Archive: Around Town

Poke your fingers through my eyes, My jaws will open wide
Paper, quills and cloth, My greedy lust devours them all.
What am I?

The answer is a clue that tells you what to look for.  If you find it and several other items you could win prizes.  You will definitely get to see a beautiful swarth of the east shore of Cayuga Lake and pick up coupons and incentives along the way.  If all of this sounds like a riddle so far, the answer is that the Rogues Harbor Inn and six Merchants And More businesses are hosting an adult scavenger hunt this Sunday (June 29th).

"They'll meet here at one o'clock," says the inn's event coordinator Sandra Pierzinski.  "We'll warm up their grey matter with a few riddles to get them thinking in tat direction.  They'll divide into teams.  Each team will get a first destination.  There are six stops on the hunt.  After their first destination it's up to them where they want to go next."
The hunt strictly for adults who will solve riddles at seven Merchants and More locations.  In addition to Rogue's Harbor objects will be hidden at  Pumpkin Hill Winery, Bakers' Acres, Angel Tree Farms, Lakefront Inn, King Ferry Winery, and Barn House Antiques.  Players will team up and each team will get two riddles to solve at each stop.  The only clue Pierzinski would divulge ahead of time is that all the objects will all fit into a shopping bag.


"We're providing the riddles and the objects," she says.  "And there are prizes.  All of the stops along the way are giving incentives, but it is not necessary to purchase anything to participate in the hunt.  Most of them are in the form of discount coupons that they can use that day for for future purchases.  Each stop is also donating toward the prizes at the end."

The teams will end up at Rogue's Harbor Inn where they will be given a final riddle to solve and object to find.  Teams that find all the objects in the least amount of time will win.  But bring back an object that should have been found by another team and you are penalized 100 points.  So it's as important to solve the riddles as it is to find the objects.  The first prize will be a $50 gift certificate with some Treleaven wine.  And everyone who participates in the scavenger hunt that stays for dinner will get a complimentary bottle of Treleaven wine with their dinner. 

Stout says that the warmup riddles will get people into riddle solving mode.  "Sandra gave me some sample riddles and I thought, 'No one's ever going to find these things because they're never going to solve the riddles," says Rogue's Harbor Inn owner Eileen Stout.  "But then she gave me a few more, and I thought, 'OK, I can do this.'  Once you get the answer you know it's right."

"When Sandra mentioned the idea of a scavenger hunt I immediately liked it," Stout says.  "A lot of people who live here in Lansing, and in Ithaca, and in the small towns surrounding the area, really have no idea what's here.  I fill the inn every weekend with tourists who know exactly what's here and they're having a great time.  The people who live here have kind of forgotten about it, so we're encouraging them to rediscover it.  You don't have to go anywhere to have fun. It's all right here."

Pierzinski moved to the area earlier this year.  She says she is looking forward to the camaraderie of the hunt.  "I'm looking forward to good them bring back stories, and meeting each other and the people re-meeting at the stops," she says.  "I think it's a very different kind of day, and the drive is gorgeous as I found out delivering posters and discovering the lake for myself over the last couple of weeks."

The pair say that players will be glad to discover the six other stops along the way.  "Angel Tree Farm's shop is so fantastic," Stout says.  "It's like stepping back in time in that little original barn and workshop.  I took my daughter there and she was kind of afraid of the alpacas.  So their daughter brought out some of their show bunnies, which were soft as mink.  They let her hold one.  She was so excited she talked about it for months."


Barn House Antiques should be a very interesting stop," notes Pierzinski .  "It's an amazing space and there are lots of nooks and crannies to hide things in.  We're going to have a good time with that one."

"They'll come back to the inn with their bags," Pierzinski says.  "The people who have the most correct objects in the best time will win first, second, third place.  Then they'll eat, drink and be merry and recap their day.  There will be final things here to find objects.  In the event of a tie we have several bonus riddles that should be interesting.  Some of them will be specifically connected to Rogue's Harbor."

"We're praying for sunshine," she adds.  "A lot of them have outdoor spaces to look for objects in.  At Pumkin Hill they'll be looking in two separate spaces, one of which is outdoors.  At the Lakefront Inn it's an outdoor space, and at Baker's Acres."

Rain or shine players will solve riddles, find objects, rediscover the eastern Cayuga shore, and most of all, have fun.

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