Baltimore Dancesport Challenge 2026

We went to the Baltimore Dancesport Challenge 2026 and decided to make it extra challenging by dancing with our instructors as well as dancing with each other. 

The night before the competition, they hosted a gala dinner with dancing, performances, and a professional couple doing some of their routines. Our dance studio danced their formation from our Winter Showcase.

The formation

Our son joined us and did some dancing with mom and other women!

Parent/child dances

Having fun

We were having too much fun to take many pictures!

The next day was the competition. The event started with the smooth dances--waltz, tango, and foxtrot. We had a bit of confusion when they changed the order of the heats and had to go earlier than planned, which meant there are no photos of just me and my wife dancing together. Later, we did multi-dance challenges. For those, we danced with our instructors. We have plenty of those pictures!

Waltz moves

Swishy dresses

Elegance!

Whoops, someone was just outside the frame!

Bowing in different directions

Turning in sync?

A flowing sleeve

Showing off the lady

A bit of swish

After lunch the rhythm competitions were held. Luckily, someone else from the studio took some pictures here of us as a couple. And also some video!

Cha Cha Chase

My arm should be higher

Swishy cuddle

Other couples on the floor

More of the same

Yes, that's the dance instructor dancing with his daughter in the two pictures above!

We finished up with multi-dance challenges back with our instructors.

Cha-cha-ching!

I chase, my wife turns

Less than a second later

Getting ready for the next dance

Still apart

Close up from above

Another close up from above

Great fringe movement!

Elegant lines

About to shoulder check

Hands higher!

Good job!

And some more pictures from our fellow student...

In sync?

Watch out, here we come

Not exactly in sync

Nice spin

Ta-dah!

In the same shot

Great lines

Similar move

Fringe flying!

Is this a bow or a start of the next dance?

We did get some off-floor photos, including one with the whole group from the studio.

Smooth attire

Rhythm outfits

The silly photo of the studio group

We had a great time. We scored a lot of first places just because we were alone in our categories. On the multi-dance challenges, since we were dancing with our instructors, my wife and I were competing against each other! I was gracious enough to let her get first place in those. Or I wasn't as good as her lead (the studio owner and main instructor). 

Geocaching June 2025

My month started off with a string of finds: Quarantine Grey Matter #5, the Finale (though I still haven't found all of the previous 4!), "Head's Up", Seneca Red Sandstone, Mr. Lincoln's Railroad (And the War Came), and CAM 2023 - B&O Railroad Museum. All but the first were in Baltimore. It's always fun to visit the city and find little nooks and crannies I would never visit otherwise (though I have been to the railroad museum quite a few times).

The red sandstone cache

The B&O cache

I went to Whitemarsh Park and picked up CAM 2015 - Whitemarsh, Calvin & Hobbes #2 Did You Do Your Homework?, and 5! 0! 9! 0! Let's Go!. The Calvin and Hobbes cache was covered in ants!

Yikes!

I went back to Baltimore for Don't Forget Your Towel, Mr. Robinson, and to Annapolis for 6th Street Park. Then I was by the BWI Airport and found Not Buckingham Palace and Rainy Day Caching, even though it was not a rainy day. The last cache was a multicache leading to a cemetery near the airport. I climbed a fence only to find out that some critter had made its own fence bypass.

Definitely not the home of British royalty

One way around the fence!

Later on I went to Home Plate, an easy find. Also in that neighborhood (in the ballpark?) are High-Road, Low-Road and Guard Rail Goblins #1 Vanksharx the Vile. I will have to do more of the guard rail series!

Stream by road cache, no actual road (go figure)

Roots!

I went back to the park for Calvin & Hobbes: There's Treasure Everywhere, Maryland Traveler Challenge, and Dry Streambed, though there had been rain recently so the bed was wet! Also nearby is Starry Night, a mystery cache based on the famous Van Gogh painting. 

Halfway through the month we flew to California, where we finished out the month and started July. Those caches will have their own post soon.

The month ended with (including the California caches up to June 30) 55 finds for a grand total of 1907. The California cache post will show up soon! 

