CA Geocaching July 2024

We had a vacation in California, so naturally we did a lot of geocaching there.

The very first cache was at SFO airport! Public Art at San Francisco International requires the finder to take a picture with one of almost a dozen works of art scattered around the airport. If a traveler is passing through, there's at least one in every terminal behind security. There's also plenty outside of security for locals just visiting the airport to get a virtual. I posed by New Generation (2015) by Louisiana Bendolph in Terminal 3.

At the airport

Japanese Garden Cache is in San Mateo next to the Japanese Garden. The cache was a classic hide under a bench.

Not where the cache is

We also worked on the Architecture of San Mateo Adventure Lab and Bair Island Adventure Lab.

A bit of the architecture

A bit of the island

In San Francisco, we found two earthcaches, Greywacke & Alcatraz Terrane -- Telegraph Hill, and Alcatraz 'the rock' Formation Earthcache. They both are about the bedrock that make Alcatraz Island "The Rock" and Telegraph Hill a solid object. Who knew they had the same stone? Both caches had questions about the qualities of the rock and required pictures.

Telegraph Hill background

Picture facing away from the rock formation on Alcatraz

Thanks from Monique is a fairly typical find on the Stanford campus; Menlo Circus is by the Menlo Circus Club in Atherton.

Not very campusy but very geocachey

Not much of a circus

Down in Sunnyvale, we found Our Lady's Guard, a hide near a tall and impressive statue of Jesus's mom.

Great statue of Our Lady

The next pair of geocaches were a matched set of a sort: Market Lunch and Lunch at the Embassy were not far from our hotel and made a nice one-two punch of early morning caching. Market Lunch happened to be more 1400th find! Too bad I didn't take any pictures.

I went to the Lawrence Train Station in Sunnyvale and found Lawerence Train Station! The area also hosts Challenge of the Century (1x100) and Challenge of the Century (2x100), where the finder needs to have found 100 of one or two types of caches, respectively. I qualified for both so I signed both logs!

A train at the station!

We had a lot of other fun in California which will be coming soon to the blog!

College Park Aviation Museum

The College Park Aviation Museum is right next to the College Park Airport, the oldest continuously operating airport in the world.

College Park Aviation Museum

The airport opened in 1909. The US Army was convinced by the Wright Brothers' success to invest in aviation. Wilbur taught military pilots at the airport. The museum acknowledges this history with the very first exhibit.

A model of the original flyer

The model by itself

Wilbur's bust

A mockup of Wilbur's hangar (with holiday decorations)

The Wright B Flyer was the first military plane and used to break many records. For example, Lieutenant Henry "Hap" Arnold was the first person to fly over one mile high in June 1912. This replica was provided by the Wright Experience.

Hap and his flyer

Wright B Flyer

The Curtis JN-4D (Jenny) was used during World War I by the allies to train pilots. After the war, it was popular in airmail. This plane is a restored original.

Curtis JN-4D (Jenny)

Viewed from above

The Berliner Helicopter was invented in 1920 by Emile Berliner and his son Henry. The aircraft made the first controlled vertical flight at College Park Airfield.

Berliner Helicopter

Berliner founded a company in the 1930s that built the Ercoupe (named after their company Engineering and Research Corporation or ERCO). The plane was designed for easy and safe flight.

Ercoupe cockpit

Ercoupe plane

The museum has plenty of interactive exhibits. The kids' favorite was the Imagination Plane, in which they could sit and pretend to fly.

Imagination Plane gets new pilots

Getting ready to go

Taking the wheel

We sampled almost every simulator available, of which they are many.

A realistic control panel

An easy simulator

More complicated simulator

Getting on the easiest simulator

Climbing out on a wing

Dressing up was a fun option as well.

Latest lady aviator

Especially fascinating to everyone was a demonstration of aerodynamics that involved a jet of air and a ball that floated in the air. Everyone wanted to try it.

