On the last day of 2010....

The California Academy of Sciences living roof



It was the last day of 2010 and it was probably going to be the only day of the 3 day weekend without rain.  Knowing this we decided this was the best day to do a day trip and grab a few caches before we are stuck doing things inside.  We had heard about the California Academy of Sciences and were waiting until our youngest daughter would be old enough to enjoy it and at 4.5 years old we figured this was as good a time as any.  Being inside Golden Gate Park there were many caches close by which was a huge bonus.  California Academy of Sciences is a Science geeks dream spot, and even though we are not science geeks, all four of us enjoyed it and the day flew by.  The best advice I can give anyone that wants to go there is to buy your adult tickets at Costco (Saved $18 for 2), get there EARLY and get a reservation to the Planetarium show right away, and lastly I'd pack a lunch, as the line to buy lunch was longer than the lines to any of the exhibits inside (they allow you to leave and come back with a hand stamp and there is a park right outside, and I was glad we did this!).  We had saved the observation deck on the living roof for the end, and after a few pictures up there we decided it was way later than we'd expected and wanted to grab some caches before we made the drive back to Sac. 



The closest cache was Crayola, In Bloom (GC1VFRJ) and it was just outside the Japanese Tea Garden.  I have to admit had we not been looking for this cache I would not of even see this garden or known it was there?  We decided to pay the admission and go inside and check it out.  While inside we found many picturesque spots and my favorite was the picture of the girls on the wheel shaped bridge at the left.  We quickly found the cache outside (or I should say Maureen found it!).  It was so close to the California Academy of Sciences that it made this cache very popular, as it has over 450 finds in only 1.5 years.  There was nothing out of the ordinary about this cache but like so many others it brought us somewhere we would of overlooked.  We wanted to grab a few more caches and were running out of time, and then it started to sprinkle as were were walking towards the next closest one.  :(  We decided to get back to the car and head back to Sac.  :(  I'd wished we had more time earlier as we started our drive out of Golden Gate Park.  Watching the GPSr I noticed a treasure coming up that I remembered had the most 'favorites' in the area caches I'd researched the night before.  With many parking spots on the street open due to the day coming to an end (AND ME wanting to get at LEAST one more find!) we parked.  Audrey and I jumped out and made the short walk to Aids Memorial Grove (GC1FMB7).  We got to GZ and it was under a canopy of redwood trees in a beautiful spot.  There was a Aids memorial there and we could not pin down where GZ was as the GPSr was really jumping around.  We had a large search area because of this, and were coming up empty in all the obvious spots.  We had all but given up, and we were losing daylight quickly, and the rain was starting back up lightly.  I decided to look one last spot and WHAMO! we found it! and it was a VERY cool hide!!!  I'll be marking this one as a favorite on the geocaching website, and had we given up a minute earlier we would never of seen the cool spot for that container.  I hope we find another day to get back to Golden Gate Park to collect all the caches there.  Was a great end to 2010....  Happy New Year all!