RE/MAX Scavenger Hunt

As much as I love history, I sometimes dread the thought of visiting museums. The cold walls, the dingy portraits and the monotonous amount of dirty old collectibles from the middle ages can be quite mind numbing. However, to my pleasant surprise, my visit to the Royal Ontario Museum on Monday morning was both fun and refreshing. And...I now have a greater appreciation for some of the history housed in the downtown enclave. Moreover, unlike the regular high school visits, my adventure began with a special 2 hour scavenger hunt and a bunch of competitive realtors who hastily ran up and down the various hallways and staircases searching for different clues.

With my daring sidekick, we began our hunt in the hallways of early Europe trying on some of the most ridiculous medieval head gear that would probably make my hairdresser cry. From there, we hurried along the corridors in search of an Egyptian mummy whose name was less than memorable. Changing directions and decades, we moved into the dinosaur exhibit, where we brilliantly constructed a tiny tyrannosaurus before the other groups could. After searching for the flying reptile named after an Aztec god, we moved onto Greece, wear my sidekick dressed me in a tasteful purple toga. We then searched for some rotten old helmets and a Tibetan monk who looked calm and peaceful as many different school groups scuffled about him. Lastly, we hurried into the biodiversity exhibit to check out some little green frogs. (Not the Kermit friendly kind)

Being more adventurous than the other groups, we also attempted to find the queen bee before heading to the finish. Luckily, while scrutinizing the millions of bumblebees in the beehouse, another keen observer slipped us the answer. And with that, we were off and running again, but this time to the finish line, where we hoped first prize would still be waiting for us. Holding our breath as we made our final descent down the elevator, we were shocked to find that our competition had gotten the best of us. Although first prize eluded us this time, the hunt provided an insightful look into the various parts of history and kept us on our toes from start to finish.