As many of you know one of my dad's favorite hobbies was Geocaching. He often made time to hop into his big, red truck and head to the mountains or around town in search of tiny treasures and to plant his own. I remember the first time he took me to find a cache. I had no idea what he was looking for or why. When he finally pulled a small rock from a rose planter in Loreto Plaza I thought, "THAT'S what we spent 40 minutes looking for?!" His eyes grew to the size of silver dollars as he gingerly pulled the rock apart to reveal a secret compartment that held a small strip of paper. I laughed as my dad attempted to scribble his name onto the tiny strip using a golf pencil and fingers the size of Italian sausages.
When the Tea Fire ravaged the Montecito hills and parts of Westmont College, the first thing my dad did was to call me to see if his cache was OK. Sadly, it perished in the fire.
Despite my lack of patience for Geocaching, he had a regular crew of family and friends that would regularly go with him on excursions and got to discover places that would become my dad's favorite spots around town. Two of his good caching friends, Alan and Rene Salter, sent this message to my mom yesterday, "We are geocaching on East Camino Cielo with several others and we put out a cache overlooking SB and the harbor in honor of GBD." Thank you Alan and Rene!
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