 | eCachecommentary from down jersey |
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Beetle, Fritz, and I stormed the castle today. As we did, we came across this cute little alien. She seemed harmless despite being tied up by the astronaut.
This, it would appear, is what alien life looks like in eastern Pennsylvania. I am sure Alf would have enjoyed this, although I would have protected her. 
I tried to get the boy to stand in as the astronaut, but he had other things on his mind.
I received an e-mail from my sister; my nephew will be at a St. Louis Cardinals game on Monday. He along with a ton of other young men and women. At the game he will be enlisted into the United States Navy.
Ricky recently was graduated from college. He has his eyes set on the SEALs. He has been preparing for this for some time. His actual date was for November, but he’s been eager to get on with it.
You have one proud uncle here in New Jersey. It is extremely noble to defend a country’s freedom. We need good people for the job. The United States has a good one coming.
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Interestingly, this is very similar to a scavenger hunt I was going to list a few years ago.
When grossi first published this I wondered how I was going to complete it. She said to get creative if you did not have a child. Children I have, pooches I don’t. It seemed like Beetle must have a stuffed dog somewhere . . .
All that changed yesterday. My in-laws adopted Molly, a pug, from a friend of Gert’s. Beetle really likes her and was eager to return today. So much so she agreed to read to Molly.
Beetle is an avid reader. But a four-year-old reading is a little different than an adult. While she can memorize (I have wonderful video of Beetle and Gert reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom when she was two. She nailed each word because she memorized it!), and she can re-tell a familiar story, reading the actual words is still a future skill. That’s how God Understands (ISBN 0-570-05494-X; a gift from fellow terracacher flowers22) became a story about a bear. That’s the beauty, however, of reading to a dog. Silly dogs can’t tell you are making the thing up as you go along.
Molly was attentive to Beetle’s story. She is a good listener, even as the storyteller drifted off-topic. Beetle enjoys reading and telling stories so she was more than happy to oblige for this hunt. Frankly, I was just there to document what very well may have occurred anyhow. 
Thanks for the fun with my family.
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39.94625 -75.13975
39.944117 -75.132583
This hunt has been more than a year in the making. In June 2007 we headed to Philly for a day of caching. The King Tut series was in full action then and I went up there to tour the city and pick up those caches. One of the caches in the series was in Camden, NJ. The easy way would have been to have driven to it either on the way up or the way back, but the fun way was to take the ferry.
The RiverLink ferry connects Philadelphia and Camden. We boarded at Penns Landing and got off at the Waterfront in Camden. As this is primarily a sight-seeing vessel, a circuitous path was taken that took us close to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The ferry does run shuttles for the concerts held at the amphitheater too.
The caching team that day was Beetle, flowers22, Grammy, and myself. We had a blast and Beetle was quite the ham dancing about on deck of Freedom.
I uploaded the track log to EveryTrail. It can be downloaded as a GPX.
Anyhow, when I arrived home and began preparing to log this, I noted I had no photograph of me with my GPS. D’oh! Each time I have gone to Philly since has not afforded me the opportunity to stop by Penns Landing until the other day. I snapped a couple shots of me and Freedom, but obviously I was on land at that point. Mike is very considerate and told me to log this as is. flowers22 also sent me a photograph of her GPS from that same ferry ride. Thanks!
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The Neverending Scavenger Hunt is interesting to look back on. I am finding that this game parallels our lives. My children’s first carousel rides were for a hunt, Fritz swung on his first swing at a hunt, Beetle dipped in the ocean for another. This game is very family-centric, or at least for us it is.
This specific hunt provided another opportunity: Beetle’s first visit to the dentist.
She was eager to go, but once she sat in the big chair, as she later described it, she became nervous. We encouraged her, but she was apprehensive. Eventually, the hygienist asked the snooping parents to leave. Beetle loosened up a bit and let her clean three teeth. That was all! A deal was struck that next time she would have them all done. I’m counting on it.
The rest of the day Beetle clung to the toothpaste and toothbrush she received. She was so proud of them that she prattled on to everyone she encountered about what a big girl she is. Indeed!
Thanks for letting us share a bit of our family amusement.
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