This weekend I went and visited my friend Vivian in Burbank. The primary goal was to participate in DASH - Different Area Same Hunt - a puzzle hunt in the LA area. But she invited me along, with her friend Kevin and a rotating cast of other characters, on other puzzling adventures, including four different escape rooms and a final trip to Disneyland (she can get in free because she’s an executive with Disney).
The first exciting part of my trip was that, when I searched for flights on Kayak, I discovered that the cheapest way to get from Oakland to Burbank was actually to fly on this “semi-private” jet service called JSX, so I booked a ticket there. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while, I’d seen a video about it from a YouTuber I like. And let me tell you: worth it. Amazing. Such a great service. I’m actually typing this on the plane on the way back because they have real Wifi through Starlink and it actually works and they don’t even make you turn it off during takeoff and landing. Free drinks, including alcohol, free baggage service, but the main advantage is almost zero TSA or screening or faffing about. They tell you to show up 20 minutes before takeoff and they mean it; you just basically walk on to the plane! I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t experience it. I’m sold.
The first stop on our trip was the escape room Appleseed Avenue, which was a puppet-themed detective murder mystery. It was amazing and what really sold it was the set design and the in-person puppet work from our game master.
Then we went to DASH, which was great fun. We came in 2nd out of 21 teams in the standard division! We probably should have done expert mode. The weather in LA was great and the puzzles were really well done, with lots of handcrafted puzzle addons like custom cards and a custom “guidebook”.
That evening I went with her friend Kevin to another “escape room” called The Nest. I put escape room in quotes because it was very light on puzzles but heavy on narrative; it was a heavy narrative about a woman’s whole life and her ups and downs and the perils of forgetting things. We had a super heavy conversation in the car on the way back. Also a big winner.
The next day we got up all three of us at Vivian’s house and headed out for a very full schedule. First was an escape room called The Irvine School of Wizardry and yes, it was basically Harry Potter, but it was really polished and well done, including lots of custom set design and even a special “subway room” that rattled and shook, and wands that we had to “cast spells” with. Again, great puzzles, fun time.
We slipped in one last escape room before Disney, and this one was still great but it was my least favorite. It was a pretty straight up murder mystery, Miss Marple style, about a murdered mystery writer, and there were a lot of fun puzzles but the writing was a bit weak and a few of the starting puzzles were really difficult. This one we just barely finished, and only because we got a couple of small nudges from the game master. Still fun, but the weakest of the bunch.
Then - Disneyland! I remember when I worked for Disney and could get in for free - ah, those were the days. We were there about 8 hours and we absolutely packed as much in as we could. I got to do the Matterhorn for the first time, we saw the parade and the fireworks. My favorite ride was the Indiana Jones ride, which is completely different than the one in Florida and is more of a car on a track that shakes and rattles while a bunch of crazy stuff happens around you. We also did Star Tours, the swings, the Little Mermaid, etc. I can’t believe how much better the food is these days at disney; I had a Jambalaya and a Muffaleta Salad and they were both really good. Kevin’s friend Stephanie joined us for this part.
Vivian has a very nice, very clean house right in Burbank. I snuck in a jog at one point through her neighborhood. The weather was really cooperative and not too hot at all. I spent the weekend slightly under the weather, I think I had allergies and felt tired, but still, it was an amazingly fun weekend and I enjoyed the whole time. Not a big “learning” or “growth” weekend, just mostly some good old-fashioned fun tourist style with a solid dose of puzzles. I can’t wait to go back and/or to host them up in the Bay Area!
