Puzzling Adventures Scavenger Hunt

You just never know what we're gonna do next.  Queen Debbie came up with a super fun event that had a little bit of everything . . . riding a train (adventure), walking around a beautiful oceanfront area (exercise), and solving puzzles (using our brain).  And to top it all off, it was a truly beautiful day.  What more could you ask for?

Our day started at the Anaheim Metrolink Station . . .

Anaheim Metrolink Station

Lots of choices of where to go . . .
For today, we are headed to Oceanside

How many Red Hatters does it take to purchase tickets?

Once we figured out the vending machine for the tickets, we made our way to the platform . . .

Here comes the train!

All Aboard!

All settled in and ready for our train ride.

It was such a great idea to take the train . . . we were all able to just sit back, relax and chat without having to worry about traffic or parking.  And the scenery along the coast was really pretty.

Our destination - Oceanside!

But before our adventure, it's first things first - first things being LUNCH!  We found this burger place just a short walk from the train station . . .

Ty's Burger House

The burgers were delish!

And the fries!  Oh Boy!!!

After lunch, we're ready for our adventure to begin.

A Puzzling Adventure is a cross between a scavenger hunt, an informative self-guided tour, and The Amazing Race.  Each adventure consists of a series of locations that you are guided to and where you are required to answer questions or solve puzzles to receive your next instruction.  All the clues were sent one by one to Queen Debbie's phone.  She would read the clue to us, and then we were off trying to solve the puzzle or answer the question.  It took us awhile to get the hang of it, but once we caught on, we were doing pretty good.

Queen Debbie reading the first clue

The clues took us all over the Downtown Oceanside area, and along the way we learned a lot about the area, and really enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery.  Here are some of the "answers" and also some of the beautiful scenery . . . 

First Clue - We had to find a sign with a "triangle" and
determine what the triangle represented.
It took us FOREVER to find this one.  After that, we got better.

Second Clue - We had to find this plaque.

The clues kept coming, and we kept trying to figure them out.  Sometimes our guesses were way off, and we had to try again.  But along the way, the scenery was gorgeous . . .

And every now and again ,we had to climb stairs . . . 

Another answer to a clue

This wall contained more answers

We had to count the beach balls along the sidewalk

So we took a break to pose with one!  (Of course!)
L-R: Barbara, Carol L, Debbie, Joy, Carol N, Seema, Chris

This cute little dolphin was another answer

Lots of activity, including all these bicyclists
out on an adventure of their own.

About half way through, we spotted this and decided to take a break . . .

New York Italian Ice

This colorful gentleman did his best to convince us that
his Italian Ice was better than Ice Cream

Some of the ladies indulged . . . some held out for . . .

Real Ice Cream

Break time over, we were off in search of our next clue . . .

Along the boardwalk

The answer was amongst these names

View from the boardwalk

Our new friend, Charlie

Another photo opp at the end of the boardwalk -
Too bad we weren't hungry!

More pretty scenery

Enjoying the view

One of the last clues took us to this house . . . .

Do you recognize it?

This is how it looked originally

Now do you recognize it?

Now???

Such a fun day . . . We were sad to see it end.  But, alas, it was time to head back to the train station for our ride home . . . 

Bye Oceanside.  See you again soon.

Back at the Anaheim Metrolink Station, we hugged good-bye and headed to our cars.  The station looks so beautiful lit up at night.

Thanks, Queen Debbie, for such a fun day!  Maybe we can do this again in another location sometime!