Isn’t it true what they say about the good things always being so unexpected? Sometimes it just starts with an “I want to do this, who’s in?”  Hands go up, shouts of “pick me” “pick me” and we’ve got ourselves an adventure.

This past weekend, before Stella ran her ass through our neck of the woods, two of my nearest and dearest found time, and an opening in their schedules, for a visit.  All centered around too-much-time-had-gone-by and this thing called an “escape room”.

Of course an adventure needs fuel, so brunch was in order at a lovely place called La Pecora Bianca on the corner of 26^th and Broadway.  Parking was a breeze on 26^th between Broadway and 6^th, and Escape the Room is also on 26^th.  All thanks to David’s extraordinary “producer” instincts, and recent run on the “Circus”, we were a well-oiled machine left only to enjoy our game.

From Escape the Room:  An Escape Room is a real-life escape game in which you and your team have an hour to solve puzzles and unravel mysteries through finding clues. The room can take up to 12 people; you must work together as a team.

Am I going to be locked in a room?  Yes! It wouldn’t be much fun if you weren’t! Don’t worry though, every game is monitored by audio and video surveillance. In case you need to leave the room during the game, there is a green exit button clearly marked by the door that unlocks the room in case of an emergency situation. Should you choose to leave during the 60-minute time limit, your game is over, however, the remainder of your group may continue until the time runs out or succeed in escaping.

The prospect of being locked in a room for an hour can be a bit intimidating and the blood red walls didn’t help, nor did the slam of the door and the start of the clock.  But that intimidation lasted less than a minute, there was work to do.

Kyle, David and I have been friends for a very long time, our conversations are varied and intelligent and often very funny. Now here we are locked in a room with three very nice kids, college kids, like Harvard and Brown kids.  Isn’t it funny how intelligence can transcend age at times?  The enthusiasm of those kids mixed with our patience and breadth of knowledge made this even more enjoyable.

Set to our task the minutes clicked by and we were sooooooooooo close (no spoilers) but unfortunately we had to be released from the room, we did not solve the mystery.  We have all taken to saying we would have had it solved in another five minutes.  Really, five minutes.  We were that close.

Retrieve the car, back to Stowe Lane, where we took up residence around my table and do what we do.  Catch up, with animated conversation, and divine friendship.  It is so easy to be together, it is so easy to pick up where we left off and go places we’ve never been all without leaving the table.  It wasn’t easy to drop David off at the train station.

One more day with my dear summer sister and she would be out and home before the storm. Her visit to see Gramma was a huge uplift for her in her rather limited existence.  Rere adores her as do we all.

And then we do what we do best, chat or not, coffee and a sweet, love of an old dog make for a relaxed day of this and that.  It was a lovely weekend escape on so many levels.

T.F. Hodge said it best, “Feed the mind good wisdom, the body good nutrition, the soul good vibes, and the heart good love. Elevation for your situation.”