Letterboxing The Third Time

I promised to expand on what we did this weekend if anyone is interested. The kids and I went to hunt for another letterbox at a local park very close to our house.

I found the clues on Atlas Quest, a website that tells all about letterboxing and gives clues to find them all over the USA and possibly the world (I haven't needed to check for that yet).

Here I am looking kinda goofy, but that's me. I always seem to be asking, "Did you get it?" right when the picture is being taken. This is where we went to search.

I've always loved this weeping willow tree. Last year I took the kids school pictures at this park. It's the perfect place for it.

This is the cutest little bridge. My favorite pictures of our kids are the ones I took of them on this bridge. We passed the bridge and headed for the Totem Pole.

I read a little bit about the pole. The best story was the part about the second section from the bottom. It told the legend of how we got mosquitoes.

Basically this monster or giant was bothering the village people and they finally dug a huge pit which he fell into. They burned him in it. He vowed to bother them forever and mosquitoes flew out of the pit of burning embers to pester everyone for eternity. Well something like that.

This is where we found the letterbox. The clue was to find it at the base of the tree. So I started at the front of the tree.

With a stick I dug dead leaves and moved weeds around working my way around the base of the tree. It wasn't in the front or on the left or in the back. Finally, I dug a bunch of leaves away on the remaining side and spotted the camouflage pouch.

Can you see it? It was pushed down in the wet dirt pretty good. I asked my kids if they wanted to be the one to pull it out and "Nope" was their answer.

I took a stick and loosened it up so I could get a good hold on it. I pulled it out and backed out of the weeds.

I'm holding it out in my left hand looking around to see if anyone is coming. I'm sure people would wonder what I'm doing digging around in the bushes while two kids are watching.

This is the Old Fishing Hole. Only kids 14 and under can fish here year round. It is stalked with trout once a year and there are other types of fish that live here naturally.

When the river across the road gets near flood stage it will over flow through the drain pipe and fill the pond up a lot in the winter and early spring.

A lot of silt fills the area and there's lot of pond weed there which apparently uses up a lot of oxygen. It also provides hiding places for the fish. The fish living there are a type that don't require a lot of oxygen.

I read the information board and just remembered a few things. I don't naturally know all about ponds and fish and stuff. I had to share something new. New to me anyway.

Here's my son, JB. He was a good sport about my adventure idea. Once he warmed up to being at the park anyway.

At first he was just wanting to get it over with. Once we found the letterbox he was ready to go find another letterbox at another park.

This is my younger child, H. She still wasn't too excited about my plans for adventure and wanted to go home. As you can see on her face.

When we got to the car, I got the directions out for the next park to find a letterbox, H was not happy, but she was a good sport about it and didn't whine too much.

Once we got on the trail for the next search, she was much more eager and enjoyed the rest of the day. We ended with lunch at a new fast food joint which was a treat for the kids cuz we don't eat out much.

Here's a picture of the chicken out front of Churches Fried Chicken. He was very energetic and I imagine he was very hot. He posed for about four pictures for me, but one is enough.

Happy letterboxing! I have more pictures of the next place we went, but I'll share those another time.