We’re at it again!
Go find the dragon…if you dare!
Archive for the 'Letterboxing' Category
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…and just like that, we’ve planted our first traditional letterbox!
Oh my goodness, this is so exciting; I can hardly stand it!
I’m sure you’ve heard of Flat Stanley. He’s the little paper guy that gets himself mailed all over the world to the delight of Elementary Students everywhere. (If I had a penny for every Flat Stanley has come to Colorado via one of my friends, I’d have a lot of pennies.)
Claire and I have been wanting to create our own letterboxes ever since we got hooked on this hobby back in August. It wasn’t as high on our priority list as finding them, but we knew we’d do it someday.
Well, this day has come. After finally locating the supplies we needed this weekend, we’ve started carving. (It’s harder than you may think to find supplies in our area, which is awesome since Letterboxing is all about the hunt!)
Carving Supplies. Locals, the Michael's in Superior carries these. Don't bother looking in a smaller store. You're welcome. 
We opted to start with a Hitchhiker so that we could get one out there quickly. A traditional letterbox requires premeditation and then action based on those things: a superb hiding place, a tricky clue, etc. Plus, we have log-books and carving supplies, but we don’t have any of the Lock-it boxes yet. Patience is not our forte, so we’ve gone the quick route for our first letterbox.
A hitchhiker requires a carve and a tiny container. Daddy just finished all the Altoids in his “mini box,” so we took that as a sign.
We got the idea to do a Stamp Stanley because who else would love to travel?
Carving Stamp Stanley. I sat out on the deck to carve him last night. Perfect!
Wooden Block Backing: Daddy insisted on making a more professional looking back to Stamp Stanley that would help him hold-up under the pressure of all this travel. It's a nice touch!
Stamp Stanley is complete!
Claire and Stamp Stanley
All ready to go!
Goodbye Stamp Stanley! We hid him in a box in Denver that gets a lot of traffic. Enjoy your travels! We hope to hear from you soon!
When we woke up, it was pouring rain, despite the forecast saying it would be sunny and near 70. But, in true Colorado-style, everything took a turn for the better and the forecast proved to be right.
It was the perfect day to zip down after school and meet some friends at our monthly meeting spot for a Letterboxing Adventure. (We found box number 45! Hurray for little mini-milestones!)
I love it when a plan comes together!
Have you tried Letterboxing yet?
We’re still somewhat obsessed about it. Check out the tab at the top of the page to see how many we have found now. I’ll give you a hint…as of the publication of this post…it rhymes with smorty.
Today, we went letterboxing with some friends downtown. We stopped to get the one at Union Station first and then went to find another one in the area. Daddy then picked us up and took Claire and me out to lunch at a place that is also home to a hidden letterbox! And, in with that carving, we found a hitchhiker!
It’s not every day you can be excited about picking up a hitchhiker, and it’s certainly not every day you actively try to find a home for one.
Oh no. This means we’ll be forced to go letterboxing again soon. Darn.
While in Hawaii, we took the opportunity to find some Letterboxes! We ended up finding five of them: three on Maui and two on Kauai.
We attempted another two in Maui and another one in Kauai, but to no avail.
Still, even if you don’t find a Letterbox, you’re still in Hawaii!
I dare say my husband is hooked. Prior to our trip, Claire and I have been Letterboxing buddies. (I’d asked Claire if it was okay to go letterboxing without her, and she was fine with it. She was excited to see the new stamps!) Daddy has declined joining us, and I never pressed the issue. I knew he’d love it, but it’s something he’d have to figure out on his own.
Well, by the time we’d searched for our second one in Hawaii, I could tell he was just as excited about it as I was. Now, instead of a little preschooler saying, “Let’s just look a few more minutes, Momma!” the pleas came from someone a little taller with a deeper voice. Always thinking the same thing, I was happy to oblige.
The cool thing about Letterboxing in Hawaii was it gave us an excuse to see things we would have never seen otherwise. I mean, there is so much to see in Hawaii…you have to draw the line somewhere.
One place we wanted to see was the Black Sand Beach of Maui. Yes, there is a black sand beach on Maui, and it was in our guide book. It had also come highly recommended by some other people. Imagine my surprise at finding clues to a Letterbox near that very beach!
I printed the clues in advance, since I wasn’t sure if I’d have coverage (I did, mostly, but it’s best to be prepared). We explored the beach, but could NOT find the Letterbox. The clues weren’t making sense, which is a sure sign that we were in the wrong place. For the life of us, we could NOT find the right trail where we were supposed to be on at that beach!
We decided to have a picnic lunch at the park there, rather than bite each other’s heads off over a silly Letterbox. Not being able to figure out clues can make one grumpy…one of the only dangers of Letterboxing, if you don’t count bees, spiders, and falling rocks (that’s a story for another time.) After eating, we had renewed patience and energy, and we did what all good Letterboxers do: We started back at the beginning of the clue.
