Caching to Osoyoos for Another Wedding

Well, it seems 2014 is the year to get married.  Cause here we were heading to another one, except this time it was in Osoyoos.  My cousin was getting married to his sweetie, and this was their form of a destination wedding.  Since we would be traveling with my parents that meant my geocaching dad Postie Bear would be with us, and he was itching to grab a few caches along the way.  In the months leading up the wedding we planned and talked about what kind of caches we wanted to do, and the decision was to minimize searching by doing a few Earthcaches.
For those of you new to my blog you can find a description of the various cache types at this Geocache Types link! We felt this would be easy to accomplish and move on, but of course we tossed in a couple of traditional caches for fun too.

We started to travel on Sunday June 15th, 2014.  While we were at Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal waiting to board, I remembered that there was an old mystery cache that was here called "Swartz Bay NBC - GC11F3K".  The information required to log was only obtainable if you were on the sailing side of the gates, but as a previous finder I took my dad to the final.  It was nice to see I could locate it so quickly (as sometimes these things move), and dad signed the very wet logbook.  But when he went to the phone to log it the starting icon wasn't there.  So doing a little homework I figured out that it had been archived due to it being missing.  Well it sure wasn't missing, it was right where I found it back in July of 2011.. So after affirming that it was acceptable to log an archived cache on the GCGV Facebook Page, dad moved forward and logged it as found.  Shortly after we were called back to the vehicle to board the Ferry, and soon were on our way.

The first was just outside of Hope, and it was called "Hope Slide Earthcache - GC1626F".  This was and interesting location, and holds a somber reminder of the destructive power of Mother Nature.  Here at this site was the location of a massive rock slide that buried an entire area,  it's lake, and claimed a few human lives.  There are various websites with information of this area and event, and I encourage you to read about it and possibly pay a visit if you are ever passing by.

The next was a traditional in Manning Park called "BC Parks 100 - Manning Park Resort - GC2ZJ73" that literally just an easy walk up and find.  We didn't spend one second looking for this cache, as soon as our GPSr's beeped the cache was already in hand.
This spot had a nice little cafe nearby, so we stopped to grab a coffee and snack before jetting off once again.

Next we stopped in Princeton and did another Earthcache called "GCR: The Princeton Beer Cave - GC29MDT".  This location has a very interesting history, and a google search will provide you with a ton of links to check out to learn a bit this interesting and unique geological location.

We arrived in Osoyoos a few hours later and checked into the resort where the Wedding was to be held, and pre-wedding partied late into the night with our family.

The next day (June 16th, 2014) was the day of the wedding, but the event wasn't until the late afternoon.  So what does a family of geocachers do when they have some spare time on their hands?? They geocache of course!  So after a nice breakfast we headed out to grab the last Earthcache on our list.  This cache was made by a cacher who used to be a resident of Vancouver Island, and one we had gotten to know in the past.  His caching name is Kiwibirdman, and the cache is called "Osoyoos Lake and Haynes Point Enigma - GC47DDM".
Here we had to put on our thinking caps a bit, as the answers we were seeking were not 100% obvious.  But we did come up with some that we were happy with and headed out; but as we drove out of the park we saw a nature info sign, and we stopped to see if if contained any info relevant to the Earthcache and double check our answers.  And as we piled out of the car the occupants of another vehicle parked nearby noticed the back of my leg (I have a trackable tattooed to it if any of you didn't know, click HERE to learn more).  One of them hopped out of the car to meet us, and ask to discover it.  We learned that they were from Germany on a geocaching holiday and that his caching name is Lost Joe.  We had a nice talk, had our pictures taken together and had to part ways.

On the way back to the resort we stopped for two more quick traditionals, which were nice and easy to find.  They were "Rocky Hill Cache - GC3PYFZ" and "Rocky Road Cache - GC3PYJ0".  Once we had them found it was back to the resort for a quick clean up and change, and soon it was time for my cousin's wedding.

A big thanks to all the cachers who setup/hid the Earthcaches and Traditionals we found on this trip! And to Lost Joe and his girlfriend, it was a pleasure to meet you.  Thanks for taking the time to come over and introducing yourselves!!