After a period of less-than blogworthyness in my life, I came down with a pretty bad case of the flu. I don’t know if it was the regular type or the one that’s been getting all the scary headlines in the press but I did spend thanksgiving alone because of it. Luckily for me, I was able to recover just in time for this year’s Herald Hunt in Miami Beach.

The Hunt was fun this year but I found it way easy. It was held in the same town and basically a smaller part of the same neighborhood as last time, but the great facilities of the Adrianne Arscht center more than made up for it. I got together with some EvilCON alumni to form a team that ended up being five people large.

Only one puzzle slipped us up, though it turns out that I had guessed how to solve it without ever seeing the whole problem. We were able to arrive at the endgame solution without all of the other clues this year but there were already a throng of people at the site, some of whom were walking away because there was already a winner. We pulled a phone number out of the four dates and called it, expecting there to be six or seven other steps to get to end but the message said that there was already a winner.

There was not a hell of a lot of booing at the wrap-up, as it seemed like the majority of teams had solved most if not all of the Hunt puzzles including the skimpy end-game. The weather was about as nice as it could be in this state, and aside from some difficulties getting food at the Democratic Republic of Beer*, it was smooth sailing most of the way. I have a feeling that four more people will be back for the Hunt next year.

*DRB had some decent sliders but don’t even think about ordering bruchetta unless you want toasted hamburger buns covered with slap-chopped tomato. This is the only place I’ve seen Unibroue beer in the state so far, so drop by and order a bottle of La Fin Du Monde or Trois Pistoles if you’re in the mood for something different.