Cute Kid Pix August 2026

More photos that didn't make their own post...

We went downtown to Washington just before the Fourth of July weekend and saw a bit of the Great American State Fair festivities without actually going into any venues indoors or outdoors. We went to see the National Museum of African American History and Culture (part of the Smithsonian museums that we are working our way through). That will get its own post later, but we did see some cool stuff downtown.

Washington Monument

A mobile museum

A concert stage by the Metro entrance

Following a subway system on social media seems pathetic

We celebrated the Fourth at home with an American Flag pancake for breakfast and a cookout for dinner.

Pretty big flippin' problem

Obviously the back of the flag

Plate of meat with corn cakes and white wine

A few days later, I went geocaching at Montpelier Mansion, a house dating back to the War for Independence. George Washington visited several times!

By the back door

I went geocaching Frederick, Maryland, where Francis Scott Key is buried. It was fun for a cemetery!

Francis Scott Key Memorial

World War II Memorial

Nearby, on the campus of the Maryland School for the Deaf is the Hessian Barracks. The building dates back to the War for Independence. Captured Hessian mercenaries were imprisoned here. The building went through various other uses over the years. Right by the interpretive signs is "The Great Baby Waker," a cannon that burst in 1844 and killed its gunner. 

Hessian Barracks

Don't wake the baby!

Geocaching September 2025

The month started in Washington DC at the Earth Day Park Bioswale, an earthcache about the importance of little green parks in big cities. We were visiting a museum that day anyway, so it was a nice two-for-one trip.

Non-spoiler picture

Closer to home, I found BEATLES: THEY LEAVE THE WESTCHESTER BEHIND,  BEATLES: BY THE BANKS OF HER OWN [POOL], Catonsville Adventure Lab Bonus Cache, and Don't Dine with Dead Men in Catonsville. 

Not sure why the bike is in the tree, it is definitely not the cache

Creepy Cache Container

Back in DC on another trip, I solved The Actor Really Did Break a Leg at Ford's Theater, Expanse of Freedom by a fountain not running, Mile Zero at the national Christmas tree location, and General of the Armies by a statue of a general.

At the house where Lincoln died

Where's the water?

Worst Christmas Tree display ever!

Next, I went out in local woods to get A Capitol Puzzle, a mystery cache where I caved in and used Google Lens to identify state capitol buildings. The park was picturesque!

Not a bad stream crossing

I took a lot of zooming to get this photo

The same park has Getting Around - A Counties Challenge Cache in a classic hiding spot.

Stick marks the spot

Over in Virginia, I logged CCT - Positive Attributes - Challenge Cache Trail while also signing some of the challenges on the trail, the ones I am very close to completing. 

On a Sunday we went into DC for some museum time and I discovered the earthcache Smithsonian Castle, all about the iconic stones that made the castle red. On the same day, I found Wisdom Mural while doing maintenance on one of my hides in Laurel, Maryland.

Downtown DC

Downtown Laurel

On a trip to Annapolis, I found a bunch of caches: Random Wiki Puzzle: Iris Meredith, Amazing View from a Bench, The Dreaming Tree, Festival of Lights: Night Three, and The Annapolis Taxi Drivers Mural.

Another mural!

Back at home, I found October 30th Is National Checklist Day (maybe I should have waited a bit on finding this one), The road to nowhere..., and Wilde Lake Channel Repair. The last is an earthcache by the dam that made a milde stream into Wilde Lake.

The dam

Cool tunnels under a bridge

I participated in the kickoff for a new geotour celebrating the United States 250th Anniversary next year (2026). I found five of the official caches on the first day: 1 Historical Society of Carroll County, 2 Ellsworth Cemetery, 3 Carroll County Farm Museum, 4 Union Mills Homestead, 5 Taneytown Library. Also in the area, I picked up The Apocalypse Watch and Westminster's War Memorial. 

Apocalypse Watch found!

Town War Memorial (or big chip on my shoulder)

Can you guess which one is the cache?

Union Mills mill wheel

Carroll County farm equipment

Ellsworth Cemetery

The next day I went to the Geocaching HQ Block Party Celebrating 25 Years of Geocaching in the DMV just north of Frederick, where I found two caches on the way, both at the same location! Jug Bridge is a virtual cache about a bridge that used to be here. The same memorial is also an earthcache 9 Jug Bridge and Lafayette, another of the geotour caches. The bridge was nicknamed "Jug Bridge" because it was rumored that the builder hid an actual jug of whiskey inside the memorial. No one has put in the effort to x-ray the stone to see if there's something valuable inside. Maybe 200 year-old whiskey is not valuable?

