August 23 - SilverMarc's Proto Picnic (GC1DFE7)

[Tatanka49]

Anybody notice that Silver Marc has posted his 4th annual Central Park event? GC1DFE7 Saturday, August 23 1-5 pm.
If you haven't been to this even before, it's one of the classic NY events.

[halijusapa]

Last year's was our first ever event. It was great, hard to tell this far back but hope we can go again!

[addisonbr]

Third year in a row I'll be out of town for the event. Actually the fourth, but I wasn't really caching in 2005 so didn't know about it. (Sigh).

[Bonick0]

Excellent. This will be my first event, and as I don't work in Manhattan anymore, it will be a perfect time to find a bunch of puzzle caches that I solved months ago.

[halijusapa]

[Tatanka49]

I assume she means that it's her first Silver Marc proto picnic.

I am rally lousy with puzzles--i almost messed up Peeve's telephone cache. It will be nice to work with the puzzle experts.

J

J

[peeves79]

Dude, the initial coords brings you to the tool you need to solve the puzzle. I figured it would be easy enough for us who are shall we say puzzle dysfunctional.

I will do my best to attend as I just missed last year's event and only heard good things about it.

[Bonick0]

Yes I meant first Proto Picnic. I've attended a few other events so far, and they've always turned into all day amusing adventures.

[KvPhoto]

I plan to come, it would be our first event. What should I expect? Are kids ok?

[Tatanka49]

Events come in 4 flavors--
1. Restaurant
2. Picnic
3. Gathering for something
4. Major event/multi days

Most events locally are restaurant events. We ran a few. We ran one pot-luck picnic. We've run a CITO (Cache In-Trash Out) a cleanup event and a WWFM (a 15 minute gathering) We haven't done any major events ... yet.

The proto picnic falls into category 1. The site is the out door cafe at the Boat Basin. WE commendeer about a dozen tables. (I think Mark has their permission). People drop in all day. You really should buy something at the cafe since we are usiing their tables. Prices are ok for a park restaurant. People go off in groups (or prior) to find caches. People sit around and tell war stories and trade geocoins and travel bugs. I think Mark sells some coins as well. Sometimes there's a raffle/door prize. It is kid friendly--if they don't mind sitting around with a bunch of adults for a few hours. Then around 4, everyone leaves.

[halijusapa]

KV, there were people there with kids (including us) last year. Most people went (either themselves or in groups) to go hit some hides around Central Park. A whole bunch of us who were with kids went to Down the Rabbit Hole cache after the event, it's right near a neat statue of Alice in Wonderland. The food is a bit pricey though average if not decent (cost-wise) by Manhattan standards. Only bummer was that it was really hot (like in the mid-90s) last year so only other caches we did besides Down the Rabbit Hole were two virtuals. One (The Castle) was really fascinating not just for the areal view but it's the place where weather is recorded locally (like when they say on the TV "the temperature in Central Park is......"). You can see the weather equipment on the roof of the castle and inside there's a computer showing you all the weather readings. Inside the building (Belvedere Castle) is also an exhibit on the wildlife (yes, wildlife) of Central Park.

[Autorita]

Had a great time at this event and was awesome to meet bonickO who had originally invited me to join MetroGC.com and I totally forgot about it!!

I took some pics and will post them on the event page if you're interested in seeing them. I can also email them to whoever.

I guess I'll just have to meet Tatanka and Addisonbr at another event hopefully soon! I'll also try to be more active on this site.

[addisonbr]

I think SilverMarc infected my computer with a virus that alerts him whenever I book a trip online, so that he can schedule his Picnics while I'm out of town!

[halijusapa]

Had a great time like last year, and because it was about 15 degrees cooler (and much less humidity) this time, got to do more caches with the kids (including addisonbr's cute kid-oriented "bug" series). Had a great unintended "camaradrie" pre-event that is what these things are all about in a way. Was going to Bow Cache before the event (and hoping to do Lakeside View and Riftstone before returning to it, though wondering if it would make the kids too tired for caches intended to do later), and ran into Dog and Bear (who never met before) who was hoping to be closing in on dhmbat. Looked over his puzzle logic which seemed to be correct (only intended to do one puzzle, the relatively simple Carousel one, DNF'd it because I think someone else had it at the time we were there, but at least the kids got to enjoy the Carousel), and when we got to GZ our 7 year old son found it (we're so proud)! He asked if we wanted to try the nearby Ramble On with him, I was glad because I was going to pass it by thinking it was too tough terrain-wise to do with my family, I made up for his "puzzle gift" by doing most of the "heavy lifting" on this one (don't get it wrong, I'm quite proud of myself for both finding this and for how well I handled the terrain). Then he chose to join us for Bow Cache, again, I "paid" for dhmbat by being the one who found the somewhat tricky hide, so I feel good all around. Decided to not go on to Riftstone and Lakeside View (I believe D&B went with silvermarc (the adoptee of the latter and the CO of the former) later while we went just us to addisonbr's "bug" caches and the Carousel puzzle) and all go back to the event where we started having some great conversations with everyone before moving on the other caches I just mentioned.

Can't wait to go to next year's......thanks silvermarc for the nice event. And looking forward to finally attending Pirates of Harriman in a few weeks (had to back out at the last minute last year).