If anything could be said to be a hallmark of our relationship, it would have to be geocaching . New to Dave prior to our third date, it plays to our personalities greatly! It combines gadgetry and scenic beauty (for Dave) with treasure hunting and the accomplishment of finding something (for Emily) all of it wrapped together in a fun, active, outdoor activity that gets us out of the stuffy house and exercising.

We’ve geocached on every vacation that we’ve been on (save Dave’s trip to Thailand…it hasn’t quite become widespread there, yet) and we’ve seen some amazing sights off the beaten path as a result.

Even our engagement is tied to geocaching. Dave hid the ring in a cache box and faked a listing for the location of the ring. He then gave Emily the listing and let her find it (it took a while…and featured some gentle nudging in the right direction). Anyway, after that experience, we decided to leave the box where Dave left it and created a real listing on the geocaching website . We called our geocache “The Grotto of Looove”. The picture to the left was taken in the grotto after Emily found the cache. Click on the picture to to visit the Grotto of Looove’s listing on the geocaching website.

Another fun part of geocaching are travelbugs! They resemble military dogtags. They are listed on the geocaching website. Each travelbug has a unique identifying number. Geocachers that list them on the site can give them goals or objectives or just let them wander about. When looking for a geocache to visit a ‘cacher will also check to see if a bug is listed in the cache. If so, and they can contribute to the objective or goal of the bug, they’ll pick up the bug when the find the cache. Later they’ll leave the bug in a cache that contributes to its goal. When they get home, they’ll log the change in the bug’s location so that the bug’s owner and others can see where the bug has been moved to. The picture to the left is Emily the Snow Girl, a travel bug that Emily started. It’s goal is to go to the North Pole. Click on the picture to see its progress!

Anyway, that’s geocaching . It’s fun and great! You should do it too!