Memorial with a secret stash!

At the actual block party, I found a couple of caches: 13 Snook Farm (another geotour find), Name Your Game! (by the sports fields), Dairy Barn (by one of the outlying buildings), and Snook Farm Ag Center (right in the middle of the farm). 

The meet-up (there were a lot more people there)

One of the presentations was by "the Bomb Guy," and FBI bomb disposal person who is also a geocacher. He gave advice about how not to decorate or hide a geocache so that law enforcement mistakes it for an explosive devise. He had a lot of pictures and videos of bombs that look very similar to many geocaches. He even brought what was left of a lamp post skirt (a popular hiding spot for caches) when it was blown up by the leavings of a non-geocacher.

Yikes!

The next presenter was a guy describing how to build gadget caches, with a lot of wires, batteries, and other things that the previous speaker warned us against!

The Snook Farm House

Back home the next day, I found Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana Again?. I also took credit for CCT - Special Attributes - Challenge Cache Trail since I had enough geotour caches to cover what I was missing!

We went over to Potomac, Maryland, for the Glenstone Museum. While in the neighborhood we found Grumpy Stumpy, Guard Rails of the Rich and Famous #1, and Tricksy in Travilah. The rain was coming so I didn't get any pictures.

Rounding out the month, I made some last finds: CCT - Permission Attributes - Challenge Cache Trail, A Challenge for Non-Millenials...Challenge, and Cacheton BWI (by the airport). 

I end the month with 45 finds and a grand total of 2074. I'll probably break into the 2100s next month!

Gaver Farm Kindergarten Trip

My youngest son's kindergarten class went on a field trip to Gaver Farm in Maryland. The day was overcast and started cold but warmed up nicely by the afternoon. We arrived with the admonitions to keep our groups together (each chaperone had three or four children) and not to buy anything at the gift shop. Sadly, that also included buying things at the Donut Hut, which looked like the most awesome shop ever.

No purchases today!

First we took a hay ride to pick out pumpkins. My son was a little disappointed that the cart that was not full of hay. The ride was fun nonetheless. We saw pumpkin fields and Christmas tree fields as we rode along.

Hayless hay ride

The big group split up. I had three boys to take around. The farm has all sorts of fun activities that my little cadre of boys enjoyed.

The shortest tunnel ever

A duck race had the boys hand pumping water to move rubber duckies down a rain gutter. The gutters were arranged so that pumps were on both sides. Thus the boys were constantly feeding ducks to each other.

Pumping for fun

Nearby, some goats and alpacas watched without much interest.

Animals on the farm!

My son enjoyed trying to toss rings onto various fruits. He was not very good but did have a good time.

Ring toss

A fire truck converted into slides sat at the bottom of the hill. The boys enjoyed climbing up and sliding down. One side had straight slides, the other corkscrew slides. The only real disappointment with the fire truck was that they couldn't get in and sit behind the steering wheel.

Straight slides

Corkscrew slides

Hose controls outside the cab

Another ring toss simulated lassoing a horse.

Hula hoops or horse wrangling?

They rode on a cow made out of metal containers. They needed boosts but also loved jumping down.

Simulated cow

Another set of slides was attached to a boat. The boys had fun playing captain and pretending the ship was attacked by monsters (aka chaperones like me).

Boat

We walked back up the hill to have lunch. After picnicking, we saw some goats who really wanted us to feed them. Luckily, the "no shopping" restriction was a good excuse not to buy any feed for the critters.

Not always hungry but always ready to eat something

A small graveyard, with tombs dating back to the 1800s, is in the middle of the farm. The kindergartners didn't notice, which was probably a good thing.

A small cemetery

One big attraction at the farm is the corn maze. We went in with enthusiasm. I soon had to establish a turn-based system for deciding which way to go. Every fork in the path was a chance for the next boy to choose a direction. After about ten minutes, the boys were less enthusiastic. In another two minutes, we were picking the path that led us toward the noise of kids playing. Eventually, we had to bushwhack out of the maze. We came across a path that wasn't the exit but that did get us out of the corn.

Paying no attention to the sign

Which way to go?

We did some more activities, including shooting some hoops and riding some tricycles.

That bike is too big!

The day went by quickly. We didn't have the chance to try the big slides because they were still too wet from the previous night's rain. We did make it back to the buses on time and even managed to pick up our pumpkins to take home.

The pumpkin