A New Way To Learn About San Diego

I recently wrote a blog about expectations, and said that usually our expectations for an event (a cruise) or a person are greater than what actually takes place. Well, I just attended an event that actually exceeded my expectations in a big way. I organized a scavenger hunt in San Diego through the company Where You Want To Be Tours that was so much fun that I don't know where to begin.

The beginning. Fran and I saw a Groupon for a scavenger hunt in San Diego, and we both said that was something that sounded unique, so we decided to put it together. We began, with the help of Marie, by purchasing 20 tickets for the scavenger hunt, then putting together an amazing group of women to join us. Unfortunately there were some last minute snaffoos, and a few people couldn't go at the last minute due to illness, work or funerals, but we got replacements, and I think all those last minute people were happy they came. Here's how it went.

We arrived at the Omni Hotel in San Diego a little before 10am. I had randomly divided us into 2 teams, and there was a third group of women that made up the last team. (they were a group of women turning 50, and were they ever having a good time). We each had a leader from the tour company that kept us together, gave us our clues, made us aware of how much time we had, and encouraged us. If you've ever watched "The Amazing Race" (one of my favorite shows), this is like a mini race. Over the course of the next 2 hours we had 7 big tasks to complete, including writing a jingle about San Diego from Altitude bar at the top of the Marriott, to getting someone on the street to sing for us. We had buildings to find, statues to locate, and questions to answer. It was interesting to see how each team worked.

Our team decided to divide up the questions, so each person only had to look for a few items, other teams approached it by having everyone look for everything. We couldn't use an I Phone or any GPS, we had to figure it out the old fashioned way. In two hours we answer about 22 of the 25 questions, walked three miles, and got to work together with our team. What a great experience.

The funniest answer to one of the clues was when we asked a 6 foot woman with extremely large breasts, lounging in a gold lamee bikini, to pose with us. The task was to find someone in a colorful outfit and photograph a few of our group with him/her. She was a good sport and we got a great picture.

At the end of the day we met at Hard Rock Cafe for the awards ceremony. Sadly, my team lost to the 50 year old women, but it was so much even competitive me didn't really care. I was exhausted when I got home. In fact, I had to take a one hour nap, something I rarely do.

This event was such a great opportunity to see another side of some women's personalities. We're all pretty take charge people, but each person had something they were especially good at. My strength was finding obscure items, like a stuffed frog on a car dashboard, or a 2 spire building. They all said they don't want me around if they ever do anything wrong. I'm very observant, and they won't get away with anything.

If you ever have a chance to attend a Where You Want To Be Tour with Darlynn, Troy and Marie, do so. It was fantastic.