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Geocaching is an awesome whole family sport that everyone can enjoy. Pack an easy dinner recipe and make it a great outing to share with your family. All you need is some online information, a trinket or two (and a GPS unit), and to make it dinner time family adventure, a terrific packed dinner of easy recipes to eat on your adventure.

Geocaching is like hunting for hidden treasure, only the true treasure is the experience of the hunt. Go online and look up the location of a geocache in your area, then pack a picnic dinner, grab your GPS unit, and head off for a family adventure. The online websites will tell you the location of the cahe. Use your GPS unit to track the location. You never know what you'll find. Inside the cache, there should be a log book to write in and tell who you are and when you found the cache. Sometimes there are trinkets. You may take one if you leave one behind.

Read the logbook and see who has found the cache before you. Look at the contents of the cache. You are allowed to take one thing if you leave something. (Never take the cache itself.) Sometimes items are left in the cache with a tracking bug on them to track where the item goes. Sometimes there are instructions or requests to move the trinket further along on its journey.

Geocaching will have you tramping through forests, walking through fields and literally going who knows where. You can even plant a cache of your own and monitor it to see who uses it. It's really an adventure. And it is an activity that is appropriate for all ages. Give it a try. You never know what you'll find.

For some easy dinner recipes for this outing I am suggesting either panini or wraps. Both are highly portable and easy to keep cool until time to eat. In the pacific northwest, geocaches tend to be located in state parks, beaches, and other places which also have the advantage of having great picnicking facilities. Those are very handy to have with the family along. Also they have BBQ pits, so by packing some charcoal, or with a quick run to the car, we can toast our panini over the grill to make them soft, warm, and oozing with cheesy goodness (plus we can finish off with a toasted marshmallow, always a summertime favorite). The panini are good cold, too, in case your adventure does not bring you close to a convenient grill.

Enjoy!

What to bring:

1.) Instructions and location coordinates printed out from the internet.

2.) Good walking shoes. Make sure everybody has good durable walking or hiking shoes.

3.) Sunscreen -- you never know what weather you'll run into.