Museum District Scavenger Hunt

After Thanksgiving, we figured it was time to get out the Christmas decorations. We usually have a December 1st house rule, but 2020 deserves a couple extra days of Christmas cheer. We have a little different set-up this year, and the only spot for the tree seemed to be upstairs. This might be the last year for the miracle tree, since more lights didn't come on and some branches crumbled in our hands while we assembled it.

I recently stumbled across a Christmas present from last year that we never used - a family scavenger hunt for downtown Houston, which seemed like a great thing to do now that the weather has become more pleasant. We chose to do the hunt in the museum district and had a great time discovering little gems in and around Hermann Park. The hunt is conducted through an app on your phone, which gives you clues and asks you questions for points. When you find a landmark that they've directed you to, you can submit a picture of yourself there to get even more points. As a result, I have a lot of pictures from our hunt. Let's get started!

We weren't sure where the hunt would start, so we parked in the big lots by the zoo, which was pretty far away from where we needed to be. At least the weather was nice, and we had park scenery to enjoy on our way to the first stop: the Sam Houston statue. Note: our selfie game needs some work, especially for four faces into the sun.

From there, it was an easy walk to the reflecting pool and the Pioneer Memorial Obelisk at the end. The beautiful weather brought out lots of families and photo sessions, but we were able to keep our distance or mask up, as needed. 

Next up were the Japanese gardens, very serene and photogenic.

We did a few bonus challenges while we enjoyed the Japanese garden: descending heights, heart hands, animal pics, etc. Side note: Hermann Park has the largest squirrels I've ever seen. They must be living the good life with park goer's scraps and large, protected trees.

The hunt continued to Miller Outdoor Theatre and Centennial Gardens, where we found a bust of Cabeza de Vaca. Sadly, some things were closed, like the theatre grounds and the spiral path up to the top of the hill, I guess due to COVID concerns. So we often had to take a roundabout way to places.

By this point, the grass looked pretty good to the kids. It was a lot of walking. (We clocked about 17k steps that day!)

Alas, we weren't done! There were more fountains and colonnades to see. Plus a few more bonus points to get from acting out scenes and counting columns.

Finally, the scavenger hunt finished up at the MFA and a sculpture garden. I did not know that Houston had its own mini-bean, a la Chicago. It just goes to show that we have a lot more to learn about our new (and old) home.