Trudging through the bushes near the neighborhood tennis court, we had 20 minutes to spare and one elusive Geocache to find.  My boys circled the court while I read the clues and checked the GPS coordinates on my iPhone.  But to no avail.  Time ran out and we had to abandon the search to fetch my daughter from piano lessons instead.  We didn’t find the treasure, but the boys sure enjoyed the process.

As a parent, I’m always super pleased with myself when I manage to entertain the kids without much effort or expense.  With Geocaching, I’ve been triumphant on multiple occasions.  On this particular day, the adventure got me thinking about how I might share the experience with other families.  And might a gift card come into play?  I’m so glad you asked!

You need two things to enjoy Geocaching–a list of caches to find and a GPS system to help you navigate your way to the caches.  You can find the caches online at the Geocaching Web site.  The GPS system can be either a standalone system or an application downloaded to your phone.  I’d do a little research and then gift card the family with either a gift card to the electronics store to buy a GPS navigator or a gift card to a downloadable application site so they can purchase the app and download it straight to their phone.  To complete the gift, however, I’d get very personal–I’d print out a list of caches in their area and maybe even offer a challenge to see if they can locate the caches we’ve found or the mysterious tennis court cache we couldn’t find!

Check out the Family Gift section for a list of suggestions that require a little less thinking.