Geocaching and Pumpkins

Today was a lot of fun and it was a gorgeous day! We went geocaching with our friends, the Kaufmans, and then we all went up to Mom and Dad's for the annual Pumpkin Carving Fest.

It was a hot day for October (88 degrees!!), but nice! We started out by showing the Kaufmans a few of our caches and a few other cool caches in the area and then we headed up into the foothills, by way of Auberry Road, to a geocaching get-together that was celebrating the return of a cacher who had spent the last eighteen months traveling around the US by Amtrack train and finding caches in each of the contiguous 48 states. What a great goal to accomplish!

From there we drove up into the mountains around Kerkoff and Redinger Lakes in the Sierra mountains past Auberry. We drove as far Cal Center where there is a benchmark showing the exact center of California. There is also a cache there. There was a different one there six years ago when we were last there, so it was fun to go back and see it again and find another cache. We found a few other caches on the way back towards Auberry.

As we drove through the mountains and around the lakes we stopped to take photos here and there, as the Kaufmans had never been up in the mountains here. It was a perfect day to show off the beauty of this area! Kevin stopped short twice to get out and look at tarantulas that were crossing the road (I stayed in the van, thank you very much!). That was the only "wildlife" that we encountered.

We got up to Mom and Dad's house and had dinner (Mom makes the best soups!). Besides us and the Kaufmans, there was Wes and Laura and Stone and Scotty and Lea. We hadn't seen Scotty and Lea for a few months, so it was great to be able to catch up with them a little bit.

After dinner we all headed out to the garage where Mom and Dad always have the table covered and there are tons of bowls for the pumpkin guts (This year, Scotty not only brought gloves, but a surgical gown as well! Too funny!), and every cutting implement you can think of. There are all kinds of patterns to choose from as well, although most of us come with designs in mind. I found an idea that I couldn't wait to try. I spray painted the pumpkin black and then carved out the design. It looks really neat! Amanda carved the face of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, Rebecca wrote several things on her pumpkin and then carved a jack-o-lantern face on it, and Katie just drew a face and some squiggles, took out a few pumpkin seeds and then declared that she was done.

This is always a fun part of the Fall/Halloween season and we always love being there, not only to carve pumpkins, but to talk and enjoy the company of our friends and family.


See all the geocaching pics HERE.
See all the pumpkin carving pics HERE.