I saw a deal on
Certifikid for a scavenger hunt in Baltimore.
Urban Adventure Quest has scavenger hunts in cities all across the USA (Canada and Mexico too!). The hunt requires an internet-enabled device. The company uses their web site to give the questions and clues. Also, sometimes we needed to do some research on trivia or general information that we didn't know off the top of our heads. We tried out the local hunt which starts on Baltimore's Inner Harbor by the
Maryland Science Center. The first puzzles involved items in the plaza in front of the Science Center.
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| Maryland Science Center plaza |
The quest is designed to be done outdoors (though it is tempting to go inside some places, as we will soon see) during daylight hours. We started before ten a.m., so we had plenty of time to finish the quest. We faced two challenges here, one involving the wacky sculpture out front.
After solving two puzzles, we headed down the brick walkway. One clue (among others) was at the Harbor Fountains, which weren't on because a group was doing a big aerobic dance class. We had to find some information on the ground, so Mom took the hit and pretended to dance along with the crowd (maybe forty others?) and found the longest word. We had to convert the word into a Scrabble score in order to answer the question and get to the next puzzle (we used the internet for Scrabble point values). I didn't take any pictures there because it's weird to take pictures of total strangers dancing in public when they are exercising, i.e. not trying to be entertaining.
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| View from where the dancing happened |
Nearby is a statue of William Donald Schaefer (a former mayor of Charm City) and clues were based on his information and stuff on the statue. Also involved was the time capsule buried nearby.
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| Schaefer Statue |
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| Time capsule! |
We continued around the harbor and took a picture by the USS Constellation, an old Navy boat that is now a tourist attraction (see our visit to the ship
here).
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| Whoops, my youngest got cut off in the selfie! |
Another clue involved a business on the Inner Harbor that has been closed for years! Luckily we have lived here for years so I knew what they were referring to. No evidence remains of the mysterious business so I don't know what out-of-towners will do. I did provide feedback at the end.
The next puzzle had us checking the brick path where the
Baltimore Ravens' Superbowl XLVII victory is commemorated. That was fun to figure out and no dancers were nearby. I still did not get a picture.
The next puzzle involved the national flags at the
World Trade Center on Baltimore Harbor. Again, this puzzle was easy to do from outside thanks to their big plate-glass windows. Figuring out which flag went with which country required some internet savvy, though we knew more than half of the flags we were looking for.
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| Ducks near the World Trade Center |
The search led us to Pierce's Park, which is a hidden gem. A walkway around the perimeter has a bunch of homophones in it (which was part of a puzzle). A couple of outdoor xylophones were there too, and another puzzle used them for a musical clue.
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| Much easier to blend in here |
In the middle is a playground where our kids took a break from the search. The other end of the park has an aluminum sign where we picked out individual letters in order to get the answer. My oldest son and I worked together to find the solution.
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| Pierce's Park info |
We continued on to Little Italy, using the pedestal that used to have a statue of Christopher Columbus. The statue was torn down by rioters during 2020 racial riots in Baltimore. We had to do some internet research here too, comparing information on the pedestal with details from the
In 1492 poem.
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| Frescos in Little Italy |
Another question refers to
Vaccaro's, a famous local Italian bakery. In addition to solving a puzzle, we went inside and got some gelato to sustain us on our way. We were too busy eating the gelato before it melted to get pictures. It was delightful, I assure you.
The final puzzles involved
The Star-Spangled Banner Flag House. Mary Young Pickersgill along with her family sewed the large flag that flew over Fort McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write what would become our national anthem. It was fun location to explore and hang around.
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| Searching the USA |
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| A fun picture |
That was the end of the adventure quest. We had a good time and made good time, just over two hours, and only lost five points due to a data entry error on one question.
Since we were full of gelato, we headed home for lunch. The experience was a lot of fun and we recommend it for others!
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