Escapé

In October, we (Little Sister and I) finally made it to an escape room.

It was everything we'd ever dreamed of and more. So we did it again. And again!

I find escape rooms to be delightful and novel things. Someone essentially turned my penchant for collecting random knowledge and my desire to be a super sleuth into a social, interactive, team-building activity. Is this what sports are like for other people? Is this why some people like playing sports?

I'll tell you all about my experiences!

The first escape room we did was an escape room in a mob boss's office. We were accompanied by Mr. Little Sister, Rosebud and Mr. Rosebud, and some other friends. Little Sister and I quickly realized that this really was just like a real-life Nancy Drew game. We spouted the same kind of crazy theories, picked up objects and examined them over and over, and worked on solving different puzzles in fits and starts. We could even get hints from the moderator lady when we were stuck. The group actually worked really well together. Everyone pulled their weight, and we found the mob boss's gold and got out with several minutes to spare.

The second escape room we did was a zombie escape room for Little Sister's birthday. This time, it was me, Little Sister and Mr. Little Sister, Baby Sister, Rosebud and Mr. Rosebud, Little Sister's mother- and sisters-in-law, and Little Sister's sister-in-law's boyfriend.

Before we did this escape room, we'd heard that there was an actor playing a zombie chained in a corner and that his chain got longer as the time ticked away. Um. NO. That's not what it was like at ALL. The zombie was chained, but he was only in the corner for five minutes. Then he came out of the corner as far as his chain would let him (which was actually, like seven or eight feet), so by the end of the time we spent in the room, he could literally reach every corner. Did I mention that if he touched you, you had to be quarantined? Also, there were nine of us, and we spent legitimately about ten minutes cowering in one corner of the room, trying to stay away from the zombie. In this particular escape room, the moderator was actually in the room with us, which was strange and also very inconvenient as we tried to run around the room without getting touched by the zombie.

For me, the physical stimulation was a little too much, and I found it hard to stay away from the zombie and work on the clues. By the end, the zombie was actually climbing on the furniture, and we made it out with only a few minutes to spare.

The third escape room was definitely my favorite. It was...drum roll please...a Harry Potter escape room!

The Utah siblings (including Mr. Little Sister) wanted to do an escape room together before Baby Sister headed off on the mish. Little Sister and I determined that, if all possible, we would find a Harry Potter-themed one.

Well, it was all possible, because we did. We drove for about forty-five minutes to a new escape room facility so that we could enjoy a Horcrux-themed escape room. The idea? Find all six of Voldemort's Horcruxes to get the door to unlock.

Before she locked us in, the lady said something like, "You can do this escape room without knowing anything about Harry Potter."

She was right. You could do the room without knowing anything about Harry Potter...IF YOU WANTED TO FAIL.

Because sure, you could probably figure out most things using logic, but it really really helped to have an intimate knowledge of all seven books.

For example, a portion of the escape room used a riddle from the Triwizard tournament. It's a pretty hard riddle, and I was glad we didn't have to actually solve it by using actual thinking. That same portion also included Snape's potion riddle guarding the sorcerer's stone in the first book. Little Sister called me over to help her solve it. Now, that scene is not included in the movie, probably because it literally consists of Hermione pacing and muttering, clapping her hands and pointing, and telling Harry what to do. There's not a lot of action. And I'll be honest, I don't completely understand how the riddle works, because without visuals of the potions I have a hard time picturing what's going on. So while Little Sister was trying to work through it logically, I was just like, "Dude, I don't know. I've never understood this part. But I can tell you right now which bottles Hermione selects after she's done pacing and muttering." It turns out that I was 100% correct. It also turns out that Little Sister (with minimal help from me) was able to reach those same answers by working through the riddle. There's the Ravenclaw for you. (Although the riddle did make more sense to me when I could actually see the potions.)

It just so happened that with there being six of us, each of us got to recover one Horcrux. Later, we said that the Horcrux you ended up with determined which character you were. Baby Brother got the diary (Harry; coincidentally also the first Horcrux we found), Mr. Little Sister got the ring (Dumbledore), Baby Sister got the diadem (Crabbe), Little Sister got the locket (Ron), I got the snake (Neville), and Little Brother got the cup (Hermione). (Baby Sister was not very happy when we worked all this out.)

The best and nerdiest part of the experience, though, was when a wand dropped out of a wall (yup, not even lying, but I'm not going to explain) and we were trying to use it to figure out how to open a door in another wall. I had a thought that maybe I should try casting a spell on it. But then I was like, "Do you know how hopelessly nerdy of Harry Potter fan you're going to look like if you try to cast a spell on that wall and nothing happens?"

With some encouragement, though, I waved the wand and said, "Alohomora."

A door clicked open, and everyone made audible noises of awe and excitement.

Did I mention that I really enjoy escape rooms?