Weekend Plans Post: The Escape Room

It was Friday night ~6ish, I had just fed the kitties, and was considering what to microwave up when I got a phone call telling me that my buds had an Escape Room reservation at 6:45 and did I wanna come?

Now, let me say that I too had reservations. I’ve heard stories about escape rooms but they always struck me as being for a target demographic that I wasn’t in. Like, I have friends who have not played board games every other week for decades. They’re, like, normal people who have normal hobbies. Escape rooms always struck me as being for those kinda folks. Suitable for corporate retreats and corporate team-building. Intended to be solvable by Bob in Accounting and Amy in HR and Wally in Project Management. The dorks in Engineering do this sort of thing in the basement already.

But I’m batchin’ it and I love my friends and I was pretty curious so I said “heck yeah!” and got in the car.

They give you a fun little orientation where they explain that you shouldn’t take things off of the walls, you won’t need to use force, there *ARE* grates in the rooms but *NOTHING INTERESTING IS IN THEM*. Also, there is an area where there is a bar (like, a saloon). Do not go behind the bar, do not pull on the cords that you may see there. Those are not part of the puzzle. You won’t be asked to raise your arms over your shoulders so don’t think that stuff is hidden on top of anything. And, seriously, don’t fiddle with the grates.

We walk into the room and they shut the door behind you and… go! YOU HAVE ONE HOUR.

We did a “Back to the Future” themed escape room. The first room was set up like a 50’s diner and the second room was set up like an old western saloon. There were puzzles that involved doing a Simon Says game where different people in different parts of the room had to push buttons the same color as a flashing light. There were math puzzles. There was a fun little puzzle that involved numbers on the floor tiles and we were told to start on the start square and then follow directions like “up up right right down” and put that number in the lock.

When we got stuck, I asked if I could take over for a second and, when we got to the next part, I tried to fade back into the woodwork.

We did get rebuked for putting our hands behind the bar. But we had a good reason: There were cords back there.

We finished up with six minutes to spare and the gamemaster told us that that was really good, most people finish in the last minute or so. I’m sure she was lying.

All in all, I had a blast hanging out with my friends playing the escape room and, I was surprised to find out, it was something that I’d be willing to try again. I didn’t expect that.

And afterwards we went to one of the restaurants downtown that I am sure would feature prominently in American Psycho 2: 2025. There were a couple hundred Maneki-neko’s all over the restaurant waving at us under red paper lanterns. I had some *AMAZING* $30 ramen. The mushrooms floating in there were maybe the best I’ve ever had.

And then it was time to go home and pass out.

If you get invited to an escape room, you should go. If you aren’t the guy from engineering, bring a guy from engineering. But you can tell him to shut up and stand in the back.

This weekend has nothing so crazy in it. Just a normal board game night on Saturday where we realized we could have stuff with black pepper and onions given that Maribou is still a million miles away and so we’re having Butter Chicken.

And then Maribou gets back next week.

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is the restaurant decor. Seriously. Photo taken by the author.)