hunting for more than easter eggs

Note: updated today with photos....

on sunday, after a massive breakfast, some booze, an easter egg hunt around the house, and some lame-ass pinochle hands, mickey, willie, toots and i were slight bored. we'd just broken the boys' easter toy (the velcro ball and mitts, which we ruined in less than 20 minutes). it was getting desperate. thank god someone suggested a scavenger hunt (ok, it was me, because i've been wanting to do one after reading about platial's geo-scavenger hunt a couple weeks ago). we made our list of items, paired up into teams, and hit the neighborhood.

the first list was pretty basic: find ten items in the neighborhood, be back at the house in 20 minutes for the first round of drinking. toots and i ran frantically searching for a lava rock, a dogwood flower, some easter candy, a matchbook and other random items. after successfully finding 8 out of ten bits, we regrouped with willie and mike, reviewed the booty, caught our breath, had a cocktail and made the second, more aggressive list.

our "something random" finding from round one: a slightly freaky easter bunny, sqeezing the hell out of some kids

the second list comprised 20 more complicated items: a garden gnome, a crazy mailbox, food on the street, shoes on a phone wire, a doolie truck, a statuette in a yard, tulip bed, tiki torch, bottle of beer on a porch. the rules this time: we were on the honor system, so rather than bringing each item back with us, we were to write the address where we found all the items. in 20 minutes, we were to meet at the mock crest tavern. toots and i made it with 7 seconds to spare, and with only three or four items we'd not found. mickey and willie had had similar luck, so the contest was a close one. upon arrival at the mock crest, we found they were having an easter egg hunt in their back garden, a perfect match to our theme for the day. while everyone else found candy in their egg, i found a golden egg in mine, which meant i won...


over round two of cocktails we discussed the third and final scavenger list. in 35 minutes, we were to find 20 more items: three cars parked in a driveway, a car parked on the lawn, cat on a porch, tv on in a house, christmas lights, a crazy easter decoration, sidewalk chalk drawing, sports flag, and still that damn garden gnome, as none of us saw one in round two. within the time allotted, we were also supposed to make our way to sagittarius for the third cocktail break.

toots and i busted out of mock crest, walking as fast as we could through neighborhoods we thought might have the items on our list. with about 30 seconds to spare, we'd just found the beware of dog sign (next door to the beware of cat sign, which we were prepared to cheat and say was good enough), and walked into sagittarius, me with a foot cramp, toots with a busting bladder, both of us sweaty and exhausted.

waiting patiently for the boys....

the boys waltzed in 3 minutes late, and were penalized for the delay. while i hate to admit we won on a technicality, toots and i accepted the win gracefully (ok, the alcohol was talking at this stage).

i love this blurry setting on my camera. i also love vanilla vodka and coke.

it was the perfect way to spend a day -- lots of exercise but with a nice distraction to make it enjoyable, and a cocktail or three at the end to keep us moving. all i gotta say, though, is that no-po is not representing -- are all its residents gnome haters? we found none. so sad.

PS: flickr's got more evidence of the day, if'n you're interested...