Portland Native...far from bored (Estacada: house, neighborhood, moving to)

[no one special]

Moving to Portland? Ask me about your neighborhood...I will be honest!

Do you think Portland is boring? I use to think so. I had done everything there was to do. Or so I thought. Then I learned about this very fun outdoor adventure treasure hunt game which most of the time requires the use of a GPS and a sense of adventure. It makes getting out of the house a little more worth it.

Being born here I was surprised to find something that could get me excited about touring the city again. I have been into this neat sport for over a year now and have not spent one weekend being lazy around the house since. And we don't go out of town very often so it is mostly traveling the local area.

So here is what we do. We go on to this website and look up these treasures that people like you and me have planted in a park or somewhere. They don't hold valuable things like a real treasure would...just some ordinary trinkets that the kids can swap for fun. It's an honesty game...take an item, leave an item. So, coordinates are provided to us on the web site, we load them into a GPS and use their hints and clues to track down the treasure. One must be stealthy when looking! You wouldn't want to show some ordinary folk where that treasure is because you weren't being careful. That's how some come up missing and that can be disappointing to all.

Once we have found the treasure hidden in a stump somewhere, or under a bush, or in a tree for instance we sign our "geo" names in the log book, write a commment or two, such as Nice Park or Took a Frog left a Yo Yo. Once we get home we log our finds online to let the owner and others know we found it. There are lots of creative hides out there and it is a lot of fun to find something that is hard to find.

There are activities and events families go to in order to meet one another. But you don't have to do this if you don't want to. There are also some fun trade items for adults too- such as Trackable Items called Travel Bugs. These are items others have sent out on a journey with a specific goal that have a serial number included with them. We move them along. They have a trackable tag on them you use to log where they are and where they have been.

Now Portland has opened up over 1000 doors of places for us to go and things for us to do...not to mention these treasures are all over the world. Bet you have one within a mile of you right now!

Visit www.geocaching.com for more info, create a user name, and start hunting. It's free! And it all started right here in Oregon...Estacada to be exact.

Have fun!

[nancy thereader]

That sounds like such a great idea . Thanks for sharing it. And , you are. (Someone special)