Kids corner: Give me those coordinates; we’re geocaching

Group uses GPS, climbs trees to find objects

Hugh McMillan

guest columnist

When I dropped by to check on developments at Home Park, I chanced on three youngsters and an adult skulking around, in and up a big old maple tree on the property.

They seemed fascinated with something.

“What are you up to?” I asked.

“We’re on a geocache search,” they responded.

“A what?”

I’d never heard of geocaching before.

The adult, Michael Mills, a son of Don Mills of the Key Peninsula-pioneering Mills family, was visiting here from Alexandria, Va., with his daughter, Gabrielle. They were with Gabrielle’s Vaughn-based cousins, Kelson Mills, a Key Peninsula Middle School seventh-grader, and Mackenzie Mills, a fifth-grader at Vaughn Elementary.

“While Kelson, Mackenzie and Gabriel were high up in the old tree looking for something, their grandfather, Don Mills, was nearby keeping a close eye on them,” Michael said. “The sought-after object was a ‘geocache.’ ”

“We’re going to find out what treasure is inside,” Gabriel said as they opened it.

Michael said geocaching is a growing worldwide sport in which people use hand-held global positioning systems (GPS) to find hidden objects. The objects range from tiny film canisters to large surplus ammunition boxes, and they usually contain a log book and several trinkets.

When one is hidden, the caretaker of the cache records its GPS coordinates and publishes them at www.geocaching.org. Adventure seekers download the coordinates and attempt to find the cache.

“Searching for caches is a great way to get outside and see places you wouldn’t usually visit,” Michael said.

Kelson said he likes geocaching “because it is like a treasure hunt.

Mackenzie likes geocaching “because it’s like playing hide and seek.”

Visiting student sees Northwest sights

Orie Nishikawa, a 16-year-old high school student from Minabe, Japan, was sponsored under the International Lions Clubs’ Youth Exchange Program on a two-week visit to Canada and two weeks in the United States. Here, she was the guest of Ed and Lori Robison of Key Peninsula who describe Orie as “always cheerful and helpful, and a joy to have around.”

Orie wants to attend a university to study English to be either a translator or a teacher.

While in Canada, she hiked in the mountains, boated, rode a motorcycle with her host “father” and had an airplane ride around northern Vancouver Island.

On the Key, Orie rode a horse for the first time. She visited the Museum of Flight and the Glass Museum, the latter of which was her favorite, “because there are many beautiful pieces of art there.”

She visited the Capitol in Olympia, attended a Seattle Mariners game, where she saw Ichiro in action, went to Mount Rainier, the Pacific Ocean and, in Seattle, went up the Space Needle.

In Japan, she lives with her parents on a plum tree farm where they pickle plums for commercial sales.

“She let me taste one,” said Lori Robison, “and they were so sour they were inedible to me. But Orie says many Japanese love them.”

“They must be an acquired taste,” Lori said.

On the evening she made her presentation to the KP Lions, Orie visited the first all-steel caboose ever to ride the Northern Pacific Railway.

I personally am confident that this had to be the high point of her whole trip.

Stop giggling! That’s rude!

Hugh McMillan is a longtime freelance writer for The Peninsula Gateway. He can be reached at 253-884-3319. The caboose is McMillan’s back yard, where it serves as a guest house.