A Family Outing Filled with Geocaching and Fruit Burritos

This last Saturday, Nathan and I were shocked (shocked!!) to realize we didn't have anything planned. With so many of our Saturdays being filled with baseball games/5Ks/baptisms/errands/yard work/etc. over the last few months, we didn't quite know what to do with all the spare time.

So of course, we planned an outing. We had all sorts of great ideas, but since we didn't really start planning anything out until after lunch, our options were pretty limited. Since the weather was still nice (it's getting hot, but not too hot yet), we decided to go geocaching in Tubac, a small touristy town filled with art galleries and golf courses just south of us. After geocaching, we'd go to dinner at Wisdom's Cafe, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants outside of Tucson.

For those not in the know, geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunt. You use your GPS locator (or in our case, the GPS app on our smartphone) to find out an exact latitude and longitude measurement. Once you've reached the location indicated by the measurement, you'll start searching for the "cache"--some small object/clue/capsule/toy that will be hidden at those coordinates (usually within a space of several square feet). Some of these objects are easy to spot...some are very cleverly hidden! The fun is in finding the hidden "treasure," then carefully replacing it so other geocachers can find it for themselves later.

In many caches, there's often a small log/register included, where you can fill out your name. Sometimes, there are objects to pick up or trade (Nathan often brings small plastic toys to leave as "offerings" for geocaching sites). What's the reward for all this, you ask? Nothing, really...but it's very satisfying (in a slightly nerdy way) to find purposely hidden objects, with the help of technology and a little human ingenuity. Plus, you get a lot of healthy walking in as you conduct your searches! So it's a "win" for everyone!

Here's the first geocache we found. As you can (barely) see, it is teeny tiny, which is often the case in city limits. If a cache is too big and obvious, it runs the risk of a well-meaning non-geocacher (referred to as a "Muggle" by geocachers) finding the cache and throwing it out, to keep the city "clean!" This particular cache was hanging by a small wire inside a hole in an old tree stump behind one of Tubac's many art galleries. Inside the tiny capsule was a log, on which Nathan signed his name. Mission accomplished!

Our next stop was the Tubac Cemetery,  where a much more complicated search awaited us...

The next cache on our list was a "multi-cache," which means the searcher has to follow a series of clues spread out over a variety of locations, in order to ultimately find the cache. It takes the "treasure-hunt" aspect of geocaching to a higher level! In this multi-cache, we would need to find eight(!) different gravestones, with certain dates/numbers on each gravestone providing clues as to the location of the next gravestone, and so on until the cache would be found near the final gravestone on the list.

It was kind of cool to poke around in this charming little cemetery for a while. However, even for a small cemetery, we realized it would take a very long time to find the first gravesite just searching for it visually (time our grouchy kids didn't want to give us!). Unfortunately, Nathan and I ultimately realized that we wouldn't be able to do the search that day. The online instructions for finding each location had the GPS coordinates listed in latitudinal "decimal points"; our GPS apps only listed coordinates in "degrees," and we weren't able to do an on-site unit conversion.

Sadly, we realized we'd have to do a little number-crunching from home, and return to search for the cache later. As it turned out, Nathan found  a probable work-around a little after we left...but by then our kids had had enough of poking around in random spots, and they wanted to find a bathroom and eat dinner. Apparently geocaching can only hold the girls' interests for so long. Oh well...the cache is now definitely on our "to-do list," and hopefully we'll be able to try this one again another time.

After a quick bathroom break, we headed for Wisdom's Cafe; we have been here several times and enjoy it. I particularly like their turkey meat (the substitute for chicken, which isn't even on their menu!). It is very moist and flavorful, and any dish that uses turkey here is okay by me!

But the real reason we enjoy Wisdom's so much is because of their "world-famous" Fruit Burritos!

Mmmm. Nothing too novel about these, actually. The fruit is wrapped up in a tortilla, which is rolled up tightly, deep fried, then dusted liberally with cinnamon and sugar. Kind of like a weird cross between a churro and a French crepe! You have to order them first thing if you want them, because they are all made fresh. Also, they are big; one order is usually split between two people easily! They are quite yummy, especially served with sweet vanilla ice cream on the side.

Nathan and I split a blueberry burrito, and the girls each had a chocolate coconut cream; it was very rich, but they seemed to enjoy it:

We did manage to find one more geocache on this trip...right across the street from the restaurant! It was inside a wire basket suspended in a tall tree; you had to lower it down by rope to open the cache. Very elaborate and cute, and the girls were thrilled by it. We did a "toy exchange" for this cache, since it was a relatively large metal box. We left behind a small plastic dinosaur toy; in exchange, we received a "bubble pipe," which the kids have been using all week to blow bubbles. It was good to end the "geocaching" portion of our trip on a high note.

After this, we drove home with full bellies and tired feet. Considering how last-minute our outing was, it turned out very well! It's a nice contrast to this week, which feels like every last hour has been carefully planned out. Here's hoping I can blog about it all soon!