An A-maze-ing Afternoon

The kids were out of school Friday, so we decided to do something fun and try our luck at a local corn field maze. (Jason and I had never done one before, so this was a new experience for everyone.)

Alyssa and Dad sporting our flag. Each group that enters the maze has to carry a flag. If you get lost or need a clue, you can wave your flag in the air as a distress signal, and one of the spotters comes to your rescue. (They also have a no-running rule in the maze, so apparently, the flags also let them know if groups are ignoring that rule when they suddenly see a flag moving a little too fast. And then comes the public scolding over the PA system.)

There were 12 mailboxes positioned thruout the maze. Each mailbox had a different piece to the puzzle along with scotch tape to stick it on your map.

As you collect more pieces, you fill in the map of the maze. The more pieces you collect, the better you can navigate your way thru the maze.

It was completely confusing. Especially in the very beginning (with no pieces of the map), we just blindly followed pathways and hit lots of dead ends. (And considering the maze covered seven acres, there were a lot of dead ends...) Jordan (with his knack for puzzles and all things spatial) quickly emerged as the one who could make sense of the confusion. His mom, on the other hand, pretty much remained disoriented the whole time and mainly just followed along taking pictures.

The color of the ribbon along the path changed colors depending on what part of the maze you were in. That helped a little, but we often found ourselves suddenly in a new color when we didn't want to be or trying to get to a different color but unable to find the right path to get us there.

Courtney's favorite part quickly became the water stations. Her enthusiasm for the maze waned early on, and she was more excited about finding water than she was the mailboxes.

We finished in 1 hour, 57 minutes. (They time stamp you at the beginning and end.) Looking at the completed map, it's surprising we found our way out at all. Even then, we hadn't actually found the last three map pieces; we just happened to take the right turn that led us to the exit!

Here we are exiting the maze on "Victory Bridge." Not the best picture with everyone squinting in the sun, but it was a happy moment nonetheless.