Of all the events we attended during our time in the Seattle area, GC24GYW Lost & Found Celebration was Mrs. GeoKs’ favourite.

We started the day by searching out a parking spot in a residential on the south shore of Lake Union, (rightly) figuring it would be a short and easy walk across the Fremont Bridge. And since Mrs. GeoK had made good use of our hotel’s free printer access to print off all the details of the 10-stage geocaching challenge, we were able to complete two stages before we even crossed the bridge…

GeoKids at a geocaching challenge station (the one with the big red Jeep)

There were a several vendor tables set up just outside Groundspeak HQ, when we arrived a little before the official event start time. We were fortunate to spend 15 or 20 minutes chatting with Chip Noble of Delorme, about potential Delorme solutions for some of the communication challenges faced by the extensive outdoor education at the GeoKids’ school. He also gift our Youngest GeoKid and Delorme cap and t-shirt. Thanks, Chip!

After watching the action at the dunk tank for a few minutes, we collected chains and clue sheets for the Fremont scavenger hunt and headed off in search of 5 Fremont landmarks. Fortunately, we spotted some locals who were curious about the event and they were able to give us directions to all of the public art locations described by the clues. At our second stop, the "Center of the Universe", we bumped into Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher podcast, and compared notes about our progress completing the scavenger hunt.

At the giant troll, we ran into our local cache reviewers Carol & Ed, aka Cache Effect, aka Kootenay Pirates. While waiting in line to sign the logbook for a nearby micro cache, we traded geocoins and pathtags and then had a bit of a chat, joined also by a member of the CONVOY.

At that point, after a brief family discussion, we made the decision to try to complete the remaining stages of the geocaching challenge on foot. Taking advantage of the fact that there are 4 people in the family, we divided up the remaining stages and set-off, promising to stay in touch via the handheld FSRs we had in our caching bags.

Some 2 hours later, after each "team" walked a good 10 km or more, we finally joined back up at the posted event coordinates, where we successfully claimed geocaching challenge completion prizes from the Geoteaming booth.

Our final activity was to track down Moun10Bike to swap personal geocoins. We learned that he loves to bike in the Calgary area and invited him to contact us next time he’s in the area so we can all go riding together.

The Lackeys did a great job organizing this event. There were lots of activities to choose from and plenty of opportunities to speak with Groundspeak staff. And to top it all off, we earned a unique event icon! Here’s Youngest GeoKid adding our caching name to the official event "logbook"….