Geocaching at Carney Park

January 23rd

My cousin Heather works at Carney Park and organized a Geocaching event.
Dan and I came to help.

Trying to get everyone's device to find the correct GPS coordinates was a little tricky.

We decided to climb the volcano and look for a cache that's up there on the end of the ridge by those trees.  This was mostly because I had found the cache there previously, so we could guarantee to at least be looking in the correct spot.

Our hike begins!  We had a good group of people turn out for the event.

The trail is narrow and in some places not well kept.

Our first stop for photos of the view.

And a little bit of rock scrambling.

Some of the view.

Some more of the view.

Now up the steep and narrow part.  I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a trail, but I used it last time with Michael. So we're going this way because I know it will get us to where we want to go.

Outside and inside the park.  We started waaaaaaaay down there in the parking lot.  

It's right of the center of the photo.

We got to the general area where the cache is hidden and everyone began looking.

And looking.

And looking some more.  Unfortunately, this cache had gone missing.  Total bummer.  

A view of the golf course.

There's another cache a little ways up the trail though, so I ran ahead to see if it was still there.  It was, though it had been emptied out.  So I put some paper in it for a log and sent the group on their way to find it.

Hurray!  Cache found!

Go team Geocaching Event!

We broke off at this point.  Some people continued to hike, others had to leave for other appointments.  We stayed and mucked about a bit.

Actually on our way down we found the first cache's cache.  It looks like a dog or other animal found and and carried it along for a bit before discarding it.  Those still with us signed the log and then I took it back to where it was supposed to be.

And to finish off our hike, here are some seed pods (above) and a weird flower thing (below).  

I don't know what either of them are.

This concludes our adventures for today.

We're off to Sicily - Day 6

January 20th

This morning we packed up and started our journey home.
Which starts with several photos of Mt. Etna.

Of course it's clear today.

Etna is smoking.  You aren't imagining that.

It's one of the world's most active volcanoes. 

A succession of tiny hilltop towns!

I forgot why I took this photo.  

Oh! It's because there's a rainbow just above the central mountainy bit.  

If you squint you can see it.  

And then nothing happened for a long time, mostly because I was driving.  

It's not safe to be driving AND taking photos.  Dan was playing Candy Crush or asleep.  

Until we made a pit stop to check out Vietri again and to watch the sunset.

The clouds let the moon show for a little bit.

It was a little too cloudy for a really good sunset, but it was still a lovely sunset.

And then all the beach lights came on.

I think we got home, unloaded the car, and passed out.  I'm sure Sicily has some lovely things, but we didn't have the best trip there.  It wasn't anyone's fault, except maybe the hotel booking website, but it still ended up with a lot of frustration.  Oh well.  We've had so many good trips that we were bound to have a "not totally amazing" one at some point.

This concludes our adventures for today.

We're off to Sicily - Day 5

January 19th

Today I mostly did nothing.  I walked around the base.  I walked Ta around the base.  I read.  I watched movies on AFN and played my 3DS.  I really did not do a whole lot of anything.

At one point I took Ta out to run around in the little dog paddock and was amused by these cats warming themselves on this forklift type machine's still warm engine.

In the evening we ventured into Catania to try an Escape Game.  It was the first one we didn't escape from.  It was a fairly challenging game with several rooms and some very different puzzles/challenges.  I'd like to say that it was too difficult for just two people, however we had a sever dyslexic moment and seriously screwed ourselves on time.  Oh well.  We still had fun.

This concludes our adventures for today.

We're off to Sicily - Day 4

January 18th

This morning we piled into the car to drive across Sicily to get to Sigonella.

Side Note:  I forgot to mention that I can only imagine what housekeeping thought had happened in our hotel bathroom.  We washed and rubbed all the mud off of everything, which of course left a huge mess.  It didn't look pretty if you know what I mean.

Anyway, here are a bunch of drive-by photos:

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

People from Sicily consider themselves Sicilian first and Italian second.

Sicilian is considered a dialect of Italian, but really it's so different it's basically its own language.

The Mafia originated here, but Sicilians are trying hard to separate themselves from the world of organized crime.

Most of Sicily's landscape is hilly and rugged.

Supposedly, the Straight of Messina (which we crossed to get from the mainland to Sicily) is the home of Charibdys and Scylla.  Those of you who remember the Odyssey will know them as the monsters Odysseus had to pass through to continue on his voyage. 

The Sonnet was created in Sicily by Giacomo da Lentini.  If you don't remember high school English, a sonnet is a poem of 14 lines made up of three sets of quatrains and one couplet.  It is written in iambic pentameter and was popular with Shakespeare.

We decided we'd try to go up Etna before getting to Sigonella.  On our first attempt we went up a less used road and eventually had to turn back because of the snow.  Our second attempt was much more successful; however, it quickly became clear that we wouldn't be able to take the cable car to the very top and it was too cloudy/foggy/snowy.  Oh well.

You can see it's bright and sunny down below Etna, but you can also see the looming cloud layer above us - into which we're going to drive.

Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe.  It stands at just shy of 11,000 feet. 

Remember when I said it was cloudy?   This was what about 1/3 of the drive up Etna looked like.

We made it to the top, or as far as the public are allowed to drive, but there were no cable cars to the caldera today.  We wouldn't be able to see anything even it they were running.  So we got a hot beverage at the little cafe up here and bought a souvenir hat for our friend Nick.

Dan and Ta climbed the parking lot snow pile.  Because....why not?

We headed back down Etna after this.

Our little car has been on a few adventures, even just on this trip!

Looming cloud, land below Etna in the sun, and snowy Etna.

Selfie on the way down to prove we were here!  

Yes, it's snowing.

We got to Sigonella in the evening and had some nonsense about which base we were supposed to be staying on and some more nonsense about at which Navy Lodge/Navy Gateway Inn & Suites we were supposed to be.  There are two disparate parts to base and three hotels - hence the confusion.  We finally got settled and decided to get something to eat, only we couldn't because it was a Federal Holiday and everything on base was closed.  We managed to discover an Irish pub across and down the street a bit, where we each got a ginormous cheeseburger and a few beers. 

This concludes our adventures for today.

We're off to Sicily - Day 3

January 17th

Since were weren't planning on spending time in Palermo, we didn't have a plan to explore it.  It was Sunday, so many things were closed.

I don't know what this sign was about, but I thought it was fun.

We ended up wandering around the city.

And we found Gang Bros God and Jesus.

We found a botanical garden and wandered around, partially because we could take Ta in with us.  The Orto Botanical Garden was a little in disrepair like most of Southern Italy.  But it was a nice enough day and we didn't have anything else to do.  So we explored.

We thought these were fake.  They look fake.

Nope!  Here's a whole tree of them.  

And there were more trees chock full of little blue green olive type thingies.

I love these types of trees.  I think it's a Banyan Tree.  They're a type of fig!

They send out prop roots so that the branches can continue to grow and they (the trees as a whole) can become massive.  I think they're neat.

The garden is apparently a research and educational institute for the University of Palermo.

We found a small restaurant that at first didn't want to serve us with Ta, but ultimately decided that it was fine.  I don't remember what I ate but it was pasta with cream sauce, bacon, and pistachios.  It was delicious.  After lunch we went back to the hotel and took naps.

We left Ta at the hotel so we could try Palermo's Escape Game.  

We managed to escape just in the nick of time.  I think we had like a minute left.

This concludes our adventures for today.