On Thursday morning, March 18, 2010, Christopher, Catherine and I went to Walla Walla for the Cache Machine Event. I picked up Christopher in North Portland, picked up Catherine in east Vancouver, and headed east on I-84. Catherine got a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit at Troutdale McDonalds. We had lunch at Subway in Biggs. I found nine caches, Christopher found ten caches and Catherine found 11 caches on the way to Walla Walla. We also found a benchmark by the Two Sisters marker and another at the Fort Walla Walla monument. We explored both ends of an old concrete highway bridge over the Walla Walla River with the middle section missing. The bridge had been inundated by waters of Wallula Lake in 1964. We checked into the Holiday Inn in Walla Walla and later had dinner at Shari’s Restaurant.

On Friday, March 19, 2010, Christopher, Catherine and I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn. We started Geocaching about 8:30am. Catherine bought a Goodtime Crossword Puzzle Book at Rite Aid. We found about 19 caches. We found an Elevation 1264.29 Benchmark atop a rock mound however it was not listed. Catherine really liked a nearby cache – “A Bird’s Life.” I enjoyed “Log Book on Tape” where I took a photo of each of us standing in front of the statue -- "Matilde On Her Way to the Market," by a local artist Nano Lopez. We attended the COWWS Poker Event at the Crossroads Steakhouse. We talked to a few cachers, had dinner in the poker room, didn't play poker, signed the log and left early.

On Saturday, March 20, 2010, Christopher, Catherine and I had breakfast again at the Holiday Inn and started Geocaching about 8:30am. The car was frosty. The days are quite warm but the nights are cold! We found about 18 caches. We had light sandwiches for a mid-afternoon snack at Taco Bell. That evening we attended the Cache Machine Event Dinner at Lorenzo's Pizza. The pizza was not very good. We did a couple caches and then went back to our motel. We watched “The Nanny Diaries” starring Scarlett Johansson on television.

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, Christopher, Catherine and I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn, packed the car and headed home. We found four caches on the way. We stopped at a gazebo at Umatilla to eat wrap sandwiches that I had purchased at the nearby Harvest Foods market. The wraps were delicious! It was a lovely spot but a bit chilly. Catherine drove part of the way so I could take a nap. I got a hot fudge sundae at Biggs McDonalds. Catherine got home about 4:00pm. We went to my house where Christopher logged his finds and ate dinner. We watched “Amazing Race.” Christopher went home afterwards. I logged most of my finds and then finished logging the next morning.

"Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods"

Yesterday evening I went to the West Linn, Oregon where I had a light dinner at Starbucks - fruit and cheese plate, drink and shortbread cookies.

While I ate the shortbread cookies I read "twilight Directors Notebook" by Catherine Hardwicke (First Edition - March 2009). I am reading "twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. My son, Christopher, and I recently visited several locations in the film i.e. school cafeteria exterior, ballet studio, Oxbow Park, Viewpoint Inn (prom), Multnomah Falls (seen in background in baseball game scene), Bridge of the Gods, Meadow (baseball game), and huge fir tree at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Columbia River just above Cape Horn.

Afterwards I drove to the nearby Public Library to hear "Cataclysms on the Columbia: The Great Missoula Floods - A Major Update" by Dr. Scott F. Burns, chair of the Department of Geology at Portland State University. He specializes in environmental and engineering geology, geomorphology, soils, and Quaternary geology. For the past 40 years Burns has been studying wine and terroir - the relationship between wine, soils, geology and climate.

"Spidermonkey - Twilight Movie Tour Challenge," Monday, March 1, 2010

My #2 son, Christopher, and I did "Spidermonkey - Twilight Movie Tour Challenge" yesterday. This was one of four multi-caches in the challenge. We racked up more miles than was necessary as we took the long way around to the first waypoint. We were relieved to find a bridge across the Sandy River so we wouldn't have to backtrack. It took us awhile to find the trail at the last waypoint (just follow the black plastic "wall"). Clever cache hide. We got the clues from inside the cache to solve the fifth and final bonus cache. We found a couple other caches also.

Vancouver Grid Challenge

I took the photo of the tree blossoms on my way to pick up Christopher in Portland yesterday morning. My son, Christopher, daughter, Kimberly, and I completed the Vancouver Grid Challenge (GC212WH). We found at least one cache in each of the 33 squares over four days. We hiked the trail to the Final Cache and walked back on the levee where a two-foot-long snake crossed my path.