This year's Summer Treasure Hunt has come to a close, and my kids are upstairs playing with their new stuff right now. This year's new stuff: Max got a Green Lantern TPB and collector's action figure for his set, Abby got two new Judy Moody books, and they got some Go-Gos to share, which they still do very successfully.
CLUE 1: 10:00am - both kids are dressed and have had breakfast, and they get the first clue, sealed in an envelope with a Roman numeral one on it, it contains this poem with a riddle in it leading them to a Wizard of Oz DVD box.
This clue is a riddle, wrapped inside a poem, so pay you both strictest attention; In our house we watch movies, lots, too numerous to mention. In one, there's a man from Nebraska, who has a big flying machine, and he helps out some travelers, kind of, while hiding out in a city of green. When you figure it out, find the box, both of you, and inside is the second big clue.
CLUE 2: was a Klingon-looking substitution cypher, very simple - "Rg'h lpzb gl vzg nzxzilmr & xsvvhv rm gsv yzgsgfy." This is, of course, the phrase, "It's okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub," which led my kids to this book, a favorite of both of them. Abby's the one who nailed which book this was in, after Max completed the cypher.
CLUE 3: Found in the book, was this: "Here there be tigers, guns and fruit and seeds / you've probably seen it 100 times,but now it's got something you need." This led them to this Dali print in the downstairs bathroom, which had a crossword puzzle taped to the back of it.
CLUE 4: Solving the crossword puzzle. This had some highlighted letters, which ultimately, when unscrambled, spelled out two words - "CHET" and "ATTIC." Meaning that they had to go up in the attic and look for the picture of this guy we're calling Chet on account of he's probably related to someone we know but we don't know his name for real, and he looks like a Chet to us.
CLUE 5: On the back of Chet - a rebus clue and a series of names and numbers: 359.4 SYMONDS, 634 KOEPPEL, 643 BINSACCA, 795.43 BARRY. The rebus told them that they had to go to the library downtown, and the rest was books that they had to look up. To the library! After lunch. We stopped for lunch here, I think; watermelon and leftover lasagna.
CLUE 6: Okay, now to the library! The four books are about Naval aviation, single-player card games, swimming pools and bananas - all things that will remind the kids of C's dad, their Papa. Once they'd found all four and put it together, it was on to his house!
CLUE 7: At his house, he handed them the first trivia clue (and orange sodas):
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I'm a portable sausage product, invented in the northern US in the 1920s. (This led them to the box of microwaveable corn dogs in the freezer where they found - )
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Against all enemies, add your ages together (The Tom Clancy book, Against All Enemies, page 16)
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jacket with fur collar, inside pocket (Inside Ron's aviator jacket pocket)
- Max hates it and insults it, but you both like to hide in the clothes, they have something you need there. (Wal-Mart, which Max calls Hell-Mart, and where we rarely go.)
CLUE 8: The Wal-Mart customer service counter, where they have to claim a shovel that I've previously purchased and placed on will-call. This interaction had to be executed by them without help. The shovel had the final proper clue on it: "DIAL: 1. A plate or disk with markings or figures for indicating or registering some measurement or a number, usually by means of a pointer. 2. A rotatable disk or knob used for regulating a mechanism, such as tuning or governing volume on a TV, radio or other electronic device. 3. A family that you know." This led them to the house of friends of ours, whose surname is "Dial." Without quotes. That's really their name.
CLUE 9: They had to play "hot or cold" (sort of) with Max's friend, who had hidden the treasure map in a pot underneath one of the counters in the kitchen. Once they got the map, they had to use it outside.
CLUE 10: The map itself, a crudely mocked up illustration of the street, two houses and treeline, along with the traditional X marking the spot where they dug down about four inches in a planter in the backyard to the Tupperware container wrapped in plastic, tape, foil, tape, a garbage bag and packing tape, containing the treasure, which Max hacked into with his Swiss Army knife while we were eaten by mosquitoes. By 4:40 or so the thing was all over, having consumed the better part of the day.
The summer draws to a close, and I become mildly melancholy. I'm glad I saved this one for more towards the end of things. What I want to hear now is A) whether anyone's parents ever did anything like this for them, and B) what you might have done / will do for your kids along these lines.
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