I consider myself a smart, intuitive person—after last Wednesday I'm no longer sure. You see, Amber and I decided to check out PanIQ Escape Room in Wynwood, an experience where you are trapped in a room and you escape by solving puzzles and using hidden clues. Despite our best efforts, we didn't make it out of the "My Spy" room within the 60 minute timeframe. It really took a toll on our ego.
We breezed through the first three clues in less than 10 minutes. Our first desperate cry for "HELP!" into the walkie-talkie—the operators give you clues as requested or, in our case, if they see you're in desperation—came after we spent 15 minutes working on the fourth clue. "We need to get in the computer," Amber kept repeating (à la Derek Zoolander). "No, it's a decoy," I would argue. "They know we're millennials. They know we'll get distracted by the computer."
Our hour in the room consisted of us frustratedly bantering with each other over what was a clue and what was a decoy. I spent a good 30 minutes trying to solve algebra equations that made absolutely no sense, while Amber debated whether Tehran was a real place or not. "We're from Miami, not idiots," exclaimed an exasperated Amber when a clock alarm alerted us of our final 10 minutes. At that point, confronted with the reality of our situation, I broke out into uncontrollable laughter. It was all I could do not to cry.
Exhibit A - Us trying to get out of the "My Spy" room via GIPHY
The hour ended with us still inside room, despite frequent, often unsolicited hints from the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie. "I thought we were smart enough for this," resolved Amber. "12 year olds can do this! Are you smarter than a 12 year old? No, apparently not. I feel like a failure in life." I think we were victims of overthinking. We were only three clues from escaping, but we couldn't have been further away from solving any of them because we were so fixated on outsmarting the set-up.
The experience at PanIQ Escape Room was a lot of fun, albeit eye-opening about our lack of puzzle-solving abilities. (Amber was most disappointed about this realization because she studied criminal justice.) If you're looking for something different to do in Miami, particularly over this holiday weekend, this is what you want. Just make sure you bring as many people as you can. You need to work as a team to solve the clues and you benefit by having differing brains, differing points of view looking at the clues. Even if you don't escape like us, you're guaranteed a hilarious experience.
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