Oh, what a weekend! It was one of those perfect combination weekends, where I got stuff done and also did a ton of great things (the Cable Car Museum, rock-climbing, breakfast at Brown Sugar, yoga).
I tell you one thing, a grown-up scavenger hunt is HELLA FUN. It was Bethany's birthday party. We all grouped up in cars, and drove all over the East Bay, looking for clues. When we were counting the party horns in a box we found by a bridge, pairing the number of them with a numbered coin glued onto a nearby concrete map on a bench, figuring out what the coin directed us to? Dudes, it was like being on the Amazing Race, only I got to sleep in my own bed that night.
It was AWESOME. I swear, it was as fun as any scavenger hunt I participated in as a child — no, it was BETTER. The first clue was written in Italian, and when roughly translated by the four or five us who could fake a little Italian, it spoke of a good sandwich she'd once had, so we went to the Italian deli where she'd had it. The note referenced Naples and its warmth, as opposed to the colder north, so we completely believed the clue would be hidden in the ice cream freezers (perhaps by the Neapolitan ice cream?). Um, no. It wasn't. But we sure looked funny looking for it, moving every ice cream container around…. Turns out the clue was in a big, birthday-paper wrapped box on the shelves near the Nutella. We totally missed it.
Another one of the good clues pointed us toward a handsome chocolatier on Millionaire's row. Using the power of technology on our cell phones, we decided we were looking for Ghiradelli's grave in the Mountain View Cemetery in Piedmont. When we got there, the cemetery was just closing, so we had no map, but Bethany found the coordinates online of a nearby gravestone, and plugged it into her GPS device and we all tromped up the hills in search of the tomb, following her as if she held a divining rod. And then we found the tomb! And the clue! It was SO exciting!
Unfortunately, with the time change and all, Lala and I had to leave everyone standing in a park in Chinatown trying to figure out the clue (tiny bottles of booze and a compass pointing East, found in a tree). So I didn't find out the ending. I ended up getting only a couple of hours of sleep, since I'd lost my mind earlier in the afternoon and had a cup of coffee, which kept me up almost all night. So today, I'm exhausted. But happy. I can't wait to go on another one (or plan one! I want SO BADLY to plan one!).
I'd totally put a clue in a yarn store. A knitter's clue. A knitting scavenger hunt! Ooooh. Don't get me started. Who's in?
Alex Singer from our chapter does these, too! They look like so much fun but I feel like my already overly energetic tendencies would burst into overdrive and I’d become the world’s most annoying person.
i’m in…..how much fun would that be?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPu97VzIGpg
You will totally laugh.
And the Scavenger Hunt? Genius idea for a party! We used to do those all the time when I was in high school.
Lisi, my cop daughter, says hi. She is moving home so she can work/go to school/pay for her car/have someone watch the dog (Full Metal Jacket)/have Mom cook for her/get laundry done. She can do two but not all of them on her own.
Oh, I want to be in on that!
Oh, yes!!! When I finally kick this cold…..
You can totally clue me in at the shop any time.
that would be totally awesome! one of the clues needs to point the players to newfoundland. it’s only about 4500 miles in the car…and about 500 of them is on a boat so really…easy!
I bow down to the amazing mind that created those clues. Wow. I think I’ll have to pass on joining the hunt, unless you have a clue that sends you to Alaska!
I’m in! I’d even drive up to the Bay Area…
I did an adult scavenger hunt in DC a few years ago, and it was fun, but the clues were much easier (nothing in a foreign language!), so not as cool.
Ever tried geocaching? Scavenger hunt with a handheld GPS unit. Lots of fun!
ohmygod that would be SO fun!
I would fly to CA to participate in a knitters scavenger hunt, it sounds like so much fun!
yeah – bring it!
Geocaching! What you’ve described is a souped-up version of my hobby, geocaching! People hide boxes, post clues (including GPS coordinates, but you still have to hunt, sometimes decipher, sometimes translate, etc) and you go find things. So fun!
I’m so in if you want to plan one! I’d want to help, but fair warning, I’m not so clever as that Bethany and Co!
You know, if you really want to plan one, I could pretend it’s my birthday again…
That sounds like so much fun. I may have to plan one for my big sisters 60th. Very soon.
We do a photo scavenger hunt every year. Someone comes up with a list with a range of things like “a picture of a priest”, “a picture of one of your team members imitating a statue”, “a team member getting a piggy back from a stranger”. We get into teams of four, have 2 hours, and at the end we look at everyone’s photos. The team with the most wins. Oh, upping the difficulty level is the fact that we live in Germany and most of us don’t speak that much German.
I’m in! I live in the Bay Area, so I’m totally in! That sounds so fun!
What about an internet scavenger hunt? Not exactly sure how it would be done, but it could be entertaining.