A Lazy Sunday Geocaching in Dupont Circle

Today I ventured over to Dupont Circle with every intent of geocaching. I first stopped by Dupont Circle's weekly FRESHFARM Market, where I enjoyed a roasted strawberry (!)-flavored push pop on this very humid day.

My first caching attempt of the day was a trip to the Anderson House cache on Massachusetts Ave. I took a quick peak at the place where I originally discovered the cache last summer (Anderson House cache) and didn't see it, but before I was able to poke around any further, I noticed a large tour group of muggles just outside the Anderson House so I retreated back to the circle.

Next, after stopping at one of the area's many Starbucks for a frappuccino, I stopped by a cache at the St. Thomas' Parish Park to try and discover a cache that stumped me twice last year, due I believe to a combination of a stealthy cache and high muggle presence. Unfortunately today was no exception. Though I spent a little time in one of the two areas where I believe the cache must be placed, I noticed a muggle laying in a hammock just beside the second location I was hoping to check.

On the way back to the Dupont Circle Metro I walked past the Indonesian Embassy - it was as if the mothership was calling me over (I spent over 7 years in the forests of Indonesia: Field Blog). I clearly remember once running in my flip flops from the Dupont Circle Metro to the Indonesian Embassy within minutes of it closing after hearing at the very last minute (day before my flight!) that my research visa was ready to pick up.

One day I must figure out what this interesting sign near the Dupont Circle Metro actually refers to (is there, in fact, a very special art gallery down the street?!):

Once back in my neighborhood I visited for a second time the PandaMania - Woodley Park (first visit: PandaMania-WP). I thought I found the right spot, but the area was overrun with muggles.
Update 6/6/15: I checked back a few days later and this time looked inside all of the news stands, but couldn't find a cache. The last log entry also indicates a DNF--hope the cache is still active!

Jurassic Pork

GC5DF0Z by treasuretrask
Location: Washington, DC (Cleveland Park)
Cache Type: Traditional

Found on the second attempt, after reading a comment on Geocaching.com that said not to get thrown off by the random tether attached to the base of one of the railings in the area indicated by the given coordinates. 

Cache was easy to find once I looked in the right place!

 What do you get when you cross a pig with a dinosaur?…JURASSIC PORK!

Cache is filled with dinosaurs. I added the two on the ground to right of the cache:

I exchanged them for these two plastic dinosaurs:

I ended up going back a few days after first discovering the cache to place the first of two geocoins I would like to place in this cache as their cache of origin. I tethered the geocoin to the neck of a dino I added to the cache (and swapped for other geoswag). The geocoin is from Chicago, given to me by a friend who now lives in Atlanta, GA. For a fun little story, around the same time I planted this geocoin in a cache in DC (where I am from) the friend who gave me the coin from Chicago (where she is from) is planning to place a geocoin I gave her from DC in Chicago.

I never did figure out what the initials "CDW" on the dinosaur in the pavement near the cache spot stands for. I had to close up the cache quickly due to heavy Muggle activity in the area so didn't see if the answer might have been in the bottom of the container. I will just have to return to the cache. It's large enough that I will easily be able to add a trackable geocoin!

A few days ago I saw this inventive prom proposal written in chalk on a pedestrian path in Rock Creek Park from a position on the bridge leading into the Cleveland Park neighborhood very close to this cache on my way back from picking up my groceries at the Yes! Market:

**UPDATE: one day on my way home from grocery shopping down the street in Cleveland Park I thought I would check up on my favorite cache site and sadly, it looks like Jurrasic Pork is no more - no cache container at least, so I will have to check out Geocaching.com to see if there are any postings about it.**

Geoswag!

Geoswag collected from caches to date:

Niko gives geoswag from a dino-themed cache his stamp of approval!

First Caches of 2015

This morning my mother visited so we could celebrate Mother's Day together a day early. After walking to and from the National Cathedral from my apartment, we attempted to find 3 fairly recently placed local geocaches. Unfortunately we didn't have any success for 3 different reasons, though the actual find is only part of the fun of geocaching.

PandaMania - Woodley Park (GC5JX90 by Aliengirl)  

This cache is hidden somewhere in the proximity of Home Rule, one of the statues from the PandaMania art exhibit that took place in the summer of 2004 throughout DC. Here are some photos of Home Rule by Anne Marchand--I like the little tree on his butt: 

The problem with this cache was that after having read the hint given on Geocaching.com for this particular cache, I am nearly certain that this cache is hidden somewhere near the red newspaper stand just behind the musician at the Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan Metro stop elevator. I will have to return sometime soon!

Jurassic Pork (GC5DF0Z by treasuretrask)       
Our next stop was what I believe would have been an excellent cache site had it not been muggled (at least this is what I suspect happened). I believe this plastic tie once tethered the cache to the bridge, though I will look again sometime soon (I walk across this bridge every week when I go grocery shopping at the Yes! Market in Cleveland Park):

*UPDATE!* The cache is alive and well; I found it the second time around and will write a separate post about the find!

I would also really like to learn more about the name "CDW" on the dino in the pavement within about a meter of the cache according to my GPS...

PandaMania - Cleveland Park (GC5JXAX by Aliengirl)
Another cache from the PandaMania series, this one in front of the Cleveland Park Public Library. I know I am looking for a nano bison tube, but there were many muggles around and my mother and I didn't have any luck poking around looking for the cache, even after taking the published hint. Another cache I will have to return to sometime soon. The cache is located somewhere in the vicinity of this panda sculpture, East West by Byron Peck. This sculpture includes images from the west (the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, on the front) and east (a Chinese landscape).