I've Never Done an Escape Room

Last month our dear, good friend, Lauren, came to visit! 

We're the three best friends that anyone could have.

Having lived in Provo for four years, she is very familiar with what our fair city has to offer so we were hard up to find places to go and things to do that would be new and interesting for her. But we, more or less, succeeded. We didn’t take many pictures and it’s because we choose to live in the moment and not on social media (bah! Yeah right, we just got distracted and forgot to take pictures).

One thing we got really into the week she was here was escape rooms. We got so into them, in fact, that we did two! An escape room is exactly what it sounds like: You and some friends are locked in a room and given one hour to decipher a staggeringly large number of clues in order to get out. 

The first one we did was in Salt Lake and it was hard. Really, really hard. So hard that we didn’t finish. BUT we were only two clues away so while my sister, Hannah, was fighting off the worker who came in to kick us out, we solved the last two and finished. So even though we technically didn’t “win,” we still consider ourselves winners. No matter what Jeff says. Jeff sucks.

Official Team Name: "Hot Canadian Dan and his Foxxy Ladies"

We had such an amazing time, we did a little more googling and found a brand new one in Provo called “GETOUT Games.” Dan couldn't join us for this one so it was just the Foxxy Ladies. 

Although it’s the same premise, this one had a very different feel to it. The clues were more intuitive and “process of elimination”-y, as opposed to the random order of things in Salt Lake. Also in Provo you’re racing another team in the room next door. The other group happened to be a group from our ward so we were extra motivated to kick their butts. Which we totally did.

Winners!

I won’t go into too much detail here because I want every single person reading this blog (that’s basically you, Mom) to try an escape room and it’s so much more fun if you go in blind. Even the first one where we finished a minute over the time limit gave us all a sense of real accomplishment. It’s a fantastic feeling to finally unlock a desk drawer after 20 minutes of frustration. And, surprisingly, even more exciting when that desk drawer reveals another lock.

It was a great find and we are really happy we got to share it with some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet.  

Hannah, Rachel, Lauren, Desiree, Amy, and Wallis: Champions Over All the Land. 

I've Never Been Fly-fishing

Me with a fish!

For whatever reason, fish creep me out – like a lot. Something about the feel of them and the way they never blink, and their gills just seem so unnatural to me... However, I wanted to try fly fishing for some reason.  So a guy in my ward, Jon, ended up taking me who is an avid fly fisherman.  Turns out fly fishing is really hard – Not that I was expecting it to be easy, but I was particularly bad at it. 

Me in my "cute" waders

I’ve only been regular fishing once, so I’m definitely no expert on any type of fishing, but fly fishing was extremely different.  Fly fishing doesn’t use live bait, which was a welcome difference. No live worms hanging out of the fish’s mouth after you catch it which was gross.  You also catch a lot more fish with fly fishing.  You just keep casting the line and letting it ride down the river over and over. And if you aren’t catching anything, you just try a different part of the river and chances are good you’ll find some fish there.  The fish don’t bite directly on the hook, which was a little difficult for me. The bait is a few inches from the hook, so you have to pull the line hard and quick when you feel a fish bite in order to hook it.  If you’re too slow or don’t pull it the right way, the fish gets away.  This happened to me a lot.

I got to wear a cute little pair of waders (can waders be cute?), which made me feel a little bit like an Oompa Loompa.  And then we trekked around the river.  I’m don’t have a lot of mass and so whenever we were crossing the river in the deeper parts, I thought I was going to get swept away. Often the bottom of the river would be extremely muddy, too. There was one time where I took a step and my foot sunk an entire foot into the mud! In my effort to pull my foot out of the mud, I ended up losing my balance and fell backwards into the water.  Jon happened to turn around right after this happened (luckily) and I was just chillin’ there in the water like I had just wanted to take a break (or perhaps a mud bath?).

"Please hurry and take the picture!"

Jon was great, though, and kept telling me how awesome I was doing (he was just being nice), but I still did catch a handful of fish.  Most of the ones I caught were little baby ones, though, so I’m not sure what that was about.  I did hold one fish for a picture as you can see, which of course involved lots of squealing on my part (I’m kind of embarrassing sometimes).  The fish was being super inconsiderate and wouldn’t hold still while I was trying to pose for a picture.

Overall, it was a lot of fun, though! My arm ended up being sore the next day from casting the line so much, but other than that, no damage.  Also, the first thing Amy said to me when I got home was that I didn’t smell great, so I guess that mud bath worked.