A Puzzle

Escape Rooms are physical rooms inside buildings that are rigged with electronic puzzles that you need to figure out in order to ‘escape.’  One scenario: A master thief had stolen the Mona Lisa and hidden it in a room with his collectibles. It was our job to find the painting and get it back to the authorities. Not easy! It involved solving a series of puzzles, and each one needed to be figured out before moving on to the next one.  We quickly concluded that a chessboard was part of the solution. But the chess pieces were hidden in cupboards and drawers that opened with codes, magnets and hidden electronics; a typewriter printed out a verse we needed to decipher to open a safe; antique masks had to be hung on the wall in a certain order to reveal a space behind a picture. Once we accomplished all that, a door opened into a separate room. The painting wasn’t in there, either. More puzzles. Once we'd fit the proper coins into a music box, and found a code in an Egyptian treasure case with a magnifying glass, a mirrored closet door would’ve opened with the Mona Lisa inside. I say ‘would’ve' because we got about three puzzles from the end before our time ran out.  If we’d had another hour, I think we might have succeeded.  We’d like to return and try another room, and maybe buy an extra hour to take the pressure off.  :-)

2016 In a Nutshell:

-       Britain voted to leave the EU. Donald Trump was elected president

-       The Ross Sea has been categorized as a Marine Protected Area

-       Mother Teresa was canonized as St. Teresa of Calcutta

-       Pandas are not classified as an endangered species anymore

-       The tiger population has increased for the first time in a century.

-       The world lost John Glenn, Harper Lee, Morely Safer, Gwen Ifill, Patty Duke, Alan Rickman, Gene Wilder, Muhammed Ali, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, David Bowie, Prince, Leon Russell, Marni Nixon, George Michael, Leonard Cohen, among many others.

-       Researchers found new genes that might help cure ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease that causes nerve cells to break down and weakens muscles

-       West Africa is ebola-free and a vaccine is 100% effective

-       Pokémon took the world by storm.

-       Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize in Literature.