Taking a first timer

I had talked about letterboxing so much, that when Ben came to visit we had to plan a day boxing in the area. I had made him a signature stamp, he signed up for AQ as SeattleBoot and we were ready to go.

His first find! I think he's hooked. :)

After hitting a few in town we ended up heading for the coast. We visited places that we had both gone to before, but this time with a new appreciation, and with a new purpose. We stumbled upon some wonderful artwork in the Bodega Bay area. We also were the first finders of a stamp, a first for both of us. :)

A great place for a photo shoot

We also saw baby bunnies! They looked like domestics and not the typical wild rabbits that are in the area. They were so cute, they would flop on the trail, and as we got closer they would run ahead, and flop again. If I didn't have two buns at home, I would have been tempted to try and cuddle them then take them home with me.

As always, it was great to spend the day with SB. He will be in town for a few days longer, but I am headed up to his place in Seattle to take off for a cruise before he leaves CA. I'll see him when I get back (since I'm spending a few days at his house), making this the most we have seen each other in a month since I left Seattle and headed back to CA four years ago.

Hitting San Rafael

My second letter boxing experience was today. It was a spur of the moment decision, I headed over the Marin to meet up with Qbert to go hunting in San Rafael.

We started with the idea that we would hunt down six or seven. We have high expectations and a few were indoors, so why not? Q knows San Rafael better then I do, so he found a place to park by several and we decided to explore the area by foot. We went to our first indoor box, which was supervised by librarians. The one that Q asked has no idea what he was talking about, but luckily the lady nearby knew and got it for us.

The next few we found no problem, and I got a few cool pictures in the meanwhile...We also stumbled upon our first problem. We followed rather fun puzzle clues... only to find no box. We searched the surrounding area for a good 15 minutes with no luck. We came to the conclusion that one of the residents of the park must have taken it, because we saw several belongings nearby.

We saved the best for last, Q was super excited about going to San Quentin Point. I was a little nervous, it is right by a major prison after all. But I had never even thought about getting off at the exit before, so I was a little excited as well. Wow, what a view! I can see why people are so willing to live next to the prison.

Unfortunately, the tree the box was in was chopped and piled nicely on the point. This is one that we have to go to again if it is ever replanted

Final count of the day:
5 found
3 attemped

Getting Started

Took the leap into the world of letterboxing today. Armed with clues for several boxes around town, stamps and stamp pads I ventured out with Qbert and Elefant Gal to see what we could find. Once we found the perfect books to use as our log books (Moleskine notebooks, love them!) we were ready to hunt.
The first one was easy for us to find. It was a park that we had been to before and since we were the only ones there we found and stamped in with no problem. We did find our first flaw- we need more than one pen or pencil for the three of us.

Our first found box!

The rest of the day we stumbled upon the typical problems. At one location there was a major landmark that was no longer there, luckily being locals we knew where it was, and found the box anyways. At another there was people who decided to settle in for a picnic, so we started a photo shot that sent one member of our party into a tree to pose and retrieve the box. It worked out pretty well, and I have some interesting photos as a result.
One of the not so interesting ones.

In total we found six stamps and one hitchhiker (which we didn't know to take with us, oh well, next time!). It was a great first adventure, and I'm ready to go out again!