Most popular exhibit

The museum has a diorama of the old airport and a fun shop.

Airport model

More of the model

Shopping

The museum isn't large but is fun and informative.

The display hall

More of the display hall

Ready to make our exit!

Birmingham Airport, UK

Our New Year's trip to Rome started with a flight from Birmingham Airport, which was one bus and one train ride away from our Yorkshire home. We took an early bus to Leeds so we could catch an early train to Birmingham. We arrived around noon and had a yummy lunch at the airport. We also saw signs for the children's play area, which we went to right after finishing our food. Well, J and L dragged Mommy off while the rest of us finished our plates. (We traveled with some friends).

At the play area, the first, most obvious thing to play with was the large foam blocks on the padded floor. J wasted no time turning them into his favorite activity--an obstacle course!

Birmingham Airport's best feature

Ninja Warrior at BHX play area

The kids also wasted no time taking their shoes off, which led to unfortunate consequences. Inside a large, igloo-like tent was the promise of some light show or other fun. L raced in, not realizing the floor was slickly-polished wood. Her feet got out in front of her and she landed on her back, smacking her head into the slickly-polished wood floor. She cried for a bit but was soon okay.

Rainbow Pod...of Doom!!!

Just outside the rainbow pod was an interactive quiz where J was matching flags and cities to countries. He didn't do too well on his own but soon had help.

Where in the World?

Call a friend!

Just beyond the world quiz was the largest tablet computer ever, on which many different games could be played. In one, players had to put the planets back in order from the sun outwards. Another game matched animals to their natural habitats. A third was really tough, with balls connected by lines that overlapped. The goal was to arrange the balls so the lines didn't overlap. Quite tricky, I can see why a tablet app version hasn't taken off like an Angry Bird.

Hardest game won!

Another even tougher game was Buzz Wire, where players had to move a small ring carefully along a metal tube without touching the tube. I tried twice and was unsuccessful.

Dexterity required!

The play area was a great way to kill some time waiting for our flight to take off, which it soon did. The flight was uneventful and our cab took us to our apartment in no time at all, so all was well getting to Rome.

Sadly, this was the only playground we visited on the trip. Rome just doesn't have a lot of playgrounds near the famous sites. We only saw one playground on our adventures and that day was rainy so we couldn't play. Hopefully next vacation will work out better for the kids.

Thomas A. Dixon Observation Area (and Playground), Glen Burnie, MD

The Thomas A. Dixon Observation Area is part of a system of trails and paved paths around BWI Airport. This particular spot had two attractions for us. It is right across the street from one of the airport runways. And it has a playground.

The Observation Area allows the public to watch planes landing and taking off. We were there at 10:30 on a Monday morning. All the planes were landing. Sometimes two or three would land about a minute. Sometimes a good ten minutes would go by before another plane came in. We enjoyed watching the planes come down nearly on top of our heads.

Incoming plane

In close

About to land

We enjoyed the playground even more. It wasn't too elaborate, but all the other kids were nice. Except for one young boy who was tossing the playground mulch (recycled tires which are soft and environmentally friendly but can heat up with too much sunshine) all over the place. At one point he started tossing them on J. I intervened pretty quickly, telling the boy to stop throwing the mulch at people. J was satisfied; I have no idea where the boy's parent was.

The playground

Another boy made friends with J and they would go on races down the slides. J didn't neglect his sister. He went down the slides with her as well. They even went down on their tummies, sometimes backwards!

L slides alone

L, J, and the naughty boy on the slide

J demonstrates his "belly technique" for Grandpa

J did a lot of climbing too. He found a fun corkscrew climber. In order to get back down, he used the fireman's pole. It made a nice circular route.

J at the top of the screw

J at the top of the fireman's pole

Auntie R came by to visit us and deliver a suitcase we had left in Front Royal at Grandmama's. We enjoyed a few last landings before we headed off to the library.

L watches a Southwest landing