Test your downtown knowledge on a
hunt for mysterious clues
By STEVEN SPENSER
So,
you think you know Seattle pretty well? Terry Seidler (aka the ClueMaster)
can convince you otherwise. Seidler, Owner of See Seattle Walking Tours
& Events, runs two different organization sponsored scavenger hunts.
One, held downtown, is called Mystery & Scavenger Hunt and the other,
called a Scramble, takes place at Seattle Center. Both combine history and
trivia that even locals have trouble solving.
Scavenger hunts are great, Seidler says, because
they pull people out of their ordinary routines. No matter what else may
be confronting people in their lives, Seidler thinks the organized hunts
are a chance to have "pure unadulterated fun."
In Mystery & Scavenger Hunts, teams of six to
eight people in limousines or on foot search 16 downtown areas for answers
to questions and riddles and try to find unusual objects without spending
money or bartering. Out of a possible 333 points, no team ever has scored
more than 164. Technological advantages, such as searching the Internet or
calling the Library's Quick Information Line, are not permitted.
Part team-building exercise and part social ice
breaker, Mystery & Scavenger Hunts are challenging, highly
competitive, educational and humbling.
"Many of us realized how much we didn't know
about Seattle history," says Marylee Avila, an administrator with
Microsoft. "(Even) being a Seattle native ... I didn't know half of
(the answers)."
"We had a tough time getting out of Westlake
Center because everyone wanted to window shop," says Amy Smith, an
administrative assistant with Microsoft. "Seeing Seattle (that way)
was fun and interesting. I learned a lot."
Hard-to-find items on the hunt include a postcard
with a canceled stamp from somewhere other than the United States or
Canada and an unused napkin with "Since 1938" printed on it.
"You feel like a kid again," says Kerri
Goodman, the Seattle publisher of Coffee Talk magazine. "We had
corporate presidents going through garbage cans to find an empty bottle of
shoe polish." One prim and quiet staffer became so caught up in the
hunt for a local team schedule, she ran into a bar and ripped a poster
right off the wall.
Avila summed up her experience on the hunt.
"You just don't realize how much there is to know until you get out
there. It's a big place." |
Scavenger Hunts are great, Seidler says, because
they pull people out of their ordinary routines
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Hammering Man is one stop on Terry Seidler's
scavenger hunt. No, it's not good enough just to find him, but the question is simple: How
many times does he hammer per minute?
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Match wits with the ClueMaster
We asked scavenger hunt
impresario Terry Seidler to share some of his most challenging
puzzlers. How many of these mysteries can you solve? (To learn the
answers you'll have to go on Seidler's hunt.)
1. Bell Street Pier search
area - The marina walkway rises
and falls about 22 feet with the high and low tides. The metal pilings
with the pointed white caps secure the walkway in place. How many of
these pilings are there? (Hint: to see them all, you can't stand in
one position -- you have to move around.)
2. Pike Place Market search area
- The Perennial Tea Room sells
the blend of tea that was thrown overboard at the Boston Tea Party.
What name do they sell it under?
3. Freeway Park & Convention Center search area - According
to one electronic “moving” message on the walls of the
International Meeting Place in the Convention Center, “Emotional
Responses Are As Valuable As…………”?
4. Pioneer Square search area -
What is the name of Chief Seattle's native language?
5. International District search
area - What is the real name of
a fruit often found in Asian grocery stores nicknamed "stinkfruit?" |
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