Did you
read the January issue? Did you catch me and my New Year’s Resolution to have
more date nights with El Hubby? Well, unlike my 23 other resolutions that have
already fallen by the wayside, this one I really wanted to stick to, so Jason
and I booked a sitter for a recent Saturday night.
But the
eternal question: what to do? We though about going to the movies; we hadn’t
seen “The Fighter” or “The King’s Speech” (we still haven’t seen them), but no,
I thought, we had the most fun doing something.
We already painted pottery, it is cold outside, what could we do? I decided to
take some of my own advice and re-read an article I did last summer (check out
cool date night ideas here).—
So, after
many eyerolls and a couple of “Are you
kidding me?”s from Jason, I convinced him to go on a scavenger hunt at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The folks at Watson Adventures run a gazillion
different hunts all around the city, and we settled on the Murder at the Met
one. For adults only, apparently it is their most challenging hunt — so tough,
you need at least a brainpower of four. We needed help.
Enter
Kristi and Steve, parents of two (Alex and Julia, one of Tessa’s BFFs). They
are smart, funny and just crazy enough to embark on this adventure with us. How
do we know this? Exhibit A was their confession of a serious discussion to wear
matching tracksuits ala “Amazing Race.”
We
rendezvoused at the Met a bit before the starting time and noticed the other
teams already huddled together, planning strategy. My anxiety level was rather
elevated, and I think all of our inner-competitive-streaks were charged up. The
organizers handed us the clues and our starting point and we furiously began
studying them. With only a few minutes to look over the clues, we were off
(though not too fast as you are
docked points for running and “jostling other museum-goers”).
Obviously,
the nitty-gritty details can’t be divulged, but you have two hours to follow
directions, leading us all through the Met, going into galleries I’ve never
been in before, working together to figure out the clues. At the end, you turn in the answers to your
clues, as well as the name of who you think the murderer is and his/her motive.
Was it fun?
Yes. Beyond fun. It was exciting. Would we do it again? Definitely. Was it
hard? Let’s put it this way: we have all graduated college and can assemble
toys with 283 small pieces before naptime is over. But, at the beginning, our
team name was The Mamas and The Papas. After it was over, it was The Mamas and
The Papas aka This Made Our Heads Hurt. Did we win? No. We came in third from
the bottom – that’s with a few extra points for a good team name.
At dinner
afterward, despite our loss, we were still talking about certain clues, better
strategy, what we would do differently. It was such an out-of-the-box, non-usual (is that a word?) way to spend
a Saturday night, all of us were still on a high from it the next day.
I’m already
looking at the web site, reading up on the ones to see which one we should try
next (shhh, Jason doesn’t know that).
For more info on the scavenger
hunts, you can click on Watson Adventures and find one that is right for your
next date night (or for the entire family).
