US Trip 2017 – Day 20 – Going APE

In Out caching
Scroll this

The main thing on the plan this day, was the Going APE mega event, and the APE cache itself. We also had some caches planned in Seattle, and a visit to the Space Needle.

Approximate time on road/out caching: 15 hours
Total miles driven: 122.6 mi / 197,3 km
Total cahes found: 9
Total DNF: 0
States visited: Washington
Famous places visited: Space Needle, APE cache
Most memorable cache: GC6ZR1H 520 Bellevue TB hotel
Biggest surprise: That we managed to do all we wanted in Seattle (in the short amount of time we had)
Weather: Mostly sunny, windy
Highest temperature: 81°F / 27,2°C
Lowest temperature: 55°F / 12,7°C
Roadwork: Yes

Roadwork

We were clearly warned about heavy roadwork along the way to the event. So we got up early, as usual, and headed almost straight to the event. We stopped at only one cache in Ellensburg before leaving.

The traffic wasn’t that bad, and neither was the roadwork. But we’re not complaining when it’s better than expected! 😀

Arriving early

Last time we attended the Going APE event, we arrived too late to park in the main parking lot. This time however, there was plenty of parking available when we arrived. Perfect! It however filled very quickly, so by the time we made it to the check-in, it was already full.

We got our stuff (most of it), and decided to wait for Vatvedt and titi89. It’s always nice to meet other Norwegian geocachers when traveling this far from home.

Into the dark

Once Vatvedt and titi89 arrived, we headed into the dark. This is the second time we’re walking through this tunnel, and it’s still very long and very dark! We also decided that it was finally time to get the earthcache GC3TT7R Iron Horse Speleothems done.

We’re not alone

Once we got to the other side, it was only a short hike left to the APE cache. But it was a long wait to get there! Guess we’re not the only one wanting to find this special cache…

But we finally got to stamp the log, and get a new icon 😀

Avenging a DNF

After the event (and picking up the rest of our stuff, after Vatvedt made us aware of the fact that we should have gotten more than we had), we went down to GC4JRQ2 Alpine Lakes: Keechelus Lake. We couldn’t find it the last time we were here, so we wanted to give it a new try. And this time it was easy, it was already found when we arrived 😛

High traffic

One more cache later, and it was time to get on to the interstate. There was a lot of traffic between the event and Seattle. Luckily for us, most of it was going in the opposite direction. We were only slightly delayed when stopping at the awesome cache GC4VP6B Truck Stop.

From there, we continued straight to the next cache, without stopping any more.

An awesome TB hotel

The next cache on the list was GC6ZR1H 520 Bellevue TB hotel. Once we eventually figured out how to actually get there, it was an easy find. And it was a very fun find! We’ll not spoil this cache any more, other than saying it’s one of the best travel bug hotels we’ve found. And we suggest that anyone visiting the greater Seattle area to take the time to find this cache!

A mystery

Another place we’ve wanted to visit for a while now, is the GC5XVYW A Seattle Oddity: The Mystery Soda Machine.

As with the previous cache, we did struggle a bit with finding the best place to park. But once we did, finding the soda machine and the cache was easy. And so much fun 😀 Who put this out here? And what would we get out of it?

We tried three times, and got this:

Amazing view

The soda machine was the last cache we found this day. After that, we headed to our Airbnb appartement. Hotel prices in Seattle have double/tripled since the first time we visited. So we use Airbnb for the second time in Seattle.

And wow. This apartment was awesome. The view from the balcony was amazing.

Our Seattle routine

Whenever we’re in Seattle, we have a few things we just have to do. Like visit the waterfront and drink lemonade at The Frankfurter. We didn’t have much time, since we had a reservation in the Space Needle. So we decided to test Über for the first time. Wow, that was fast and efficient!

And we got to do our routine, visit Pike Place Market, try to spot geocachers at the gum wall, visit Ye Olde Curiosity Shop and drink lemonade at The Frankfurter.

Ending the day in the Needle

We did have to skip the last cache on our plan, but with another Über, we made it in time for our reservation in the Space Needle. Dinner in the Space Needle is another Seattle tradition for us. And since we’re usually here around the same time of the year, we’ve celebrated Heltinnen’s birthday and our anniversary most of the times we’ve been here. We usually always go up right before sunset, so we get to enjoy the view both in daylight, during the sunset and after the sunset. It’s always fascinating to see how a city come to life after the sun sets.

Vatvedt and titi89 joined us again, and we had a great time in the Needle 😀

After dinner, we went up to the observation deck. The view from here is still awesome 😀

A perfect way to end the day! And it was only a short walk to get back to the Airbnb apartment.

Pictures

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments