacher. You don’t want to let muggles see you finding the cache because then it might get muggled, which means stolen or destroyed.

My hubby and I are going to attend our first Geocaching event in June. It’s a two-day road rally in Roscommon, MI. Check it out. http://www.geocacherenough.com/ I am excited.

What is a cache?  A cache is what you are searching for.  A cache is the prize.

There are many types of caches. Most common is the “traditional cache” which is a hidden container of various sizes. The different sizes range from a magnetic container that resembles a small screw to a 50-gallon drum. The tiny ones are called “micro’s”, you won’t find anything but a very tiny log to sign inside. Depending on the size of the container you may also find some fun swag or a trackable. I will explain this later. The second most common type of cache is the “multi-cache”. These are fun. A multi-cache consists of multiple stages. The coordinates you download usually take you to stage #1 which will then give you a hint or the coordinates to the next stage and so forth until you find the final stage which is the cache. There are many other types of caches as well, but these are two types I search for most often.  Caches are hidden in a multitude of ways. Some are simple and easy to find and others are so ingeniously hidden, you have to really think to find them.

What is swag?

Swag means some kind of trinket. Rules say if you take from a cache, you should replace it with something of equal or greater value. This keeps the caches full of fun swag. I carry a few pieces of swag in my backpack always. I like carabiners, pencils, mini-flashlights and travel packs of tissues. I even found a mini-tripod once. Very cool, I replaced it with a pair of mini-binoculars. Mostly, it is dollar store stuff or toys. The kids just love to find swag and there are a lot of caches with kids in mind.

What is a trackable?

A trackable is a coin or a tag with a code on it. When you find a geocoin or pathtag you log that you removed it from the cache. You then place it into another cash and log that. It is really cool to see how far some of these trackables have traveled. I placed my first tag into a park-n-ride cache off I-96 near the Indiana border in November of 2010. It made it all the way to Bahrain and has traveled 16390 miles so far.

Remember to always “Cache In, Trash Out”. I always carry a grocery bag in my backpack andpick-up trash along the way. This is the philosophy of every good Geocacher.

If you want to try geocaching, go to http://www.geocaching.com/, sign-up for a free account, read the “guide to finding your first cache”, search for the caches in your area and then download the coordinates into your GPS or GPS capable phone. That is all there is to it and your off to find the prize. After, your day of searching is done, you go back to http://www.geocaching.com/ and log your finds. Have fun and enjoy the hunt!

My Favorite Pics

I was going through some of my pictures from the past couple years and thought it might be fun to share. Would love to know which one you like best. Please comment.

These photos were taken on Lake Michigan near Stony Lake. They are two of my all-time favorites. Kathy (on Killian) and Bruce (on Paco) had gone off for an evening ride on the beach. I had told them I might come down at sunset. Well, I got my stuff done and headed down. I was shooting the sun going down, thinking I was gonna miss them. The sun was almost down and no sign of any horses, when suddenly I heard hoofs pounding the sand. They came running down the beach and I managed to capture these shots just before the sun disappeared. Thanks to Bruce and Kathy for their part in creating a couple of rare, beautiful captures.

 

What a rare capture this was. Ken and I were on a trip down the Au Sable river and a herd of deer crossed the river in front of us. I still can’t believe this shot. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. The Au Sable river is amazing and I really hope I get to do it again.

 

Danish Festival in Greenville, MI is a fun weekend. This shot is from the “Greenville Glows” event at Klackles Orchards. I am very fond of the Hot Air Balloons and hope to someday get myself a ride. I also think it would be fun to be part of the chase team. Just one of the many from my “Bucket List”.

 

So, that is just a few of my favorites. I would love to hear which one is your favorite and why. Have a Great Day! I hope you find just a little time for fun, even if its only to laugh with a friend.