Printess Caroline

We didn't make our teens cache for their Christmas presents. One is anti-caching--- teen rebellion, I think, and if that is how she wants to demonstrate her autonomy, I'm fine with that... Certainly, there are much worse things she could do! We did find some swag that ended up in her stocking, though! shhh. On my birthday, my son hid his gift to me in the backyard with coordinates for me to find it. It was a large Lock 'n' Lock filled with smaller Lock 'n' Locks and little items that I could use for swag. I thought that was really special, and I'll always remember it as one of the best gifts ever.

As a low-tech person (I don't even like using the tv remote), the above is how I went for my first search...and my first 100 or so...and it is still my prefered approach at 300+. All that techie stuff just interfers with my fun. Just get the coordinates and get out there and find yourself a cache! Go on! Watcha waiting for!?

The most useful item that I have found is a little pen on a carabiner. I keep it attached to my geocaching fanny pack. I like it because it is handy and because it is small enough that I can slip it in my pants pocket to keep the ink warm when it is winter. I'm hoping that I can find another one before the ink runs out in this one!

All of my caches have a theme, so I like to leave the FTFer something that relates to the theme. In the cache that has a beaver theme, I left a carved beaver; I left an unactivated coin that looked like lips in my Sleeping Beauty's Prince Charming cache; and for my car themed cache, I left an admission ticket to the nearby automobile museum. I haven't found any special gifts in any of the caches for which I was FTF, so I think that the practice is a bit unusual around here. Still, choosing an appropriate gift is part of the fun of putting out a cache for me.

McToys don't hurt anything and I imagine that some kid might like them, but I agree that all of the other swag items listed are among my least favorites. Also: Candy (I've found several caches with hard candies in them. Besides attracting animals, they make a sticky mess of a cache!) Those sticky rubber lizzards and other critters (I used to love those things when I was a kid, but in a cache, they just collect dirt. They are just not so appealing after they have a coating of dirt. If you MUST leave them, they should be in a ziplock.)

I didn't find it, but this is the lamest I've heard of. Another example of someone hiding before finding any. "Money" Check out the picture.