50 for 50: 4 -- Escape Room with Cousin Seth

Escape Room with Cousin Seth was something of a last-minute change of plans.  Cousin Seth had first claimed Hot Air Balloon Ride (still open, btw), but the balloon place was all booked, so I returned to the list for things of a more easy-to-book, not-so-adventurey variety.  And an Escape Room seemed like a no-brainer.  Because Seth IS a brainer.  So is Gabriel, his son, who came along. 

I've done two Escape Rooms before; this is the first one I've failed, and I honestly think this was (at least in part) due to the way this particular room was run.  We had a walkie-talkie we could use to get up to three hints.  When we used it to ask for a hint, despite the fact that there was a security camera in the room (so they were able to watch our progress), the guy started telling us to do stuff we had already done.  This was (1) annoying; and (2) a time-waster.  It happened twice.  The first time, he took so long trying to figure out where we were stuck, Cousin Seth unstuck us before the guy even got the clue out.  The second time... well, this was six hours ago and it still kind of sticks in my craw ... the eventual clue told us to touch something which had a "Do Not Touch" sign on it.  (And we'd been warned, before the game, to Not Touch stuff that says "Do Not Touch.")  Now, OK, sure, fine, he GAVE us the hint about having to touch the "Do Not Touch" thing, but we'd been dicking around for quite a lot of time trying to solve this particular clue on our own, and this time was utterly wasted because it was more or less impossible to solve this here clue without someone telling you, "Yeah, ok, NOW you should touch a 'Do Not Touch' thing."

Other than that, depending on how you look at things, we either failed miserably (leaving at least a half-dozen puzzles unsolved); came really close (had the right code for a lock, but it wasn't opening -- had it opened, we could have gotten to the end in about 3 minutes); or came outrageously close (without knowing it, we'd accidentally leapt ahead and gotten the code to open the final door -- had we but tried it, we would have escaped).

But, again, escaping wasn't really the point here (although it would have been nice).  The point was problem solving with Cousin Seth and Cousin Gabriel.  I'm happy to report that we together destroyed the math puzzle in that thing in about 20 seconds; and there was some nice teamwork (Seth and I put the map together, but Gabriel figured out how to read it).  Seth was also very calm at the end when we were running out of time.  I was overwhelmed by all the locks left unopened, but he kept me and Gabriel focused and working till the end -- which was totally the right thing to do.

(As was bitching about "Touch the 'Do Not Touch' thing."  Which we did for the rest of the night.  Because seriously?)

I actually met up with Cousin Seth early -- right after West Virginia.  This was good because I got to see his daughter, and we went to Gabriel's horseback lesson.  (I was sooo relieved by this, as it meant I was not the only one who smelled like horse that night.)  We also met up with Cousin Debbie (Mrs. Cousin Seth) for dinner beforehand, and I went back to the house afterwards for tea and chatting like grown-ups do.  (Gabriel sat in; having done his duty in the Escape Room, he earned the right to recount the tale of "Oh, go ahead and touch it.")  I loved that part.  At most family get-togethers, there is extended family all over the place -- I rarely see one cousin's family without several others all crammed in the kitchen.  Tonight was small and lovely and just sort of happened.  I hated to leave, but I'm sure they have the real world to get back to, and I had to drive back to my airport hotel, for a flight out tomorrow.