5 Wits and some more Funny Bone

Last Sunday we made our way to Destiny Mall. The boys were interested in trying out the new entertainment location called 5 Wits.

Just before entering the TOMB!

 We had noticed the place a few weeks back and it appeared interesting. I took this from an article I found " based out of Massachusetts, is trail-blazing an entirely new category of themed entertainment by placing guests in a controlled environment that is truly immersive. Based on choices they make and their puzzle solving skills, there are different outcomes based on how well the group works together to achieve a common goal." In my own words, it is a video game come to life. Originally our plan was to send the boys in and meet them later. Fortunately or unfortunately depending how you look at it, adults had to go with them, so we all went. I am actually glad we did, it was quite entertaining.

The boys choose The Tomb adventure over Espionage.

Much like a tomb raider we entered the dark tomb we were soon told was cursed. Not that a dark ancient Egyptian tomb with Mummies isn't creepy enough, lets make it cursed too. Gavin was so funny, he was pretty convinced the tomb doors were going to close and immediately ran at them like he was going to stop it. NOOOOOO! The room was dark except for our flash lights...but soon they started to flicker out. Complete DARK!
Suddenly the Cursed Pharaoh was giving us directions and testing our abilities. I never saw Gavin and Ben move so quickly as they searched for levers and hidden disc's in the Hieroglyphics along the walls.

Just one more left and the clock was ticking. HURRY!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! We made it. Now on to the next test.

 Match the hidden objects found in each hole.

 Almost there...

Last one....Success!!!
On to the next test. Align the images to open the passageway door, but make it quick.

We tried EVERYTHING and could not solve the puzzle. TIME WAS ENDING and SUDDENLY THE CEILING WAS COMING DOWN ON US!!!!

 Hurry!!!! (Do you see the ceiling coming to CRUSH us?)

 WE FAILED!!!! Unable to unlock the code we were given another chance and NOT crushed. (I'm not sure if we simply could not solve the puzzle or if there is NO answer, it was very difficult and we all tried it with NO luck, each combo failed.)
We made it to the tomb and found the Mummy!!

Just a few more puzzles to solve in this room and the cruse will be lifted.

We did it....the mummy became exposed...but we still needed to send his sole to the heavens.

Just one last trick and he was FREEEEEEe!!!!

Here is a youtube video of the adventure I found, this one was from the Boston's 5 wits.

It was GREAT fun. I am glad we couldn't just sent these guys in on their own because I had so much fun. It was a little expensive, but fun for the family. We really had to work together as a team.

So far the week itself has been uneventful. I did a the needed things like grocery shopping etc. and yesterday I went to an all day training for FREE on HIV and Addictions. Thank you FREE 6.5 hours, but also thanks for the education. I actually learned a few things and enjoyed myself. To bad I couldn't get paid to attend training. The nice thing about attending training's at sites other then your work place is you get to NETWORK as well as run into people you have not seen in a while. Now I did not run into anyone I already knew, but did meet some new people including one of my co-workers husband and once director of my current place of employment. It also expanded my ideas on potential venues for an educational curriculum. I am not talking about the HIV course I am far away from having a true awareness on that topic to ever (well maybe not never) teach that, but perhaps a re-cert course on the DSM 5. This new diagnostic book has been released and there is a whole new set of addiction diagnosing criteria. What a great course to present. Thinking I must get on that right away.....regardless, I had a nice day at the training had lunch at Brooklyn Pickle. If your ever in the Syracuse area make sure you stop at the Brooklyn Pickle for lunch ( there is one located on Brunet Ave and also one on W. Genesee St. )

.... I LOVE THAT PLACE!!!  Its been a been a long time since I had one of their yummy sandwiches. Mark says he's never been, what is wrong with this guy?? One more place to remember to take him. Speaking of taking my Husband places, he has NEVER been to see a live comedy show before either so I just had to drag him to the Ladies Night at Funny Bone. I still had my tickets for FREE admission from the last show and what a GREAT DATE NIGHT...

Last time I took pictures without my flash, but this time I was told specifically NO PHOTOS by the usher... Sorry I didn't get pictures. Bummed me out. I might have taken some anyway...(cuz I'm a rebel like that, and the announcer did say NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY not NO PICTURES) but Mark gets so upset when I am constantly clicking away...so I respected his wishes. We had some food this time. It wasn't bad, but I am pretty positive that people do not come to Funny Bone to eat. Buffalo chicken wings and fries are good at most places regardless, but these were on the low end of average in my opinion. Of course we did not come to eat we came to laugh and Mark has been so uptight lately he NEEDED to laugh.
Unfortunately I do not have the names of the line up, but there were a total of 5 female comedians and the host. She was the same women from the last time. I enjoyed her comical intermissions between acts. A few of the women were pretty funny. I enjoyed the young women who joked about coming out with her gay brother and how they made jokes about their straight brother and majority rules. The "nice one" feminist atheist from Auburn, NY was pretty funny. I especially enjoyed Ana Phillips (I got her name from the website) she had me tickled. Mark and I are forever playing payday pimpin!!! The featured comedian was Selena Coppock and she was hilarious. Youtube video of Selena

