annamc

Heya! I was wondering if I can ask an etiquette question. I was out this morning looking for HOLLOW CACHE at Lincoln Park in Seattle. GC1MH58 I looked and looked (and so did my kids) and we couldn't find it at all. So I read the logs and everyone else is like "I waltzed in and saw it immediately". So I'm thinking we're pretty bad lookers! It's densely wooded, and I think my GPS was off. Dunno. So my question is, is it bad form to ask for hints? I'd love to go back and find this thing, but honestly, we looked everywhere we could think of! I think I need advice from someone, not just looking in the same places again! Is this allowed, to ask for hints? Thanks! Anna

Thanks for the suggestions! We did Kubota Gardens (our first multicache). It was a big hit. We'll try the other parks you suggested - those are great ideas. Thanks so much! Anna

I just went to www.gpsfiledepot.com and it lists only one map for the UK that I could find, and it had a broken link. Am I doing this right? Help! Sorry I'm such a ditz. Thanks! Anna

My Oregon 300 arrived. YAY YAY YAY YAY! I'm so excited! What else do I need to buy now? Maps? I want to do basic easy stuff with my kids - nothing too rigorous. Do I want the topo map? I've been using my iphone so far, and it's nice to have streets and stuff just for getting my bearings. I do not intend to do any extreme hiking or anything (on account of the kids). Also, we go to Scotland for several weeks each year to visit my husband's family. I'd love to do some geocaching there. My husband just got himself a nifty new gps for driving (I had hoped to find something that did both, but he decided he wanted the snazzy new nuvi), so I don't need it for driving but it would be nice to have some detail, again to help me get my bearings. Which European map do I want to get? City Navigator UK? Will this have castles and stuff that's OUTSIDE of cities? I totally don't know what I'm doing here, so any advice is much appreciated. Thanks so much!

Thanks! We love Kubota Garden - it's really close to our house (We're in Seward Park.) and it's a great place. We will go there this week and try the geocaching - I have been to Kubota many times, but never geocaching. Thanks for the tip!! anna

OK. School is over. Summer looms ahead of me. What the heck am I going to do with two kids for the summer? Heh. I need suggestions of your favorite places in or around Seattle WITH KIDS. The kids are 5 and 8, so no major hikes, no serious bushwhacking, etc. We live in SE Seattle, but are relatively portable, so I am hoping for suggestions for fun ones in the city and also day trips to take - within a couple hours of the city. Suggestions anyone? Thanks so much!!! Anna

Thank you! I put a note in the description to PLEASE BE CAREFUL as this park has some poison oak. Do you think this is ok? Here is the listing for the cache: GC1TRJA Does that look reasonable? THANKS SO MUCH!

hello! i was wondering if you could give me some advice! clearly i need it. heh. i'm totally brand new at this (have found 15 caches so far with my 5 and 8 year olds! yay!). So my son wanted to HIDE some things. So we hid two. The first one, we put in a glass jar, and apparently that is not ok (for fear of it breaking and cutting someone). So we will change that into a plastic container. Also, I took the coordinates with my iPhone, and they were not too accurate, so someone kindly posted better coordinates and I edited the info. I also ordered a better GPS. Yay! On cache #2, someone posted a comment that there is poison oak nearby and that it's not a good location for a cache. What do I do here? Should I just cancel this cache? Or do you MOVE it somewhere else and change the coordinates? HELP! Thanks! Anna

ooh! i'm so excited! I just ordered the Oregon 300 via Dell. They said it won't ship until July 8, so unfortunately no instant gratification. heh. thanks everyone for your great advice!

ok, one more question. costco has the garmin colorado 300 for $250. is that a good one for me? It's cheap(ish) and my husband can just get the Nuvi.

You guys are GREAT. Thanks so much. The deal with having a GPS in Scotland - I want it more for the estimated travel times and where to turn, because many roads in rural Scotland are horrendous - um - or rather "quaint". Lots of tiny one lane roads, or very very wiggly roads (former cart tracks, I assume) and it's super helpful to know how twisty or slow a road is, because I keep being fooled because a location LOOKS really close (as the crow flies) but turns out to be incredibly hard to get to, because it's up some tiny, wiggly, one lane road. So GPS assistance is terribly helpful. Also really REALLY cuts down of marital problems (ie me getting mad at my husband when he takes some alternate route and it has no gas stations). Somehow, having grown up in the US, I just assume there will be a McDonald's and a gas station every mile or so, but this is NOT THE CASE in rural Scotland. Heh. Anyway, so maybe the right thing to do is for me to just get some cheap-o GPS with a good signal but not a lot of extra frills. I have my iPhone for getting the coordinates and the descriptions, I just don't trust how good the GPS part of it is. So if I can just enter the coordinates in and use the proper GPS for actually finding the thing, that would probably be just fine. Shall I get an Etrex? Are they good as far as a signal?

Where is the best place to BUY an Oregon? REI? Amazon? Should I get the 400t or the 550? I don't care about the camera feature, but I noticed that the 550 says it has WORLDWIDE basemaps - is that what I want? Sorry I'm so uninformed - I really appreciate you guys' advice! Thanks again! Anna

OK, quick other thought - if I just let my husband buy the Nuvi for the car, and I get my OWN one for geocaching, what should I get? I will probably mostly do urban (Seattle) caching, or easy hikes (easy on account of the kids I'm hauling around with me at all times!). I would like to be able to do geocaching when we are in Scotland (3-4 weeks/year), as well. Thanks so much! Anna

Heheh, I was suspecting that things are either really great for the car or really great for hiking/geocaching, but not for both. Giggle, *I* am the one who wants it for geocaching, and we only need it for driving in Europe for 3-4 weeks/year. Heh, so I guess I'd like to find something that's GREAT for geocaching and passible for European driving. Laugh. My husband would like the opposite, but then, he doesn't have to entertain kids all summer. I have the world's nerdiest son, so geocaching is my great plan to drag him away from the computer this summer (and I think it appeals to him on account of the technology involved! laugh). Thanks a ton!! Anna

hello! i was wondering if you guys could give me a suggestion for what gps receiver to buy. I am currently geocaching with my iphone 3g and my kids are using the geomate jrs (nifty!). I want something a little more accurate than my iphone. Here are the requirements: 1) Super awesome for geocaching. I basically would love the same experience as you get with the iPhone, just more accurate. I realize that probably such a thing doesn't exist, but I'm just telling you what I would LIKE. I assume I will use a combo of iphone (for looking stuff up while you're out and about) + gps receiver. 2) Road maps for Europe. My husband's family is all in Scotland and we go over often. We want a GPS receiver that we can use for the car, and which has European maps. This will not be for our cars at home (we both have built in nav systems) - just for rental cars, and mostly in Europe. My husband (who is not particularly interested in geocaching) wants to buy the Nuvi 775. Would this also work for geocaching? If not, is there a different alternative that would meet both our needs? We had an older Nuvi, but it was lost or stolen on our travels, and we need to replace it. I'd like to replace it with something that can also work for geocaching. Am I going to find something that will work for both my requirements? Or am I better off buyin two cheap separate units? I'd like to spend $400ish or less. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much! Anna