My sister, Melanie, has had a running joke that I am secretly some sort of international spy. She knows I speak a couple of languages, travel a lot, know how to shoot guns. My job is just vague enough and my travel schedule random enough that it is a little weird but explainable. Also: I went to the FBI Academy for a month when I was a kid--maybe I got brainwashed or something...
There have been times when I could have messed with her head--You know, "accidentally" dropping a comment or revealing an intriguing prop.
But I never really felt like a secret agent until last week when I was in San Diego--sometimes I laugh at myself for getting into these weird situations.
I previously mentioned that earlier this year I began to participate in a global, outdoor scavenger hunt called Geocaching. My son, Ryan, and I have found about 60 different hidden caches using a GPS receiver--it's a fun activity that we can do together outdoors, and it is a goal directed activity. I think that's one of the reasons that I can't stick to an exercise program--how do you know when you're finished? No matter how much you are working out, it just never ends. We've gotten to the point where we take one weekend here or there and go and find 5 or 6 caches hidden somewhere fun, like parks or landmarks. We've even done it as we've traveled around the country.
After a while, just finding the cache isn't fun enough, so there are little "games within the game" that exist--one of these activities is using a "travel bug" which goes from place to place--the idea is to transport it as far as possible. so we found one on a weekend trip and picked it up with the intention ofme placing it in a cache when I traveled to San Diego. I thought it might be fun for Ryan to see that I had moved something that we had found some 1100 miles across the US.
I was staying at a really nice hotel near the convention center by the docks--I looked up the address and plugged it into the map which showed all the nearby geocaches. I decided to drag this travel bug along and drop it off, so I wanted to make sure to get to it early in my trip before I started getting fatigued. I took my backpack, camera, and my GPS with the coordinates plugged in and took off along the boardwalk area which was full of tourists.
Pretty soon, I came upon the area and my GPS told me I was approaching. When it is cloudy outside, it is hard to pinpoint the exact location--the variance is somewhere between 10 and 15 feet, so I just sat down on a stone seawall and tried to look inconspicuous. I took my camera out of my bag and slung it around my neck, snapping a couple of quick shots which later turned out to be beautiful. The sun was going down and setting across the bay. To my right lay an impressive vintage aircraft carrier from WWII. Beyond that lay an even more impressive cruise ship--it dwarfed the aircraft carrier, and the booming horn blared over the whole city, the sound bouncing and echoing--it was probably of some sort of significance to the people on board or on shore.
A spiny bush lay along the wall, and my instinct from searching these things out told me that the container was wedged in this bush somewhere. The setting sun barely provided enough light, but the hard plastic of the camoflauged container glinted a little in the remaining sunlight and gave away the position. I wonder how many geoaches are inadvertantly found by maintenance workers?
There have been times when I could have messed with her head--You know, "accidentally" dropping a comment or revealing an intriguing prop.
But I never really felt like a secret agent until last week when I was in San Diego--sometimes I laugh at myself for getting into these weird situations.
I previously mentioned that earlier this year I began to participate in a global, outdoor scavenger hunt called Geocaching. My son, Ryan, and I have found about 60 different hidden caches using a GPS receiver--it's a fun activity that we can do together outdoors, and it is a goal directed activity. I think that's one of the reasons that I can't stick to an exercise program--how do you know when you're finished? No matter how much you are working out, it just never ends. We've gotten to the point where we take one weekend here or there and go and find 5 or 6 caches hidden somewhere fun, like parks or landmarks. We've even done it as we've traveled around the country.
After a while, just finding the cache isn't fun enough, so there are little "games within the game" that exist--one of these activities is using a "travel bug" which goes from place to place--the idea is to transport it as far as possible. so we found one on a weekend trip and picked it up with the intention ofme placing it in a cache when I traveled to San Diego. I thought it might be fun for Ryan to see that I had moved something that we had found some 1100 miles across the US.
I was staying at a really nice hotel near the convention center by the docks--I looked up the address and plugged it into the map which showed all the nearby geocaches. I decided to drag this travel bug along and drop it off, so I wanted to make sure to get to it early in my trip before I started getting fatigued. I took my backpack, camera, and my GPS with the coordinates plugged in and took off along the boardwalk area which was full of tourists.
Pretty soon, I came upon the area and my GPS told me I was approaching. When it is cloudy outside, it is hard to pinpoint the exact location--the variance is somewhere between 10 and 15 feet, so I just sat down on a stone seawall and tried to look inconspicuous. I took my camera out of my bag and slung it around my neck, snapping a couple of quick shots which later turned out to be beautiful. The sun was going down and setting across the bay. To my right lay an impressive vintage aircraft carrier from WWII. Beyond that lay an even more impressive cruise ship--it dwarfed the aircraft carrier, and the booming horn blared over the whole city, the sound bouncing and echoing--it was probably of some sort of significance to the people on board or on shore.
A spiny bush lay along the wall, and my instinct from searching these things out told me that the container was wedged in this bush somewhere. The setting sun barely provided enough light, but the hard plastic of the camoflauged container glinted a little in the remaining sunlight and gave away the position. I wonder how many geoaches are inadvertantly found by maintenance workers?
While I was waiting there, wave after wave of tourists came by. One herd of people came by all dressed in some sort of conquistador costume and singing funny songs. I could hear one girl in particular chatting loudly and laughing at her own jokes. I had my camera ready, so I snapped a couple of shots of the marina and the pretty sunset which occurred as I sat there.
Behind me were photographers lined up with the actual purpose of photographing the scene. I'm not really sure what the significance of that exact location was, but there must be something to it because there were about five photographers with pretty extensive setups--tripods, multiple cameras and lenses, and assistants in tow. It put me in a relatively unfortunate position because I was actually west of them and a little in front of them, so they were in a position to observe exactly what I was doing--I didn't want to give away that I was geocaching, and in some cases people have found containers which have been raided, so I didn't want to be responsible for that.
Just when I was going to reach for it, three homeless men came right toward me. I was almost certain they were going to ask me for some money. I really hate going to the touristy areas because of panhandlers. I mean, is a dollar really going to help? How about a gift certificate for AA? Oh, yeah, it's free( isn't it)? The guy in the middle was nearly passed out, and the two others flanked him, holding him up. Their clothes were encrusted with dirt and were in tatters. They didn't speak to me.
I set my bag down on the other side of the wall and pretended to dig through it looking for something. I didn't look up to see if anyone was watching me. Then I reached down and grabbed the container which was exactly where I thought it was--I set it in my lap and unscrewed it, fishing out the log book which I quickly signed. I stuffed the travelbug from Texas in there (it traveled 1177.1 miles from Texas to this spot) and replaced the lid. I bent down and carefully put it back into the bushes, deep beyond the outer layer so it wouldn't be easily spotted, and while I was down there I placed my camera in the bag and zipped it up tight.
Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I got up and blended quietly back into the crowd, my mission complete.
Slinging my backpack over my shoulder, I got up and blended quietly back into the crowd, my mission complete.
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