I think I laughed the most at her jokes.  It was once again a FUN night out and who can't resist laughing your butt off at a Comedy Club for FREE!!! ($3- fee for processing). Mark and I discussed the last "date" we had been on and he clams it was at Pat and Anne wedding on New Years Eve 2012-2013.... Long time ago. Guess we better step it up. He did enjoy himself at his first live comedy show, glad I got to be a part of it. We got more FREE tickets to the next show in April, but I think we may be busy in DC during the scheduled date.....YEP!!! We have been making our Spring Break vacation plans and its a pretty good bet we will be spending some time in out Nations Capital.....Today I am taking Lyndon in for an oil change, making a few calls, checking into my availability to assist my volunteer job and cleaning the house. My mother in law is coming on Saturday so we have some activities planned for the weekend. Until then TTFN  

Candle Shoppes of the Pocono's including GHOST monkey's Mini PA vacation part III

After our amazing time at the Crayola Experience we started back home.

Unfortunately we went east when we should have gone west. We ended up only about two miles out of our way and right in front of a Dairy Queen.

We don't have Dairy Queen in our area, and I remembered biking (on the back seat...remember the days when we would slap our kids in a seat hooked to the back of your bike? I had one for my older two. Seems incredibly DANGEROUS now.)   to the local Dairy Queen with my parents when I was a little kid in Indiana.

Of course we had to stop and get some ice cream and I had to check out the map anyways.

Yum!!
Also in our getting lost we found a sign for The Haunted Candle Shoppe. I had seen this episode of the Haunted on the Animal Planet and we had made it a silly game about seeing the Ghost Monkey's. Since we were so close to the place, we set out simply to find the Ghost Monkey Candle shop....the thing is, there are like 5 candle shops in the Pocono area were were in. We started towards Candle shop #1.

Pretty neat old fashioned car.

This was NOT the Ghost Monkey candle shop! but we did have a potty break and some animals we got to see.

The ponies and a very noisy rooster.
also a few goats..

Plus there were some very exotic birds.

I had never seen these type of birds before, but their colors were amazing.
After a few looks at the animals we were back in the van and heading towards Candle Shop #2. I didn't take any pictures but this place was HUGE!! and guess what...IT WAS NOT THE GHOST MONKEY candle shop.
We were told it was in the opposite direction, so we were off again. I don't think there is a single candle shop in my local area (except for the mall's Yankee Candles). What is up with the candle shops in the Pocono's?
This time we FOUND it!!!

 The Haunted Candle Shoppe.

and the GHOST MONKEY's!!
So how do I begin to describe this place? Best if I just give you the brochure.

I tried to find the episode of this on youtube with no success. I did find these....
I will try to load it here.

And here is all about Dr. Fisher.

After some debate on if we should take the tour or not, and the boys basically begging us to go in, we gave in and forked over the $13- adult admission and $10- kid price. I think if we had not pumped the place up in our search for it, I might have thought differently about the tour price and actually going in. It was a nice transition from a haunted house that Gavin has been scared to death to enter, and just enough spook to creep you out for the two boys to consider doing a real haunted house next Halloween. They let Mindy bring Maddy in for free and she was really a trooper.

Screaming Monkeys started out the tour (our tour guild quickly turned the noise off as it FREAKED Maddy out).
It was an odd mix of animated haunted creatures and actual Dr. Fisher history.
Our tour guide Drew was considerate of our party and allowed the boys to ask multiple questions and was conscious not to get them to scared.

Here are a few fun things we saw.

  Drew had us all look in the mirror of luck and try to touch our tongue to our nose.

The boys were convinced that there was going to be something scary that jumped out, but it was a video recorded mirror that showed patrons in the shop how silly we all looked.
More fun lured around every corner, we continued on.

There were some more scares, but also some early 1900's equipment that was found on the property.

Many of the cells and prop area where actual monkey holding cells and we were shown the area where the animals were beheaded.

Apparently when it was heard that Dr. Fisher had been coming up with a cure for Small Pox and Yellow fever, the military took over and vaccinated military men.  Dr. Fisher was never credited with his role in finding a vaccination for either ailments. He died an old man of a heart attack in the upstairs bedroom. Drew took us to the room and the boys got a picture with him. Gavin swears he heard someone laughing.

 Picture from outside of the bedroom.

I don't think I caught anything out of the ordinary. Drew said one time one of the creatures in the basement moved it's head all by itself and that one of the zombies fell over hitting the glass, but didn't have any  other experiences to tell. I'm not totally sure I would go on the tour again. It is just one of those things you can say you did and only need to do once if ever. If your one of those people (like me) who think the whole idea of being in a "haunted" place is pretty cool I would recommend it, but if your not....well its your call. The boys LOVED it in fact both Luke and Gavin thought this was the best part of the whole mini vacation, the Ghost Monkey's beat out the Crayola Factory for them..but they are 11 and 12 year old boys, what do you expect. Mindy and I thought that we would have enjoyed it more and that it may have been even more creepy if they lost the Zombies and other scary stuff and kept it more shadows and history. Dark corners, shadows and noises would have done the trick for me. I'm sure the place is packed during Halloween. The whole idea of monkey ghosts was scary in its own right. I found the antiques found on the property were cool too. Check out this door knocker and this elaborate decorative item.

Definitely a bizarre little roadside attraction. That wraps up our Mini PA vacation. We made one final stop for dinner in NY and got home just about 7:30pm. Great FUN!!!