One of the coolest ways to explore a city (both ones you know intimately as well as ones that are new to you) is through embarking on a scavenger hunt. I’ve done two of them in Washington, D.C., and much like travel, they force you out of your comfort zone, and entice you to interact with the environment around you — both built and human. Below are some of the adventures I’ve had in my scavenger hunts, but I’ll bet there are similar ones where you live right now, or where you might be headed soon — so give it a try!
Washington Post Hunt
The Washington Post Hunt, put on by the newspaper of the same name is part brain-teasers and part scavenger hunt. Teams meet at a central location at which point they are given a special map and trivia questions — the answers to which correspond to coordinates on the map. At each of five specified locations on the map, visiting it in person gives you a brainteaser to solve that incorporates the environment around you. For example, near the base of the Wasington Monument were three sets of statues, and a plaque that read “memorial to failed monuments.” The first statues were a ghost with a word balloon, and a cannon; the second was a vacuum cleaner; the third was a stack of eyes and an hourglass. Can you figure out what they were supposed to symbolize? If not, don’t feel bad — it’s a notoriously frustrating experience! You can check out the official explanation of the puzzle here.
After a couple of hours, the participants gather together again for a final clue which sends everyone on a mad-chase around the streets of DC following obscure clue after obscure clue until figuring out that you had to find a woman outside a movie theatre walking a boxer dog! (If you’re curious, nope, we didn’t get that far…).
Mr. Yogato / A Plate for All
This past weekend friends and I took part in a scavenger hunt leaving from Mr. Yogato and organized by the non-profit A Plate for All. Of course it included random trivia, but the crux of the scavenger hunt was to make you do ridiculous things and interact with strangers in DC, all of which led to some great stories, and even greater photos. In addition to convincing a CVS employee to let us have his nametag, and getting a dozen or so middle schoolers to sing “I’m a little teapot” on a crowded metro car, here are some photo highlights of the hunt:
Pose with a bartender wearing a tie. (Interesting fact: a coke here costs $4!)
Get an autograph from a DC metro employee, and convince them to let you wear their uniform.
2 challenges in 1. The first was to find a “boat” for which we chose a broken umbrella. Our motto: “if it floats, it’s a boat!” The second was to stage a protest, so we decided to have a protest (and counter-protest) regarding the boat-status of our “boat.”
So, what are you waiting for? Go find a scavenger hunt in your city!
Alex Budak is a recent graduate of UCLA and is currently enrolled as a graduate student at Georgetown University where he studies Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship. You can see more of his travels on Sosauce, his blog, or follow him on Twitter, @TheBudak.
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I did the WaPo scavenger hunt last year! We didn’t get terribly far either, but i was so starstruck by Dave Barry (he and Gene Weingarten organize it) that I didn’t much care.