Dinosaur Scavenger Hunt: October 2011

Congratulations to Mary Whalen for finding Dinosaur #45!

Here's a run-down of the hunt straight from Mary:

When I saw the clue I knew immediately that it referred to a sculpture on Embarcadero but when it was posted I was at work and couldn’t leave. On the next day it still hadn’t been found. So when I finished a meeting at SF state early and had some time to kill before I gave my boyfriend and fellow dino hunter Eric a ride to the airport, I decided that I should go dino hunting. I’d had some bad luck in the past with not getting to the clue fast enough and I hoped 4th times the charm! Unfortunately I decided to park in the parking structure at the Metreon so I had a bit of a walk. Good thing it was a nice day. I decided to go down Market since I couldn’t remember where the statue was exactly. Once I got closer I saw it. . .should of gone down Mission...oh well.

I wandered around the rocket looking to see if there was any marking on it, and then I saw this info thing that had some stickers on it:

When I looked closer I saw it, clue #2:

The clue was a little hard to take a picture of since it was so long. I decided to try to write it down and I wrote on an old receipt I found in my bag. My phone was being incredibly slow and loosing battery power fast so I called Eric to see if he could help out. He was trying to get work done and couldn’t really help right then. But that did the trick because my phone started working. I was able to figure out that the alphabet was shifted by 12 places and then spelled out “And in the veil of the light the city drifts anchorless upon the ocean”

This stumped me some. I sat there for a little while googling the passage and SF and anything else I could think of. All it came up with though was info about the poem. I figured pier 14 wouldn’t be on there and underlined if there wasn’t something to do with it so I decided to start walking out to the end of the pier. A little ways down I noticed that there were plaques close to the ground along the railing with passages written on them. Then I noticed further down that they were passages from the poem so I looked for the one that was in the clue and that’s where I found it, clue #3:

I pulled on the string and it seemed like something was tied to it. I didn’t think it was the painting though, too light. Once I got to the end I saw this:

I knew I had seen a statue like that before, but couldn’t quite remember where. While I thought about it I decided that since it was such a nice day I should take some pictures and enjoy the view while I walked back down the pier. (Thanks Adam!)

I texted Eric again to see if he had any ideas. He hadn’t seen it before but suggested it was in a park near by. I figured it was in one of 2 directions and tried to google it but again my phone was not cooperating. I could see it come up on the google image search but that was as far as my phone would take me. So I started walking, the 2 areas it could be weren’t that far from each other so I could always walk back. As I was walking I thought I might ask someone. They told me where I could find the visitor center but not the statue. Then Eric texted me saying that it was across from the ferry building. Awesome, that was the direction I was headed! Then I saw it! But I didn’t see any obvious clue. I looked at the ground in between the heads and walked around them but didn’t see anything.

I figured I better look closer before I gave up. The one on the left didn’t have any markings or anything on it but when I looked at the one on the left I fount it. At the base of the head was a little tag tied with a rubber band:

“Walk ~27 steps to the christmas tree”. I looked around and luckily there was only one tree that looked like a christmas tree. I ran to it. I hoped this was the last clue and that the painting would still be there! And there it was! Hanging among some ornaments! YAY!