With Earth Day coming up, you might be looking for ways to “green” your lifestyle. If this is the beginning of your journey, even small changes can make an impact, so don’t worry if you’re taking baby steps! If you’ve been on the path for a while, maybe you’d like some fun new ideas. We tried a new activity that will get you outdoors, spending time with family and friends while getting to know your local town or city — and all you need is a cell phone. Ready for a scavenger hunt?
He said: You should have seen the eye rolls and groans when we told our boys that we were going to go downtown for a “wacky walk.” No, we didn’t walk around like Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. Wacky Walks are basically a competitive scavenger hunt style game, where you publicly humiliate yourself to win control of the game so that you can also publicly humiliate your friends or family. We followed clues on the app to find different landmarks. Once found, we were prompted to film or photograph ourselves performing different tasks, like moon-walking and engaging in invisible tug of war. We went wacky walking with warm white walkie talkies while window shopping (sentence with 10 ‘w’ words challenge completed). This was a cheap and easy way to get outside and get moving. We had lots of laughs and walked about a mile while doing it, and probably made a bunch of random people laugh by acting like complete fools in a heavily populated place.
She Said: There are many app-based scavenger hunts out there that intend to get you off the couch, get some exercise, and have fun out in the community. We saw versions that involved detective “whodunnits,” competitive puzzle races, surviving a zombie apocalypse (really!), or just getting to know your city. We picked a silly, competitive puzzle version (it matches our personalities) and headed to our little downtown with the family. The app could have had more clear instructions, so it was a rough start, but once we figured out what to do, we were off and running. Each “mission” had a riddle to solve, which led us to various places around the city like a library, a candy store, a mailbox, or a fountain. Then we had to upload a photo of us with the solution to the riddle — and here’s the “silly” part — acting out the ridiculous action listed in the mission. Did we feel like dorks, pretending to be a mime stuck in a box, juggling imaginary bowling pins, or singing in a rock band of one? You betcha! I just tried to avoid eye contact with any passersby. We laughed a lot though, despite the embarrassment, and spent a lot of quality time together. After about an hour of goofing off, my family was nearly done. I wanted to complete all the missions within the suggested time of two hours though, and looked to see how many were left. Glad I did, and I promptly said, “Yep, we can be done whenever!” There were 60 missions! Whaaat? The only way to complete 60 in two hours is with a LOT of Red Bull or a time machine. We kept going a little longer and then celebrated our accomplishment of 30 completed missions and 15th place by shopping for treats at our local candy store. I really enjoyed discovering local businesses we hadn’t noticed before, but most of all, had quality fun time with my family.
