Have you heard about Geocaching? Wondering what it is? It is a treasure hunt that is outside. It uses a GPS or GPS-enabled mobile device and GPS coordinates to find a geocache or cache (the hidden treasure).

Sometimes the cache is very small with no objects in it, but others are a bit larger with objects you can take. Then, you can put something else in to add to the cache.

Our family had been hearing about this activity for several years but never tried it before this summer. One Saturday, the entire family decided to see what it was all about.  We put on our walking shoes and grabbed our cellphones. The first cache we tried to find was missing and hadn’t been found in months. We searched for the second one for a while before we gave up. We kept going and finally started to find the caches. We were in many locations all over Salem searching for treasures and laughing together as a family. We worked as a family to find the cache and see what was in it. We were exercising as a family and making memories together.

After our first day of geocaching, we had dinner with Fran Ferguson, the Director of the Salem Museum. We started to talk about our fun family adventure and explain what all the fun is about. Fran told us we could put a geocache at the Salem Museum. My children were so excited to be able to add some of their ideas to their very own cache and the idea of bringing others to the beautiful Salem Museum. This was a great opportunity for everyone.

If you want to find our geocache, simply go to www.geocaching.com. Sign-up and go have fun!

-Submitted by Shanda Johnson