2 August 2014 Caching Columbus

Each year our prairie cemetery visits have included some additional adventure. Today's journey was to finally visit Columbus and Franklin Counties to explore the local caches. The summer's rain was back with a vengeance. We spent the morning and early afternoon caching through a cold rain.

We were in a small neighborhood park that wound behind the local houses when the woods ended and we were treated to some very nice wildflowers.

We moved on to the Scioto Audubon Park where I was happy despite the cold and the rain when I found the toys added to this urban park. The obstacle course was fun. I did all the stages except the death-defying balance beams and the picking up and flipping truck tires portion.

The rock wall is probably really popular in good weather. There were no takers in today's rainy day.

Ali almost left me at the Neos game. I still prefer my parks to have trees and nature, but Scioto Audubon is a really well done re-use of old industrial land. The park had many toys for people of all ages.

We moved on to an attractive community park with an outdoor performance stage. I think my acting skills still need some practice, but we enjoyed the sights of the park.

Wood ducks hiding with mallards.

The view from backstage

We stopped at the Topiary Garden to view the topiary depiction of the painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Ile de La Grande Jatte. It was a fun stop. We were there for a virtual cache, but missed the information for the find. It was still a worthwhile visit.

We sampled a little of all the offerings with a stop at an attractive City of Columbus Park. The toughest part of this stop was waiting out muggles at the cache by the water.

Did we cross the stream?

or use the "unsafe" bridge?

Maybe both...

Our day was winding down when we were treated to the sight of a number of young bluebirds. This park's bluebird boxes paid dividends.

We capped our day with a visit to Dairy Isle and enjoyed a spot of sun at the end of the day.