Bill Bowerbird Scavenger Hunt

I've been thinking about my old Santa Cruz activities today, partly inspired by an exchange in a parenting group on Facebook. I posted about the Bill Bowerbird Scavenger Hunt (Indigo, Yonge & Eglinton, May 27th), and it turned out one of the members had been to a Hallowe'en Santa Cruz on Captain John's Seafood Ship.

I said something like, "I hope it wasn't the one overrun by people, the one where mimes and carrots scaled the side of the ship to get to the decks," and she said "That was the one". She also told me her co-worker had mentioned it on the radio. Now I finally know how things went so spectacularly sideways.

Several people at the party were dressed as police officers, so when the real cops showed up I wasn't quite sure what to think, except that I was expecting them. Fortunately, they were good-humoured men, one of them may have danced a bit, and one of them posed for endless photographs with very drunk people.

I recently rediscovered this article by Mark Medley about the Santa Cruz scavenger hunt I once promoted. Leslie was the starting 'X' in the park, and we were both late. To my surprise, I encountered an entirely new type of Toronto person: scavenger hunt and orienteering enthusiast. I would describe them as humourless and professional, and also not into strange riddles.

I gave away $500? Now I think that's pretty funny. I had no job and no saved money at the time (I was hoping to make the prize money through Santa Cruz), but I also didn't care about those things back then. My roommate Josh and his friend Tomaz won (with no help from me), and if I'm not mistaken, they attached smoke canisters to their bicycles so they could fog out the competition.

That day inspired this new family-friendly Bill Bowerbird scavenger hunt, which I promise will still be fun (but not as weird). Could you please make it weird? I'm probably not allowed.

Here is a link to the event page on Facebook. Clues will be released at noon on Saturday, May 27th (@Owlkids on Twitter), and I'll be passing out prizes at Indigo (Yonge & Eglinton) from 12:30 until 2:30 pm.