Geocaching May 2025

The month started back at home (after the Florida and Virginia travels) with Manifest Destiny, Grandfather Tree Cache, and MD Cluedo 1 of 10. I am slowly working my way through the Cluedo series, based on the board game with each cache having some cards eliminating suspects, rooms, and/or weapons.

Soothing creek by Cluedo cache

Unsoothing bug on grandfather's tree!

My youngest went on a field trip to the monuments in DC and I was chosen as a chaperone. A lot of the virtual and earth caches by the monuments involve some detail work that I wasn't going to force the elementary school students to do. Luckily, The View of an "Honest Man" only required a photo, so I got one smiley on the trip.

At Lincoln Memorial

I went back to Bacon Ridge Park to find some caches and avenge some Did Not Finds because the foliage was too dense. I snagged Random Wiki Puzzle: Erie to Pittsburgh Trail, Nothing to See Here Challenge, and The Ultimate Attributes Challenge. Since I was there, I signed a couple of logs for challenges that I have not completed yet.

Bacon Bridge

Some swag

Does this really not count as something to see?

Tracking Maryland Mammals is a mystery cache that requires identifying scat to get the correct coordinates. The container is suitably decorated.

What the crap?

Agnes Deadend and SSB - Baltimore National Heritage Flag House were finds of opportunity in Baltimore during a visit for Mother's Day. The flag house is where the Fort McHenry flag was made. It is famous because it was the "Star Spangled Banner" that Francis Scott Key was inspired by for his poem that became our national anthem.

In Bowie, I made a string of discoveries: Butterfly Garden Little Free Library #101699, The Girl Scout Law, Calvin & Hobbes: #4 Snow Goons, Calvin & Hobbes: #6 Alter Egos, and The Cat Who Stole My Heart. The Calvin & Hobbes series has some in-field puzzles that I have yet to solve and a final once I have all the code words from the six caches. I also didn't sign the log for Ireland's Crazy Encryption Puzzle Tutorial #2 because the container was out of reach.

Butterfly Library has no butterflies in it

Nice container, impossible to reach without assistance

Closer to home I found Kerckhoffs #1, a mystery cache that wants finders to write a program to decrypt but I did the decrypting by hand. The cache was in an out-of-the-way place but near some shopping, so I was in the location anyway to get groceries.

A tricky one to qualify for was OCCT #30 Alphabet Soup: The Puzzle Challenge. I had to find mystery/puzzle caches that all started with different letters of the alphabet. Kerckhoffs made my last missing letter, so this cache was my find the next day. 

The next day I made a couple of finds, basing myself around Strip Mall Jumble #1: Lakeside Plaza. This mystery requires names of stores from the mall and then unscrambling certain letters into a code. Nearby I signed logs for Noah Gives It a Try, PEC#6 FORRRREEE, and LSLS #8 Rick Loves Rides. I didn't find the mystery Cured Pork Belly but I sent a photo to the cache owner for where I thought the final was. They confirmed it was right spot and let me go ahead and take credit for the cache.

Container FORRRREEE the cache

Empty GZ

Undefeated Champ! was an easier mystery find the next day. I also qualified for the Baltimore County Icon Challenge, requiring at least six different types of caches in the county. Sailor's Tattoo has some interesting folklore behind it and a tricky cache once the final coordinates are discovered. 

Next I found There's Gnome Place Like Gnome (see the cute container below), Quickest Whereigo Tour in Maryland (REALLY), and Walking Around Columbia Wilde Lake. The Whereigo was indeed quick, though I was slowed down by a stop sign that was clearly thematic.

3D-printed gnome

Why the CO picked the spot

While my wife shopped at Ikea, I went to Dunkin with my youngest and found FOFD #8: Deep Concern. The find wasn't hard (faster than getting the donuts). Next, I picked up Quarantine Matter #4, a puzzle placed during the pandemic shutdown. Then I visited my brother in Virginia and got Geo Whiz: Puzzle Cache for a New Dad which was an easy solve and find, even in the rain. 

The month ends with a grand total of 1852, with 32 found this May.