Thursday, August 21, 2008

Letterboxing

O.k, so maybe I'm kind of a nerd but Peter and I have become hooked on something called letterboxing. I found out about it through a magazine article a while ago, and since then we have been hunting down letterboxes both close to home and while on vacation. Basically, letterboxing is kind of like treasure hunting. It started in England and then came over to the U.S. and kind of morphed into what it is now. You find clues to get to a letterbox on the Internet (I usually use http://www.letterboxing.org) and you follow those clues to a hidden box. In the box is a notebook and a stamp which is usually hand carved. You also should have your own stamp (preferably hand carved but it can be store-bought) and a notebook. You then stamp the box's stamp into your book and your stamp into the box's book. It's pretty fun, especially when you find a box someplace that you've unknowingly walked past dozens of times. Peter and I like to do it as a family home evening activity.
On Monday we finally planted a box ourselves up a canyon that we like (naturally I can't say exactly where or I'd have to kill you). It was a fun adventure. Here are some pictures to document the fact that I do get out once in a while:

Here is Adventurer Peter. He is excited to be wearing a purple baby carrier.


Adventurer Jonathan finds nature very relaxing.


Adventurer Becca making use of a thinking log.


Adventurers Jonathan and Becca at the entrance to a sweet mine up the canyon. Unfortunately, Adventurer Becca is a bit of a pansy when it comes to dark underground places and wouldn't stay in the mine long enough to get a picture actually in it.


Adventurer Peter is much braver and didn't mind being inside the mine. It really is him, even if he just looks like a floating t-shirt.


So there it is. Good times. Great oldies.