scavenger hunt, 2016

Angel and the tween arrived around six and we headed toward the trestle. The tween read the list twice as we started out. She thought it was in order. Nope. Maybe it should have been. She promptly walked past things. But there is no way she could miss the red restaurant.

"Gayle, where is the 5-points?" "At the light. You still have three or four blocks." We get to the 5-points and she looks all around for the miss-spelling. Several times she looked right at it and couldn't find it. Now in her defense, spelling is not her strong suite. Me either. (She could easily be mine.) I tell her she can find it on the way back and we move on.

She sees the graffiti art in the garage. Even mom didn't see that. We're standing across from the bank drive-in and I said "is there anything else at this spot?" She said "no". We encourage her to look again. Then she starts naming things.  "... Wells Fargo ... or wait, that's a bank. A bank has a drive thru." Took her long enough.

She really wanted to find the sign in multiple languages and the giant numbers. I kept telling her not yet. In the process she missed the train station.

We were standing in the steelworkers memorial park and she couldn't find the giant man with the I beam. I walked over to it and asked her "what the statue was holding". She said an "I-Beam". That helped her put 2 + 2 together. I also showed her daddy's brick.

We missed the train station, found the multi-language sign, and missed the PBS39 sign looking straight at it. Finally I said "Isn't it cool there's a TV in the park." The numbers are right above it. The volunteer at the HMT stairs gave away the elevator clue. It took her awhile to find the railroad, even though our walk out First Street ran parallel with train tracks on the left. Ultimately she found the RR on the HMT for the ore cars.

HMT grand staircase; file photo

I needed to word "Titan of 20th-Century Industry" better. She was standing in front of the furnace and couldn't figure it out. Then she picked apart the clue word by word. With a few prods from mom she figured out it was the Steel. I think the problem was she only knows it as a place for entertainment and a park. She has no knowledge of a working steel mill.

This is the point in a walk where she would start whining. Nope. She was into this hunt. As we came down the middle steps she counted them for the 70 step clue. There was 64. That's when she realized the big staircase was 74.

At the bottom of the middle stairs is a toddler/pre-school park. She played on the items and wondered why they didn't work well. We kept explaining to her she was too big. They were designed for kids less than 4 feet tall and 50 pounds.

We moved on and found more items on the way back. We were in front of Hop Hing (aka Uncle Gene's) where there was a mail box, and across the street was 2 mailboxes and a post office. Tween really wanted to find "where to mail your start card". She's puzzled. "Are you sure it's here?" She is looking all over. Angel is cackling. She might have been leaning on the mailbox. I'm laughing. It was at that point we put it into words the problem. She looks, but she doesn't see. Kind of like hearing without listening.

Then we get the first twinkling of "tired". I told her if she wanted to find the "train station" clue she needed to walk an extra three blocks, and then three blocks back. She decided against it.

At the 5-Points she starts looking for the miss-spelled word again. I gave her so many hints. Finally I said walk up to the alley. If you don't see it, we are moving on. She found it. Finally. One more clue and we headed home.

Being the mean friend I am, I left her make the decisions how to get there. She's walked to my house enough that she should know.

All in all it was about 4.25 miles.  Now it's her turn to make me one in her 'hood. This should be interesting. Especially if mom edits.

Pat thinks I should take her up to Ft. Hill cemetery. I think she'll hate the hills, but love the grave yard. Plus there is a Jewish graveyard next door.