And guess what??
We found the elusive trail! The trail was one of the coolest we’ve ever been on!
You can't tell from the picture how dark and wonderful this trail is! It was very private.
It was secluded!
We would have never found it without knowing it existed, and we wouldn’t have known it existed without the Letterbox clue.
As soon as we found it, the clues just fell into place.
I found the box!
We found an even more secluded area off the main trail for me to do the stamp transfers!
He stood guard and pretended to take photos of the view…
...but he really took photos of me.
He also took photos of the view.
And that’s one reason why Letterboxing in Hawaii was so much fun. All we needed to be “sneaky” was to make sure our camera was out. “Don’t mind us,” we’d think to ourselves. “We’re just taking photos of the scenery.”
And, it was almost always true.
Well, it’s official. We’re hooked. If you notice, there is a new tab at the top of the blog:
Not only are we dutifully recording our finds on the official Letterboxing website, I’ve decided to make a list of them here, too.
Claire and I love looking through our real, hand-held, made-of-paper, Logbook and seeing the different stamps made from the intricate carvings. I’ve even written notes next to each one so that we can remember the adventures we’ve had. The note like, “old, dead tree with BEES! and spiders!” makes me laugh. Another notable one is “Skunk bridge!”
So far, we’ve escaped relatively unscathed and always eager to find the next one!
Well, are you ready for some San Francisco stories of adventure?
The short version? We had a great trip! Claire has always been a fantastic traveler, and this was no exception.
The longer version? Grab a drink; sit back and get comfy…and fasten your seat belts. I’m afraid this may be a bumpy ride in parts, quite literally…
Speaking of transportation, we bought a “Seven Day Passport” that allowed us to ride the MUNI and public transit all day, every day, regardless of “type” (the cable car, street-car, bus, and train were included…except BART, but that’s okay, because we weren’t headed in BART’s direction anyway) all the days of our stay for a one-time relatively low fee. Claire was free to ride anyway, and after a couple roundtrips on anything, we’d paid for the pass. We HIGHLY recommend this option if you are a car-less tourist in San Fran. Of course, when we got to Daddy’s fancy-schmancy hotel, we were informed that the room CAME WITH A CAR that could be “arranged for free” for our stay.
We opted to stick with our passes and explore on foot, not wanting to tackle the driving and parking challenges of San Francisco.
In other news, I’m completely spoiled and may never stay in a “regular hotel” again. Just kidding.
Our trip wouldn’t have been an adventure without at least a little drama, and we definitely had some drama!
On Tuesday the 31st, we decided to combine our trip to explore the Mission District with our Letterboxing obsession, and we found a couple treasures! Perfect! After dinner, it was time to head back to the hotel, and we got on the bus.
Because we’d already been in San Fran for a few days at that point, we felt like experts. We knew which bus we needed, and we found it with ease. I thought it was a bit odd that the front half of the super-long “double” bus was almost empty, but we were happy to find seats and sat down.
That’s when the screaming started. A woman next to us started screaming obscenities, out loud, to no one in particular and everyone within earshot. I told Claire to just focus on me, and not pay attention to the woman, but it was hard. My husband and I debated getting off the bus and catching the next one, but then the woman got up from her seat and started weaving and stumbling around. Was she just confronting the demons in her head or getting off the bus? Surely if she wasn’t getting off the bus, she’ll be thrown off the bus for acting this way.
The next stop came and went, and she was still there screaming and stumbling, so we got up and went to the back half of the bus, not wanting to get off the bus just yet.
The screaming in the front of the bus continued, and not long after that, one of the people at the back of the bus started yelling at her and the driver.
Awesome.
This woman starts yelling about how the driver should throw “The Freak” off the bus or call the cops or both. She then started saying that if she was late to her half-way house again, she’d be thrown in jail. Again.
Seriously? You just can’t make this stuff up!
Then, The Freak at the front of the bus kicked it up a notch and got out these sticks and started hitting the seats. I am not sure what the sticks were, but they looked like drumsticks. She got dangerously close to another passenger, and when that happened, Half-Way House Lady in the back of the bus started yelling even louder and went up to confront The Freak.
As I’m typing this out, it all seems obvious that we should have gotten off the bus at our first inkling, but everything was happening in this weird slow-motion reality that is so clear when looking back and so confusing when it’s happening.
Now, the two of them are screaming at each other. There is kicking and hitting with sticks, and the bus driver is FINALLY calling the cops. He pulls over and gets out his phone. Right about at this time, Half-Way House Lady pulls a knife.
A KNIFE.
