Letterboxing misadventures

I have been totally caught up in work craziness over the last two weeks and rather than having the kids enjoy summer in our yard, they have been cooped up at daycare. In a way it felt like today was the first day of summer vacation all over again so I decided that we would go letterboxing.

Our previous attempts have been mixed. We found the first box with no problem but then missed the trail on the way out and ended up hiking several extra miles. Justin and the kids had no success at finding the second box on our list. We started the day with a mission to find 2 new boxes and another attempt at the one we couldn't find before.

The first two on our list were at Bushy Run Battlefield and the directions were simple. But... no box. We continued on to the second and found it with no trouble. We returned to the area of the first and searched. And searched and searched. We searched so hard that we eventually stumbled onto someone else's hidden geocache. There was not a leaf nor a daddy long legs left undisturbed by the time we gave up. This is when we should have given up for good.

We drove back to a park closer to our house to look for the last box. The directions were deliberately vague. Of course we took the wrong trail. What I didn't know was that we took the Heart Attack Hill trail. (Incidentally, why does every park in our town seem to have a Heart Attack Hill trail?) When we finished that trail, we took another wrong trail. Two hours later we stumbled back to the starting place, no box, sore feet, tired, thirsty and hungry.

But I bet the kids will sleep well tonight. And it was a fun adventure to share for the last day that my Gracie will be 4 years old.