The kids and I have discovered a new fantastic hobby, Letterboxing. D mentioned it to me and I checked with another friend that has done it as well. She turned me onto the website and, well, we're hooked!
Here is the Wikipedia description of Letterboxing: Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook and a rubber stamp. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook — as proof of having found the box. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their "find count".
Friday we went and got our little journal and ink pad and compass (which I need to learn how to use). The kids were still not fully convinced of the fun of my scheme, but they were playing along. They are good to humor me.
The first one we went to was Gilson Rd. Cemetery in Nashua. I read the web sites and apparently this cemetery is suppose to be very haunted. Now, before you call DSS on me for trying to scare my kids, please note that I did not mention this to the kids. No words of haunted or ghosts ever came out from my lips. Not to sound like a quack, but I do believe in that stuff and have had a few of my own 'encounters'. I sensed that this place had something, but it did not scare me. It was 12 noon after all. Far from 'witching hour'. Pickle sensed something too for as time went on with our search she got less comfortable. Anyways...we'll discuss my daughter's and my uncanny psychic abilities some other time (haha)...we followed the directions and the only thing that threw us was reading the compass for 280 degrees. Huh? We read the rest of the instructions and tried to see if we could do without that small detail. Well, by Mo's amazing Scooby like skills he found the rock the box was hidden under and we were victorious!
The kids, and I, are hooked! Mo demanded we do another one right away. So off we went to Silver Mines Park in Nashua.
At the next park we met up with a family on their own quest. We chatted and they too had been to Gilson Rd. Cemetery. Apparently their compass went haywire spinning! I would now like to blame ghosts and not my inept compass abilities. They seem to be having a great time with it and told us of other places in Nashua and the area. The three of us cannot wait now to get our own stamp to leave behind as our mark and search out other places. What fun!
Here are a few pictures of our adventure today...and I will say it again...I love New England!
Here we find our first box at the cemetery. The kids liked how we had to stay low and try to keep our finding it a secret, in case others were coming to find it themselves.
The custom stamps people do are quite impressive!
Box #2!
Pickle is victorious with a Bunny stamp!
And my favorite part of our adventures today? Spending time with my kids in the outdoors.
We are planning on a big day of letterboxing in a couple of weeks. Can't wait! Have to get it in before the snow all comes. We'll figure out some new adventures for those days when they come.
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