Lions and Penguins and Cops - Oh My

Last week my oldest - King of Hearts went to the zoo with his summer day camp. I decided that I would take Jack of Hearts to the zoo as well and we would pick up the letterboxes that were there, see the animals then grab the King after camp and do some boxing around Syracuse since we would be right there. Simple plan, what could go wrong.

The night before I printed clues, mapquested directions to make sure I wasn't going to backtrack or get lost and I packed lots of snacks and extra goodies for the day. Friday morning rolls around and we were off. The camp counsellors knew of our plan and thought it was great and said that they would see us up at the zoo. We made a quick pit stop and were off to the zoo. But I got a little turned around and took a back way there and even though we left 30 minutes before the campers did, we arrived just 3 minutes before the bus did. But Jack of Hearts and I said hello to the King of Hearts and set out to see the animals and search for our boxes, while the King of Hearts spent the day with his friends at camp.

We found our Lion and Penguin without a problem, but alas, the Flying Pig was no longer in captivity. We kept seeing campers that said hello to us and the counsellors smiled and waved and counted down till lunch time in case we wanted to join them. We did have lunch with the campers, then tossed our LB gear in the Jeep to enjoy the Zoo without the extra weight. Some how I became an extra chaperone for the group with King of Hearts in the afternoon. I didn't mind, except my water and popcorn disappeared at an alarming rate.

We soon finished at the Zoo, said goocbye to the campers and headed off to more letterboxes. Our first box was hadnd picked by the boys. It was Pokebox. Being a huge pokemon fan, I didn't complain. We found the park without any problems, and aside from some overgrown weeds, we got the box, and we on our way to the next stop - Armory Square. Then my luck hit.

Construction everywhere. No matter what road Mapquest had us on, there was construction, and when we finally got to our destination, there was no where to park, and the traffic was nuts, so we decided to jump ahead to Oakwood Cemetery. One quick U-turn later we were on our way. I followed my directions perfectly. A left here, a right there, straight for a few blocks, then a Right hand turn. I made the turn and followed the road for a few blocks, but something seemed off.

As I reached the end of the street about to make my next turn on the directions, a left, a Police car on my right turned on it's lights and pointed at me. So I pulled out and pulled to the curb. I wasn't sure what I had done, but the boys were sure we were going to jail. It turned out that I was pulling out of a One Way street - going the Wrong Way! Thank you Mapquest. I explained to the officer what had happened, and I got one of those Yeah Right looks, and then I showed him the directions I had printed out. He looked at them in disbelief.

He double checked them and since he couldn't remember if there was a One Way sign at that intersection, he let me go with a warning. The boys were happy that they were not going to go to jail, but upset that they didn't get to play with the handcuffs. We went on our way to Oakwood Cemetery, but got derailed by more construction, when I noticed a road from our next set of directions to our next box, so I decided to skip ahead again.

If you are ever in Syracuse, I highly recommend you search for the box No Such Letterbox. I just don't recommend you do it with Jack of Hearts. He decided that he did not want to cross the stream on the rocks. So I had to give him a piggy back ride while balancing on stones in the middle of the stream. This would have been fine, if I hadn't been walking at the Zoo all day, and if I had two good knees, a good back, and a decent sense of balance. We made it across, but not before I twisted my knee and tore part of the sole of my sneaker 3/4 of the way off. The whole time King of Hearts is standing on the far shore cheering us on.

We ended the night with Happy meals, a bath, and curling up together watching Star Wars. We were all tired from our adventures, but very happy. My knee has recovered, and we have found more boxes, and are planning more trips. But maybe next time we will skip Mapquest, and I will get a good GPS for my birthday.