Geocaching in Sacramento

This weekend I went to San Francisco to visit Jess.

We didn't actually go to San Francisco because I've already been. I went there when my choir went on tour in 2001, and when I went with them we did all of the touristy stuff.

Instead, Jess and I went to Sacramento. I thought I had never been before, except that Jess reminded me that we drove through Sacramento on the way back from Canada one time when we were little. Oh, right. I guess we did. It was worth visiting again, though.

I wanted us to go geocaching in Sacramento, but we didn't have a ton of time, and most of the ones where we were going to be were teeny tiny, so I chose a virtual one for us to do instead.

Virtual caches are things where there's no tupperware to find, and instead you find a "treasure" that is already there. For example, the Golden Gate Bridge probably has a virtual geocache. It's stuff that's just cool to see, without you needing to be enticed by plastic soldiers, marbles, and old Christmas ornaments. Usually with a normal geocache there is a "log" to sign. You write your name on a piece of paper, and that proves that you found it. With virtual caches, since you're not going to graffiti someone else's treasure, you prove that you found it by answering a question from a historical plaque or by posting a picture of you in front of the cool thing.

The virtual cache I chose was "California's Treasures" which was right across from the capitol building. The cache was a building that had two statues of California's treasures, and when you were walking to look at them you were also standing above a 280 ton concrete and steel vault with millions and millions of dollars worth of stuff in it.

Jess and I used the GPS to find the right spot. (Across the fountain was another building with two statues; it was dedicated to fallen officers.) Jess was really confused by the whole thing. Especially because the statues were naked.

"Naked treasures?" she asked me.
"Yeah," I said, nonchalantly.
"That's weird."
"Not really." Providence is often represented by a naked woman.

We went up and found out who the building was dedicated to, and Jess and I kept talking about money and stuff, because of the vault. And how weird she thought it was that they would have naked treasures. I wrote down the name of one of the treasures represented, "Mineral Wealth" and had her take my picture with him. And I think that was about when we realized that she had misunderstood-- she thought the statues were supposed to be of treasurers.

AWESOME.

So our conversation had actually gone like this:

"Naked treasurers?" she asked me.
"Yeah," I said, nonchalantly.
"That's weird." (Treasurers are usually dignified people that would not be sculpted naked to be put in front of a building. Even one with a big vault.)
"Not really." (?!!)

It still makes me laugh.