The INSTANT that knife blade flashed, I grabbed Claire and ran. With my husband close behind me, we bolted for the door. We jumped off the bus and fled on foot. I don’t remember how many blocks we ran before we slowed down. I remember glancing back at the bus and wondering if they were finally being thrown off, and if they were, we didn’t want to be anywhere near it.
It’s been a long time since I was quite so scared, and I’ve never experienced that level of alarm with Claire in tow. Yikes!
We knew we were headed in the direction of our hotel, but we didn’t know exactly how far away it was, so we kept running. I knew it was too far to go the full way on foot, but our choices were severely limited at that point. I wanted as much distance between my daughter and a knife fight as I could possibly get.
We stopped to catch our breath, and Claire started asking all kinds of questions. What’s wrong with that woman? Why was she saying those things? Why was she hitting people, and why doesn’t she have all her teeth?
I used this as the perfect teachable moment about the dangers of illicit drugs. Drugs that doctors give you because you’re sick? Those are fine if you use them the way the doctor tells you to. Drugs like what this woman had used? Bad. I swear, this bus-ride was more effective than any made-for-television movie or after-school special.
I also told her that there was nothing to worry about. She was with Momma and Daddy, and we were headed back to the hotel. Those crazy ladies couldn’t hurt us now.
The area where we’d bolted and fled on foot wasn’t the best area, so we kept moving. I have no idea how much time passed, but the bus eventually caught up with us again. Everything looked relatively calm, so we got back on.
After plopping down in the seats, I looked at another passenger and quietly asked, “Are they gone?”
She smiled and said, “Oh my goodness! Only in San Francisco! Yes, they’re gone. I’ve never quite seen it THAT bad.” And then her eyes got really big. “Wait. You guys got off all the way back there!! You guys made incredible distance!”
We laughed about how we hadn’t wanted to be anywhere NEAR that. Yes, I laughed because I didn’t want to cry, and I hoped Claire didn’t notice that I was shaking. It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel and I was alone in the bathroom that I left myself feel that fear.
WE’D FLED A KNIFE FIGHT ON FOOT.
On Wednesday, I was determined to make good memories to cover up the scary ones from the night before, so we rode the cable cars again. We’d had good luck with that on Sunday, and it was something I was comfortable doing by myself with Claire. The wait in line was insanely long, but it was so much fun. In totally related news, I’ve been calling those things trolleys for years. They’re not trolleys. They are cable cars. There IS a difference. Who knew??
Anyway…back to the story. We went to the Wharf (Pier 39) to visit the sea lions, and we even had our portrait drawn on the way back!
Looking back, Wednesday was pretty boring. There were no knife fights, and we didn’t have to flee anywhere on foot. It’s all relative, I suppose.
Then, on Thursday, when Daddy got back to the hotel from his conference (around 3pm or so), our mission was clear:
We went out to the Presidio to find Yoda.
When we were putting together our plan of attack, we both laughed that the only “convenient” way out there was via bus. We’d not had the best luck with the bus at that point, but what else could happen to top a knife fight?
So, we figured out which bus we needed, and we set out. The bus arrived, we crossed our fingers, and away we went! We’re going along, when all of a sudden, there was a terrible screeching noise. That weird slow-motion reality is back, and the bus is jack-knifing in the middle, and people are being thrown forward and to the side. People are swinging from the bars. People are falling. Everything is sliding.
In the blink of an eye, my right arm shoots out, and I try to catch Claire. I try to keep her from slamming into the seat in front of us, but we both hit the metal bar and metal back of the seat in front of us with pretty good force. Daddy was sitting in front of us, and he almost fell out of his seat, but he didn’t have a seat directly in front of him, and he was able to hold on.
Everything that slammed forward, reverses and stops, and we all sit for a moment in disheveled confusion.
Our bus has hit a car.
OUR BUS HAD HIT A CAR.
A car had pulled out in front of us, and the bus driver had slammed on the breaks. He was able to stop quickly enough that the only damage he did to the car was take off the mirror and dented the side. The driver of the car was very apologetic to everyone that got off the bus.
Yes, once again, we’re forced to get off a bus without reaching our final destination and go to the next stop, but this time, we weren’t fleeing for our lives. This time, we were making sure we’re all in one piece. My knee was bruised, and Claire was complaining about her chin, but I didn’t see a mark on her. I’m pretty sure her chin made a bruise on my ARM instead of slamming into the metal seat bar. It all happened so suddenly, and without warning. I can’t believe I was able to catch her just before she REALLY slammed into the seat, which is really hard to do when you’re also flying forward!
So far, the bus isn’t ranked too highly on my list.
Again, for Claire’s sake, we shook off the accident and went on in our adventures. The above tweet was typed with shakey fingers after we were safely on the second bus, as I was pretending to be okay. We were on a mission!
Successful at finding Yoda we were.
