Some Sun, but Mostly Cloudy

Panama City Beach, FL

That's about how you can describe the last few days here.  Not that we're complaining, because many other areas of the country are having some nasty weather right now.

The mornings are usually cloudy, followed by a bit of midday sun, then it clouds up again in the afternoon. It's been a bit on the humid side the past few days, so we decided to go out and take a look around the area.

One of the best ways we've found to explore an unfamiliar area is thru the "sport or adventure" of GeoCaching.  For those not familiar with this activity it can be described as a scavenger type of hunt for both young and old.  It used to require a handheld GPS receiver to search for the many "treasures" scattered throughout the world, but now "caches" (as they're called) can be located using apps on Smart Phones as well.  A quick search for geocaching apps for either Iphones or Android phones will turn up many applications to enable your phone to be able to locate these caches.  I usually use a dedicated hand held GPS receiver (GPSR), but also use the app c:geo on my android-based phone because it works well and because it's FREE.  I like free.

We selected a few caches located within a couple of miles of our location and went searching.  We've found that the real excitement when GeoCaching is in the hunt, usually not in the cache's contents itself.  Many caches are very small and only contain a "log" book which enables the finder to sign in that they have indeed located the cache.  Many larger caches contain "trinkets" such as children's small toys, coins, GeoCoins, or Travel Bugs.  For more information on the latter items, please visit the GeoCaching site mentioned earlier. The entire game is explained very well on the "official" site of GeoCaching.

                               Here's a picture of one of the sites we visited today. 

See, probably a location I would have never visited. Seriously, we've found GeoCaching to be a lot of fun and it has taken us to many places which we otherwise would never have found.


                                        Oh yes, it does turn nice at the end of the day.

View from our campsite