Lost Girls Adventures

Which path shall we take?

It was the perfect day for a mini adventure. We headed to Gainesville, Florida to Devil's Millhopper, a Geological State Park. We arrived at this sign. We can either take a half mile nature walk around the rim or head down 212 wooden steps to the bottom of the sinkhole. So down we went! This limestone sinkhole is 120 feet deep and looks as if you had stepped into a different world.

Heading down

If you are quiet and patient there is a chance you will see various birds, squirrels and even bobcats. We didn't see any bobcats but we did run into Kermit who was out enjoying his day like the rest of us.


Halfway down and it was clear we weren't in Florida anymore. It felt like we were in the middle of a miniature rain forest. The temperature was cooler, there were streams trickling down and small waterfalls surrounding us.


Once at the bottom we were greeted with this amazing sight. I half expected the creature from the black lagoon to pop out at any second. This limestone sinkhole has 12 springs that run into a small pond in the middle. Various fossils have been found including shark teeth and extinct land animals.


If you plan to take a trip to this beautiful little gem be sure to bring comfortable shoes, water, a camera and even a picnic. There's a small visitor center, a picnic area and a hiking trail. The fee to enter is $4 for up to 8 people per vehicle.

Heading up

Off to hike the trail and enjoy the scenery! October was a great time for this mini adventure. We highly recommend visiting if you want to get outdoors for some exercise, fresh air and new sights.

By Marissa Meyer
Scarlet is the second book in the Lunar Chronicles and follows Cinder as she attempts to escape from prison before Queen Levana has her executed. We meet some interesting new characters; Scarlet who's grandmother is missing, Wolf a mysterious street fighter and "Captain" Carswell Thorne (my personal favorite addition).

This book is written in multiple POVs so it jumps back and forth between the characters. I like Scarlet, she's tough and compassionate, she refuses to give up. She is selfless and kind but will not back down and knows how to kick butt when she needs to.

Wolf is a big, bad, undefeated street fighter with a softer side, and a little mystery going on there, who offers to help Scarlet find her grandmother when no one else will. As much as I enjoyed Scarlet and Wolf's story line I just couldn't wait to get back to Cinder!

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By Marissa Meyer

In this futuristic re-telling of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella, Cinder is a dirty, greasy mechanic who lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters, while working endlessly to pay their bills. She is also a cyborg. Hold on. A cyborg? This is definitely not something I would normally pick up, but I heard so many good things about this book that I had to give it a try.

I'm a big fan of Cinderella and the Terminator series including the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I loved seeing a female terminator. How anyone could think to mix aspects of the two together and create a unique story is beyond me, but it works!

   Eve has been living in Califia for 3 months. She is desperately missing Caleb and doesn't feel like she quite fits in with the other women in the camp. After hearing rumors that Caleb is injured and in an abandoned warehouse ouside Califia, Eve sets off to rescue him. It was all a trap of course and she is captured and taken to the City of Sand. When she meets the King he is not at all what Eve or I had expected. I'll just leave it at that. 

 As soon as we landed in Vancouver we headed to Stanley Park. I had read so much about all the wonderful things to see and do there. It did not disappoint! We walked around for hours and still did not get to see everything. We started off walking along the seawall and just taking in the scenery. It was so beautiful! Then we decided to go deeper into the park and explore the forest trails. Did I mention we didn't have a map? We had no clue where we were going, but that's what made it so fun!
There were several beautiful gardens, my favorite being the Shakespeare Garden. Many of the trees had plaques with Shakespeare quotes and we enjoyed reading them all as we explored. After walking for about 2 hours we we came upon a nice little restaurant, The Stanley Park Pavilion. The food was sooo good!

After our much needed break we started walking again. This time we grabbed a map and headed over to the Lost Lagoon. As soon as we reached the edge of the Lagoon you could see an amazing view of the city. I had waited so long to be here and I just took a few minutes to soak it all in.

We've been hearing a lot about this crazy thing called Geocaching. People hide containers all over the world, you take the coordinates and your phone or GPS, and head out on a treasure hunt.

Treasure you say? What kind of treasure? Toys, trading cards, key chains, trinkets, coins, random stuff. You just never know until you open the cache.

Why would I want someone else's junk? Good question. It's not about the random "treasure" you find in the caches, it's about...well, this.

Mother nature's beauty

Geocaching can take you places you may not even know about, right in your own back yard. Being nature lovers, and in desperate need of a new mini adventure, we decided to give it a try. The first two coordinates we attempted were complete failures. We searched and searched. Nothing. We started getting frustrated. So frustrated I deleted the app, twice!

I refused to be defeated, so we tried one last time. We headed to one of our favorite parks and went to work. We were looking for a tree. Okay, we were surrounded by trees. A specific tree, according to the hint. We find a tree that matches the description but it looks like someone got here before us and we were really hoping he wasn't still around!

Sneaky serpent. Guardian of the cache

We did not want to meet the owner of that snake skin! We almost gave up but I was pretty determined. We knew it had to be close.
I tiptoed, ducked, danced around the tree assuming random ninja poses any time a spider web touched my arm, and finally found our very first cache! I almost missed it. The little camo container did a pretty good job of blending in.

Our first cache blending in quite well!

We snagged the container and attempted to sign the log book but the log was a bit damp so we just settled for logging it online and replaced it exactly as we found it.

Okay I admit, that was fun. I got bit by the geocaching bug. I would have done a happy dance at this point but between the jumbo sized banana spiders and that snake I just knew was lurking, we were out of there! On to the next cache.

This contained a log only

This one was a bit larger and completely full of swag. The only thing we took were pictures. We had absolutely no idea what to expect. Now that we know how this works, we'll come prepared next time with some goodies to trade or to fill up a dwindling cache.

This one was well hidden but termites were having a feast so we had to carefully place it back together and toss some foliage on top to hide the cracks in the lid.



We stopped to take in the scenery many times. I have to admit, my favorite part of this experience is getting to explore places you wouldn't normally think to go. The wonderful, creative owners of these caches put a lot of thought into finding these amazing hiding places.




This next cache was tricky! We had to do some searching to find it. I'm pretty sure if we didn't work together to find it, I'd still be out there searching.

This cache contains two little trinkets and a log. We weren't able to sign any of the logs because of the dampness but we really liked the idea of using a stamp as others had done.



This little guy was hanging out and watching the action. We asked him for hints but his lips were sealed. I'm sure the critters got a good snicker out of us trying to be stealthy so people in the area wouldn't see us searching.

If you are out in the woods wearing a bright purple shirt, stiffly hiding behind a tree and you have to ask, "am I blending?" the answer is most likely, no. I will neither confirm nor deny that I have done this.



There are geocaches out there only reachable by boat, and we are going to find them! But not today. The weather was changing and we did not want to get caught in a downpour, plus the temperature was approaching Mordor, so we headed out.



We learned a lot from our first geocaching adventure. Next time we plan to go prepared.

We'll need:

1. A stamp or really good pen to log our visits
2. A kayak to reach those hard to get to areas
3. Fun swag or signature items to leave behind
4. Neutral colored clothing for better blending

Now we just have to get creative and figure out some unique signature items. As soon as the weather cools off (and all the creepy crawlies go into hiding) we will be back. There are so many geocaches to find!


If you want to join the fun we suggest visiting Geocaching.com and sign up for a free membership.