As it would happen, geeky things pop up on my Facebook. I clicked interested and immediately I received a message from a friend who wanted to start a team. So I asked some of my friends. One said yes and we knew we had a team of 3. The tricky thing, though, is commitment. One friend flaked, but the other pulled together a team of awesome women to tackle this crazy task. And thus the "Wits Beyond Measure" were born!
The Caramel Crisp Corner Cafe in downtown Oshkosh put together this challenge, which consisted of a scavenger hunt of pictures as well as completing tasks at local businesses. Everything was within walking distance and we posted all of our tasks to Instagram. We weren't sure what we would win or how to win (besides points), but we were in it for the fun and excitement of the task set before us.
So Saturday morning we met up to receive our tasks and achieve greatness!
We had to complete the tasks in order, except when the Escape Room tasks got backed up. We were allowed to continue on to the next tasks and then return to the Escape Room. We took our Butterbeer Cookies and our directions and we were off on our adventure!
TASK 1: TEST YOUR SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
Task 1.1: Head to Bar 430 to complete a Quidditch task. We had to play a form of Beer Pong, called Butterbeer Pong, and we challenged another team. If you made it through the ring AND in the cup, there were bonuses. It was near impossible. Shockingly, I was actually really good at it. You couldn't bounce it. You had to throw it overhand into the cups. All that time practicing free-throws in the gym clearly paid off.
Task 1.2: We then had to go to the Market Boutique on Main and do some conversions into wizard money. I was so glad my friend Jennifer was there, because she's a mad math wizard!
Task 1.3: Then, to complete our Skills and Knowledge task, we went to Mojo's music and found the CD of the music by the Weird Sisters. Inside the CD was the directions to come up with our own jingle including the words wizard, spell, and our team name. Easy peasy.
TASK 2: RETRIEVE WHAT'S BEEN TAKEN
Task 2:1: At Mojo's we had to get the golden egg. Once our jingle was signed off on, we had to ask for the egg, which then had our riddle clue that took us Escape Oshkosh for our Task Two.
Task 2.2: So we went to the Escape Room. This is where things started to go pear-shaped. There was a huge wait. We were actually told by one of the organizers to go to the other tasks and then come back. So we did! When we finally came back to this task, we still had a bit of a wait, but it was a really neat experience. They split us up and we each had to solve a puzzle and then, through a door, solve the last puzzle to get us out. Oh... two were stuck in a cell in Azkaban. Teamwork at it's best!
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| Waiting.... |
Task 2.3: Before we went to the Escape Room, we went to House of Heroes, or local comic book store. We had to fulfill the task of organizing the potions by their ingredients. We had Felix Felicia (Liquid Luck), Polyjuice Potion, and the Love potion. My friend Jennifer's sister took care of that in quick order, while I filmed Jennifer riding a broom. And that was it for retrieving what had been taken!
TASK 3: TEST YOUR BODY TO RETURN A VICTOR!
Task 3.1: After House of Heroes we went over to Balance Oshkosh. It is a lovely clothing store and we were tempted to shop, but had a mission.... to answer the Quidditch trivia! Megan, Jennifer's sister, totally took care of all of that. Well... I knew when it started. So score one for me! Talk about a well-oiled-Potter-machine!
Task 3.2: Finally... we, um... had to actually test our body. We went to Marisa's Fit Boutique and went through a mini Boot Camp. Oh my goodness... the crunches... oh my goodness... the push-ups. There were jumping jacks and standing jumps and squats... oh the squats... Finally there were burpees. We had to do each task for 1 minute. I'm going to be honest... I didn't wear the bra for these activities and my underwear fell down under my pants. I am, though, proud to say that I did 2 burpees at my best skill level and then had to stop because my boobs were just not having it. I plan to be sore for a week. (We actually did this task and then went back to the Escape Room. This location was right by our final destination, so going back over to Escape Room was a bit more difficult than we intended.)
Task 3.3: All we had to do was return to headquarters and confirm we had completed everything (which we had).
Then they had some extra tasks to extra points. This is where a great deal of the fun really happened.
NEWT LEVEL TASKS: Post photos and videos to Instagram to get loads of extra points. (We weren't sure if we got an additional 5 points for each posting if we geotagged or if we just received a general 5 points. Either way, we tagged EVERYTHING!) We did these throughout our travels, during downtime, etc.
5 Points Each:
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| These kids were there and I told them if they were going to photobomb, just get in the photo! |
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| FREE ELF! |
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| Oh wait... mine are even better! FOR DOBBY! |
10 Points Each:
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| Can't get more forbidden than this! It was even tucked away in the very back corner of the shop! |
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| They had a toy broom! YES! |
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| The lady was asking us what we were doing and thought it was so cool, we decided to invite her to the ball! |
20 Points Each:
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| The video didn't turn out, but I mashed up the pictures. |
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| We're in the doorway! It counts as inside! |
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| This guy was adorable. Wasn't keen on being filmed, but since it was Harry Potter, he was "THRILLED." |
In the end, we had an absolute ball! I would do this again in a heartbeat! Absolutely wonderful! We arrived back at the cafe and checked in. They had us sign our little card with our number so they could call us if we won and off we went - accomplished, empowered, and hungry.
Later that evening, I got a phone call from a weird number in Oshkosh and my husband answered it. I heard our team name and immediately took the phone. Our team had won the Newt Level Prize for all of our amazing Instagraming! I didn't expect to win anything, but oh my goodness... we were THAT awesome! So here's to an amazing team that not only had fun, but also rocked it enough to win a gift certificate and popcorn!