After our photoshoot with Yoda at the Presidio, we headed to the Wharf again. That evening, we rode a street-car back, and there wasn’t a knife fight, and we didn’t hit a car, so it was pretty boring…
…in comparison.
Have you ever been Letterboxing?
Letterboxing? What’s Letterboxing?
I admit it; I’d never heard of it. When Mile High Mamas featured a post on Letterboxing, I clicked through thinking it was a craft project or something. Or maybe a sport? I had no idea.
But it wasn’t either of those two things, and what I discovered was amazing!
In fact, I was intrigued.
Yes, I'm @casualperfect. Would you expect anything less? Claire is the cute little hot-pink flower (as seen in the other photo below).
Letterboxing is a hobby that goes back to the 1850s! It’s a lot like “geocaching,” in that you search for little boxes of “buried treasure” that someone else has hidden. In Letterboxing, you use puzzles to figure out how to find the “buried” treasure, rather than a GPS device. (I’m using “buried” in quotes, because most Letterboxes aren’t actually buried. Oh, and some clues require the use of a compass, but not all of them do.) Inside each box is a stamp that you use to mark your own book. You then use your own personalized stamp to mark the book inside the box. When you get home, you can log on to the website and record the find that way, too.
I popped in our city and state into the “Find Letterboxes” link, and I was surprised to see dozens of options within miles of our house…and HUNDREDS in our metro area! There was a Letterbox relatively close, and the puzzle seemed relatively easy, so we decided to go find it.
At one point in the riddle, these particular instructions told us to “go in a bearing of 110″ on the compass, and so we borrowed Daddy’s compass, and he gave us a quick lesson on how to read it. It’s been ages since I’ve read a compass, and other than knowing where the major North East South West directions are, I’ve never used one to go a “bearing” of anything!
But, I listened to what he said, and it made sense. Kinda. Then, he gave us the “Just because I earned a badge in this doesn’t mean I remember exactly what to do! I haven’t used one of these in years!” disclaimer, and off we went.
From the clue, I thought I had a general idea of where the Letterbox was hidden. We figured out the riddle and then got to the part where we needed the compass.
We were to take a compass bearing of 110 and walk 39 paces from the little pine tree.
I did exactly what the former Boy Scout had told me to, and we ended up scaling a rather annoying fence and traipsing through a rather difficult portion of “natural grasses.” In fact, I wasn’t sure how we were going to find ANYTHING out there, let alone a small hidden box. We were out there forever. None of the clues really made much sense when we got to the end of our 39 paces. Does that look like a little line of trees to you? Which trees would be numbers 1 and 2? We’re not doing something right…
Here’s where I admit that I’m a little too OCD for Letterboxing. Correction: I’m a little too OCD to STOP Letterboxing. We looked for an hour. I just couldn’t give up. Claire was a trooper through this whole thing. We were getting tangled in brambles, but she didn’t care. She wanted to find it too. Here’s where I admit that Claire has inherited my OCD tendency when it comes to puzzles….and Letterboxing. Who knew!?
Finally, I pulled the plug on this expedition. We made our way to the more civilized part of the park, but I just couldn’t quit. The thought of going home empty-handed weighed heavily on my mind. We decided to follow the instructions, step by step, one last time.
We found it! We moved some sticks before taking the photo. Can you see it?
We made it to the little pine tree again.
That’s when I really thought about the compass and the bearing of 110. That’s when I realized my mistake. My husband’s instructions had led us on a path of true north, NOT a bearing of 110. When I made the adjustment, we ended up going in a completely different direction, and all of a sudden, the other clues started to make sense.
We looked down, and there it was! We’d found it!
In Letterboxing, you’re supposed to be discreet when you find one. You’re supposed to usher it away from the hiding place to make your mark in the book, before re-hiding it in the same place. You’re supposed to do this in secrecy and quietness.
I was bursting with joy and did use a hushed, although excited whisper, but Claire screamed, “WE FOUND IT!?!” at the top of her tiny lungs. Needless to say, we’ll have to work on that part.
We stamped our book. We signed theirs. We re-hid the box in the exact place we found it.
On the walk home, Claire asked if we could go find another one. Right now.
What you need for Letterboxing: Book to record your find, ink pads (Claire's is pink & mine is lavender), personalized stamps, pen, instructions (clues/riddle), and a compass (not always needed or used properly. Heh.) If you click to enlarge the photo, you can see where Claire and I have signed our book, just like we did in the Letterbox book.
Needless to say, we’re hooked.
We have our own personalized stamps all ready to go. I have a whole list of other Letterboxes to find in our area before we venture off to farther locales. I have a renewed understanding on how to read a compass.
Claire and I not only found our very first Letterbox, we’ve found a new obsession. I mean, hobby. We’ve found a new hobby.
So, what about you? Do you Letterbox? …and if so, do you have a Support Group I can join?
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