The Night Watchmen

The Bergers (and Haines) were at it again this Saturday for another round of family fun and adventure. The setting this time was the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the occasion was a night of "Murder at the Met." Seemingly inspired by The Da Vinci Code, the purpose of this hunt was to find out who murdered the assistant curator of the Met (the night before the unveiling of a new $45 million Rembrandt painting) and why. There were 24 clues hidden around the museum in different galleries. A typical clue would tell you which gallery to go and then hint at what piece of art to examine. The rest was up to you. We had two hours.

At 5:45 PM we set off from the Great Hall to hunt down the answer to our first clue (#22). At 6:05 PM we were finally convinced that every possible route to our destination was closed (which was true), so after my mom considered asking for a refund, we decided to start from the beginning with clue #1. About three clues in, I began to get pretty competitive, as is my wont. So in each gallery, after I figured out where to look for the clue, I would move away from that piece of art as quickly as possible so that if another team walked by, they wouldn't know where to look right away. I got my parents involved in this as well and one time I had to scold my mother for looking at the back of a statue where a clue was hidden. Pathetic, I know. I can't imagine what the regular museum visitors were thinking.

Anyway, in spite of our initial 20 minute detour, we managed to find the answers to every clue that wasn't in a closed gallery and solve the case with time to spare. When it came time to reveal the answers, we knew that we were in with a perfect score. But was anyone else? Yes.

Two other teams also scored the maximum, so it was down to a tiebreaker. In what year was the board game Clue originally published? Whichever team was closest to the correct year would be the winner. Luckily my dad remembered seeing the game as a child, so we had a good ballpark estimate right away. After a little deliberation we guessed 1949. The other teams guessed 1958 and 1971. And the answer was.....1948 (my dad's original guess)!

I had finally realized my lifelong dream of winning a scavenger hunt with my parents: